Actually, if Microsoft published this kind of data, I think there would be a class action lawsuit for violation of privacy with the EFF issuing a public statement over how this type of behavior is intolerable, except that they would actually be right, because if Microsoft were do desire to gather such information, they wouldn't ask for permission first (well, actually they do. it is all there in the EULA). And yes, I do know that the software popularity contest is an 'advanced setting' 'opt-in' option, so there is no issue. Everything Microsoft does is bad because that is just their way, and Linux is able to accomplish all exactly the same things (on a software level) but they do it in a way that protects peoples privacy and makes people actually feel good about being part of a usage statistic because someone had the decency to ask them first, which is just among the many kinds of freedoms Linux is trying to promote!
I don't think very many people consciously buy an operating system period. I get the impression that most people think Windows is the computer and don't really understand the difference between software and hardware. Some people think installing Linux is like remodeling a house, when it is really a whole lot more like inviting different people over.
As far as her choosing Ubuntu, how ever that registered in her mind, it must have in some way. It isn't like Dell just asks "What operating system do you want?", they really hide it when you do get there, they warn you "IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT LINUX IS, DO NOT SELECT THIS OPTION as it probably won't be what you want. If you are absolutely sure, click here, otherwise click here to look at normal computers". Something like that.
I get a sneaking suspicion that this was a setup (no pun intended). I think this was some kind of stunt. With the warning from Dell and the way the Ubuntu computers are a bit hidden on the site, a lot of the facts really don't add up, unless there was some kind of Linux zealot working for Dell that insisted it was better for her recklessly. All she said was that AFTER she got the computer, the tech tried to talk her out of returning the machine. Not the same thing.There are some critical details here that are missing. Either this was a Microsoft stunt (that may or may not have been facilitated by an actual Microsoft employee) or someone else got her the computer without really considering her skill level.
Like the fact that this whole discussion is about some other article from yesterday, rather than the current one discussing differences in software usage statistics? Yeah, its about Ubuntu, but... sorry, this is really funny.
Properly configuring the hardware / drivers / whatever for an Internet connection isn't quite the same thing as opening Firefox. Also, last I checked, I wasn't aware that "proficient in Facebook" was any kind of merit badge:)
They tell you it is required because in the technicians handbook it has it as a required step, and if anyone asks if it is required, you are to say "yes". It is the only way they are trained. If they are not trained to do it, it is not part of their job, and since these people only have a job training crash course and are very likely not computer people, though they will insist they have one at home, you wouldn't want them doing custom work anyway.
Nothing ever 'just works' on computers. You need to know how to plug them in, and you need to know where the power button is. This is a show stopper for a lot of people. I know too many people that can't use a computer unless it is already on and the application they want to use is already open. This is cross-platform ignorance. The fact that most of them have windows is just a matter of that being what was on the computer when they bought it in the store.
The Year of Linux is coming!!! And those same people are now buying Linux. Joy!
It isn't Ubuntu, its people. The software isn't some kind of crazy security, and the hardware is designed to 'work'. Bridging the gap is pretty simple, but just like finding the power button, sometimes you need to ask.
Not trolling, just that I have spent a lot of time helping people with... a broad range of computer skills with various issues over the years.:)
I think this is more a reflection of computer users, or even people, than Ubuntu users. People that know and understand Linux, use Linux. I have used a variety of distributions, but I am pretty happy with Ubuntu. I have used Ubuntu exclusively for only a few years now, but I can still see where I am far behind in my understanding of many things based on the forums I visit. Ubuntu irc had been a fun place I would go to get help, and often spend some time helping others. It was very civilized, though there were a lot of new people. Years later, now, it might be hard to distinguish from 4chan or Barrens chat. I don't go there any more AT ALL.
But honestly, I think this is just what happens when popularity increases with anything. I remember when the majority of people on the Internet (if you would really call it that) were between intelligent and highly intelligent individuals discussing a wide range of topic (though usually leaning towards the nerdy side) in a civilized manner.
Going from telnet to web browsing changed everything! The number of people online was approaching a million! The number of servers you could connect to or 'sites' you could now 'browse to' was skyrocketing! People starting making their own web sites and hosting forums at home, and there were just tons of people all excited to be involved in this new medium, despite the fact they had no idea what they were doing.
And then AOL came along, and Geocities. Soon everyone had a web page for their cat, and flame wars seemed to be the thing in every chat room. It was just like the parlor times a million! This was about the time I stopped going into chat rooms at all, because it was just intolerable.
But eventually we got slashdot, google, ebay, wikipedia, archieve.org, eff, findlaw, loc.gov, youtube, hulu, piratebay, thinkfree, change.gov and so many others both recently and over the years.
I miss the days when every person I knew that had a computer had taken it apart and put it back together many times, they all had some minimal programming skill, and nerdy groups of people would be going around to business or telling our non-nerd friends "you could do that so much better if you had a COMPUTER!", to which they would reply, "that stuff is for nerds, I am doing just fine with my typewriter". "There's nothing I can do with a computer I can't do on my typewriter", and "computers just make it more complicated and expensive".
There was no convincing them. You would try to explain, but they wouldn't listen.
Then one day they would come you you and be all like "Hey, guess what? I got one of those Pentium things! Isn't that cool!" and all you could do is smile and sigh. And after that, it was the endless phone calls for little things that you didn't mind, because it was exactly what you had been pushing for in the first place. But sometimes it made you wonder.
Soon, the round table discussions over new technologies in the library were replaced with sheep-dip seminars (thank you Andy Hunt), row after row of zombies watching someone explain what a mouse was for, and how to put things in the trash. Soon you had all these 'experts' saying that they knew more about computers than anyone because they had taken a class. Oh, the humanity...
So what a surprise that after all these years, we are still seeing the same type of revolution. Yes, I miss the 'Internet' when it was between 10,000 and 100,000 users, but those times are gone, and in the big picture, the new even more nerdy stuff is worth it.
They say that Linux userbase / marketshare (or whatever way Microsoft feels like measuring it one day to the next) is about 1%, but it is easy to see it is the top 1%. Maybe it is just me, but I don't see an even distribution be user base as a whole of computer experts between exclusive Linux users and exclusive Windows users. It is the same one percent 20+ years ago trying to get people to use computers because it was the futu
Scams typically work better being more passive. That way a company can claim the money was volunteered and they never harassed anyone. This is typical business practice in the US. Convince people you sell a legit service, and most people that figure out it is a scam will walk away. To the very few that feel upset, try and blow them off, but those that are at all insistent, give them a quick refund. Nothing worse to ruin a good scam than getting exposed with a lawsuit, let alone the time to deal with it. No harm in refunds because you are lucky to get any money you can get. Not to mention most people are so lazy, what you can get is often quite a bit.
HA HA HA!!! That's really funny and sad all at the same time.
Yeah, if firefox, nautilus, and or movie player are already open, many people don't even notice a difference. But for some reason my oddly shaped book shelf on my desk with an Ubuntu sticker on it people think is another computer. I assume nothing with people anymore.
saving as an MS Office document does NOT preserve OOo's document formatting like it should.
There are only certain features that do not translate well. In particular, line breaks and tables I have had issues with, but avoiding the things that don't work well, which isn't much, shouldn't keep you from being able to follow the assignment. Also, for mac, OpenOffice really lags behind the other version the most. If you would like to have your computer back, consider Google Documents for simple stuff, or ThinkFree for fancier documents.
And while it seems really stupid, typically a user agent switcher can get you around the IE only stuff. If they are.NET applications, you need to get mono. If the school isn't going to help, you can do site specific documentation to help others. If you start getting significant hits, they may feel they are loosing control of their site and will try and adapt to the demand. Worse than sheep, they are extra lazy. These are non tech people running a big web site. Motivating them to even fix things for one specific platform is a pain, but I doubt it is as forelorn as you make it out to be. Further, don't worry about influencing the change yourself, just be the really annoying guy amongst many annoying people that will inspire future annoying people to eventually help them change. Just because they don't change to your request doesn't mean you didn't make an impact. Look at how class action lawsuits typically start:)
Some people just need to see things a specific way, or they are totally lost. I know people that couldn't work an upside down door handle. Please never let that difficulty drive Linux development. Fortunately, Linux has always been about options. there may be a distribution out there that is for people that can't find their car if it is parked on the wrong side of the driveway (I think it was called SugarOS), but I believe it will be an evolutionary thing. Kids today are starting at very young ages with much better technology and are getting more intimate understandings. Kids are reaching competency and proficiency very quickly like kids do with anything they can actually get their hands on. Most adults if, say, they were pasty the age of 20 when they first got introduced to a computer, without much concerted effort, ever become more than very well trained novices. For anyone familiar with learning theory should understand that with that type of 'experience', it can't be adapted, no step or detail seems any more 'important' than any other in accomplishing a task, they don't see see the big picture, and the challenge in learning anything new is equal to the number of new steps to memorize. In what way is Linux ever going to be easy for these people to learn, and in another way, the kinds of challenges Linux can deal with, the tools are virtually worthless to a computer novice, those that don't see it holistically.
I think this explains why it is easy for little kids to use Ubuntu. The learning curve is great with just a few bumps, but while the system isn't designed to limit out at novice use, there are plenty of tools and methods to let novices work their way through the system doing basic tasks till they get a better understanding of all whats going on.
Tasks in Windows are just as simple in Linux for a novice, but the methods are different. The big difference between Linux and Windows, for me, is lifting that ceiling. If you begin to understand what all is going on or how things work, Linux gives you new and creative ways to do complex things in very simple, non-obvious ways. This is where I think people get intimidated. A novice watches a proficient Linux user do something seemingly "magical" and the novice begins to believe that is the way they need to do things. While maybe it should be the way to do things, that doesn't mean it is what they need to be doing right away. Linux is a world of possibilities: Be aware of where you are in your understanding with your computer and take appropriate steps to learn things in a way that is appropriate for your level. And if someone that helps you works their magic in ways that are beyond your level, don't worry, it probably took them some time to get to that level themselves.
However, if you really don't care to put in the mental effort to get past novice, I recommend getting a Macintosh. There are fancy expert features of OSX, but they are kept pretty hidden as so not to appear confusing.
It is a lot like a high performance car and their maintenance. Drive it hard, and it is going to need more work. If you need to hire a mechanic every few hundred miles, it is going to be very expensive unless you do your own mechanic work. Some people need to be rich, some people need to be mechanics, some people need to learn to drive carefully, and some people just need to buy slow cars.
Windows is like riding the short yellow school bus; it gets you where you need to go.
Windows is adopted well enough that it is pretty easy in an environment with computers to find other people that have used windows before and can help. I remember decades ago when Windows 3.1 was the hot new thing. I didn't understand what the big deal was, classes on what a mouse was, and how to start applications like word. You would think that this basic knowledge would be adaptable, but it sadly that isn't the way people look at computers. I work at a school, and we had a 2 hour seminar to show people how to use the new photocopy machine. It was pretty fancy and could do cool stuff, but that wasn't what the class taught. It just had the very basics. I didn't get the trouble. We had other copy machines that worked in, what I thought, worked in the same basic way. Evidently not everyone saw it like that.
Linux is fine. People that are very productive on their windows machine and have explored the system past the basics I don't think would have any difficulty in learning a major distribution in a short period of time to get the basics down. But it does take effort. It is different and it will take the same kind of effort it took the first time when people were introduced to windows 3.1 or 95.
But for anyone that insists "But I don't want to learn anything, I just want to use it", get a mac. The important and good software is being ported to mac, and more companies are beginning to understand that it is possible to approach a project from a cross platform approach such that software never need be ported. This will mean hopefully soon, software will pretty much be platform independent, or that adding a platform will require negligible effort. With this in mind, the people that want to be able to mimic other people in what they do with the computer, get a mac. If you want a tool to express yourself without limits, get Linux. Between the two, where does that really leave Windows? I say "good riddance to bad rubbish".
I think part of the problem is lack of cross platform support by places like Verison and what I am going to guess is University of Phoenix. As far as "what people are used to", if these two companies only train in XP and Vista, if you have NT4, Windows 2000, Windows 98, 2003 Server or anything that isn't EXACTLY what the phone techs were trained for, they arn't going to be able to help you AT ALL. Same issue with Word. If today the schools techs are only trained in Office 2008, if you have Office 2003 (or whatever was last) you are totally screwed. They can't help you one bit. OpenOffice is very easy to use and to learn, but if you get stuck, don't expect a phone monkey following a book to give you any assistance.
But I can understand in a way. When you are helping someone with a computer, you might be able to use it intuitively, but even another expert describing some version of software you are not intimately familiar with, you are going to be completely lost in your ability to help them.
Sure, there are some things that could make certain features more obvious in how to use, but personally in the way I use the computer today, that would just amount to bloat. I am a bit saddened that so much work is going into dumb GUIs to enable people to do things in an over simplified way that already worked just fine if you took a sec to look at the documentation for the config file, or where CL switches have just become check boxes. BLEH! But I will admit that came after quite a bit of poking around and making a deliberate effort to understand why things were designed the way they were. It is why Linux was always referred to (10 years ago) as the system by computer experts for computer experts. If it is by experts for experts, isn't it probably pretty good? It does "just work", but it does work differently.
But hey, deliberate learning for the sake of it isn't for everyone.
The issue is that Windows is easy to get started with, and there isn't a lot to learn. Simple GUIs for everything, and you wouldn't know about any advanced features unless you looked them up and knew what you were doing.
Linux is about productivity first. Linux is easy to use, but not completely obvious. With the power to begin any complicated task just a click or keyword away, it can feel like being dropped into an ocean and being asked to swim. The most extreme example of this type of design where productivity is valued over obviousness or 'intuitiveness' is Blender3D. Blender is a F***ING nightmare to figure a damn thing out. I used 3D studio max and poked around and was modeling simple buildings and funny creatures in a matter of hours. Blender I was just like WTF!?! and by the time I figured out how to draw a simple cube, I gave up. Last summer, I thought I would give it another go after watching Elephant Dreams. I figured, ok, of they can do this, I must be able to do better than a box. I thought: What would be the pragmatic way of going about this. Hmm.. Read the damn documentation maybe? The first thing the documentation covered was that the GUI ia intentionally designed a very particular way and they are NOT going to change it. While it requires a lot of memorization, once you 'get it', it will enable you to model faster than ever. Despite not knowing how to do anything, the GUI didn't seem so 'stupid' anymore. If every little detail was very well thought out, then I needed to give it a chance. I jumped on youtube and did a search for "Blender tutorial". MANY results. I picked a series and followed along. While the controls were not obvious in any way, they were easy to remember and simple to use. Every few videos or so, I would try to figure something out on my own, but usually with complete failure. But continuing with the videos, each 20 minute segment was showing me whole new aspects of what could be done. I got to give credit where credit is due. super3boy did a pretty good job. The videos were a bit on the crude side, and the examples were really simple and drawn out, but considering how effective he was in assisting me with my learning, it was perfect. I even showed a friend that had never even much used a computer but to check email, and within a week we were making beautiful scenes, fun simple games, and such. Water, fireworks, explosives taking out buildings, whatever came to mind could be put together right away as the thoughts unfolded. It wasn't like having to think of one part then work through it and then think about the next part after the first part was done.
Anyway, the point is, Linux can be over whelming. I know many people are interested in Linux, but watch people who are comfortable with it, and it all just looks like magic. I have been using Linux for several years now, and I still see people do clever things that appear "magical". Maybe that is why Macs are so popular. I don't think there is anything I have ever seen done on a mac that couldn't be copied by a monkey. Maybe that is the appeal. One simple way to do certain things that people want to do with their computer that make them look cool. But while mac is much like a "choose your own adventure" novel, Linux can feel like pencil and paper, but give it a little time and energy, it is more like Harold's Purple Crayon.
I can understand that some people just want the choose your own adventure. I get that. But Linux enables your computer to be a tool, and as with any complex piece of machinery, the novice needs a teacher. Just because its complex and there is much to learn doesn't mean there is anything wrong with the machine. It means people need help. This is why I feel the Linux community is so strong. It is necessary for people to share their knowledge. It requires upstream developers to hang out in their own irc channel. It requires LOTS of third party documentation to a
I thought people would be turned off to using my computer because I run only Ubuntu, but I actually had the opposite happen. Most of my friends all loved it and wanted to give it a try on heir own machines. Man, fixing problems on Ubuntu is so much easier at least in the respect that you can know if something in particular is the cause of the problem, and it is quick and easy to see if a particular solution is going to resolve the problem. Not to mention SSH means never having to leave your own computer (unless it is an Internet connectivity issue, obviously:)
So Ubuntu didn't keep them away, so I switched my keyboard to Colemak (a DvorÃk variant for those used to qwerty). Yeah, for some reason nobody wants to use my computer anymore:) except my wife of course. She gave it a shot and discovered it improved her typing speed significantly within a few days. Better than me cause I still use qwerty at work:(
but when guests drop by and are like "can I check my email", they sit down for a sec wit the keyboard, and are like "never mind, I'll check it when I get home". Muah ha ha haha ha!
is ndiswrapper too much to expect of anyone to use, even the easy as hell to use gui for wireless because it isn't installed by default?
I am sure this must have been University of Phoenix, they are really behind in the times. They really caught a trend decades ago, but they have done nothing technology-wise to keep up to date.
I think it has something to do wit the motherboard I got. It has a LOT of stuff on it. I hit the power button, and the fans come on quietly. after a couple seconds, the computer beeps, and the fans get really loud for maybe 3 seconds before they slow down, and the screen lights up, and the animation for the bios appears. 3-4 seconds later, the screen goes black, some text appears and disappears in less then a second, and a cursor sits there for 7-8 seconds before the grub menu appears to do its 2 second count down. I can hit enter right away, or even just while the cursor is blinking, and when the menu appears, it goes to the Ubuntu loading screen within a second, and 12-15 seconds later, the GDM appears. After name and password thing, the desktop is ready to use in about 6 seconds, but a bit sluggish for about 20-30 seconds depending on how many things I try to open up right away.
I wish I could get LinuxBIOS cause I know that would fix some of it, but not exactly being legacy hardware, it isn't supported. I have tried grub2, and that takes MUCH longer. So my entire boot up time, if I got it right, is about 38 seconds. Like I said, I don't get why grub is so slow, but I figure all in all, life is too short to spend it being impatient.
It is like open source. It is about enabling freedom that should have existed if not for technical barriers. Few people will watch this like few people can code even reasonably well. The most common excuse used for taking rights away is that "nobody uses them anyway". Really, how many innocent people open their mouth and say stupid stuff that gets them in trouble. Miranda Rights really seem like an obnoxious waste of time that just makes jobs harder for cops. How many people would this really affect, and think about how much we could reduce crime?
Miranda is stupid at face value, just like this move with youtube. The issue is that SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE will be the nerd paying attention to everything, and they are going to hear or see something that is going to get them all twittergasmed, and people are going to become aware of things just in time to really make a mess for people that might want to get reelected.
This will enable something important necessary to give people a chance to really see what our government does with our money. This is the first thing I have seen in quite awhile that really excited me that the government is doing. I encourage you to look at what this could enable. If Miranda has any meaning or value, I encourage you to see at least the same level of value here.
Yeah, I don't even count the time after the boot loader it is so fast. The bios and grub are what take by far most of the cold start to desktop time. Measuring time from after boot loader to GDM is like measuring your penis from tip to asshole.
The odd thing reading through this stuff is that I know the majority of my boot up time is just getting to the point where the grub screen is shown. after that it is 10 seconds for everything to be loaded. My bios and grub together take the longest, so thir really makes me curious what is going to be faster.
Is that the proper nerd way to benchmark nerd time? Hit the power button and if you and your computer finish at the same time then you know things are going well.
So you do not believe that software is evolutionary where the present is always taking the past and building upon it to create a future where some code grows and some code dies and in the end 'better' is emergent?
You are really going to argue that each person or company exists in a bubble and just writes whatever code is necessary to make / improve their project in such a way that beats out all the competition?
That's great! Must mean we only have a few more years until the software we need will all be written and we will be done. And developers can spend the rest of their days doing seminars showing new people how to use the software.
Yeah, come to think of it, this whole progress just building upon progress building upon progress just sounds like an endless cycle that just creates more and more work for people, like as if for every answer there were just three new questions. Yuck, who wants to live in a world like that?
I think the best part about your vision of the world is that once we have this whole 'science' thing done, technology will be the best, nobody will ever become obsolete because their knowledge will always be up to date because they will only learn the right thing the first time, and schools will save TONS of money because they will never need to replace their science textbooks ever again.
And since we know it is perfect, we can then convert all the religious people because it is unchanging, so they can count on it, and everyone will start calling it The New Holy Bible, and it will be easy to see who is defective and unfit for society: Those who disagree with it are heretics, because only people that understand that we now live in a perfect world are good.
I think we should just give the money all to Microsoft since they are the closest to creating the one true operating system. They must be, just look at their market share. I am sure their team of geniuses are pretty close to making the one perfect operating system for everybody that will never need to be upgraded again and finally everyone can be happy!
And then not long after that, think of how easy Google will have it when it can finally finish indexing the Internet. I am sure it just pisses them off all the time that while they are busy trying to organize the Internet people just keep adding stuff to it over and over and over again. How does that help anybody?
I'm going to write Lawrence Lessig right now expressing my frustration for him lying to me all these years, nonsense about "ideas building on ideas of others". What non-sense! Stuff like that is for Pirates, Communists, and kids who cheat in school. Thanks for setting things straight.
So what you are saying is that progress always builds on the past? Wow, think you have just made a great argument for FlOSS, because the more we can keep track of past accomplishments, the less likely we will find ourselves reinventing the wheel.
Honestly though, I am not sure if you are being serious or not. There are two things going on with the Kernel to my understanding in this context: Either new things come about, and support is added (old code doesn't change) or people examine the way something is done and find a way to improve upon it (old code still exists in that the improved version is a derivative. how do you make something better without something to start with?).
Another thing I think of is the collective work of the ancient Greeks. Are you going to say that all their math, science, architecture, technology and such were a waste of time because we have stuff that is so much better now? Are you joking?
There are many ways that the money could be wasted, but most of that is a matter of poor oversight. I would expect it to go something like Google Summer of Code where money will be given to specific projects that have specific goals and a track record of success... versus these banks that seem to have a history of scams and failures. FlOSS is a real way to invest in the community rather than giving someone money to find a way to get money from others. Government grants for science, medicine and such are released as public domain... so unless these are 'works for hire' (which they usually are) they can legally be GPL despite all the "restrictions".
"Collecting information is only the first step towards knowledge, but sharing information is walking the path to civilization."
I have heard conflicting information regarding this, but it does have me very curious. Right now I have only been checking out Windows 7 in a virtual machine, and I like it so far. Think I will have to throw it onto a notebook and check it out. Thanks.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, if Microsoft published this kind of data, I think there would be a class action lawsuit for violation of privacy with the EFF issuing a public statement over how this type of behavior is intolerable, except that they would actually be right, because if Microsoft were do desire to gather such information, they wouldn't ask for permission first (well, actually they do. it is all there in the EULA). And yes, I do know that the software popularity contest is an 'advanced setting' 'opt-in' option, so there is no issue. Everything Microsoft does is bad because that is just their way, and Linux is able to accomplish all exactly the same things (on a software level) but they do it in a way that protects peoples privacy and makes people actually feel good about being part of a usage statistic because someone had the decency to ask them first, which is just among the many kinds of freedoms Linux is trying to promote!
Viva La Linux!!!
+1 best flamebait ever!
I don't think very many people consciously buy an operating system period. I get the impression that most people think Windows is the computer and don't really understand the difference between software and hardware. Some people think installing Linux is like remodeling a house, when it is really a whole lot more like inviting different people over.
As far as her choosing Ubuntu, how ever that registered in her mind, it must have in some way. It isn't like Dell just asks "What operating system do you want?", they really hide it when you do get there, they warn you "IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT LINUX IS, DO NOT SELECT THIS OPTION as it probably won't be what you want. If you are absolutely sure, click here, otherwise click here to look at normal computers". Something like that.
I get a sneaking suspicion that this was a setup (no pun intended). I think this was some kind of stunt. With the warning from Dell and the way the Ubuntu computers are a bit hidden on the site, a lot of the facts really don't add up, unless there was some kind of Linux zealot working for Dell that insisted it was better for her recklessly. All she said was that AFTER she got the computer, the tech tried to talk her out of returning the machine. Not the same thing.There are some critical details here that are missing. Either this was a Microsoft stunt (that may or may not have been facilitated by an actual Microsoft employee) or someone else got her the computer without really considering her skill level.
I'll say it again, this story doesn't add up.
Like the fact that this whole discussion is about some other article from yesterday, rather than the current one discussing differences in software usage statistics? Yeah, its about Ubuntu, but... sorry, this is really funny.
Properly configuring the hardware / drivers / whatever for an Internet connection isn't quite the same thing as opening Firefox. Also, last I checked, I wasn't aware that "proficient in Facebook" was any kind of merit badge :)
They tell you it is required because in the technicians handbook it has it as a required step, and if anyone asks if it is required, you are to say "yes". It is the only way they are trained. If they are not trained to do it, it is not part of their job, and since these people only have a job training crash course and are very likely not computer people, though they will insist they have one at home, you wouldn't want them doing custom work anyway.
... a broad range of computer skills with various issues over the years. :)
Nothing ever 'just works' on computers. You need to know how to plug them in, and you need to know where the power button is. This is a show stopper for a lot of people. I know too many people that can't use a computer unless it is already on and the application they want to use is already open. This is cross-platform ignorance. The fact that most of them have windows is just a matter of that being what was on the computer when they bought it in the store.
The Year of Linux is coming!!! And those same people are now buying Linux. Joy!
It isn't Ubuntu, its people. The software isn't some kind of crazy security, and the hardware is designed to 'work'. Bridging the gap is pretty simple, but just like finding the power button, sometimes you need to ask.
Not trolling, just that I have spent a lot of time helping people with
I think this is more a reflection of computer users, or even people, than Ubuntu users. People that know and understand Linux, use Linux. I have used a variety of distributions, but I am pretty happy with Ubuntu. I have used Ubuntu exclusively for only a few years now, but I can still see where I am far behind in my understanding of many things based on the forums I visit. Ubuntu irc had been a fun place I would go to get help, and often spend some time helping others. It was very civilized, though there were a lot of new people. Years later, now, it might be hard to distinguish from 4chan or Barrens chat. I don't go there any more AT ALL.
But honestly, I think this is just what happens when popularity increases with anything. I remember when the majority of people on the Internet (if you would really call it that) were between intelligent and highly intelligent individuals discussing a wide range of topic (though usually leaning towards the nerdy side) in a civilized manner.
Going from telnet to web browsing changed everything! The number of people online was approaching a million! The number of servers you could connect to or 'sites' you could now 'browse to' was skyrocketing! People starting making their own web sites and hosting forums at home, and there were just tons of people all excited to be involved in this new medium, despite the fact they had no idea what they were doing.
And then AOL came along, and Geocities. Soon everyone had a web page for their cat, and flame wars seemed to be the thing in every chat room. It was just like the parlor times a million! This was about the time I stopped going into chat rooms at all, because it was just intolerable.
But eventually we got slashdot, google, ebay, wikipedia, archieve.org, eff, findlaw, loc.gov, youtube, hulu, piratebay, thinkfree, change.gov and so many others both recently and over the years.
I miss the days when every person I knew that had a computer had taken it apart and put it back together many times, they all had some minimal programming skill, and nerdy groups of people would be going around to business or telling our non-nerd friends "you could do that so much better if you had a COMPUTER!", to which they would reply, "that stuff is for nerds, I am doing just fine with my typewriter". "There's nothing I can do with a computer I can't do on my typewriter", and "computers just make it more complicated and expensive".
There was no convincing them. You would try to explain, but they wouldn't listen.
Then one day they would come you you and be all like "Hey, guess what? I got one of those Pentium things! Isn't that cool!" and all you could do is smile and sigh. And after that, it was the endless phone calls for little things that you didn't mind, because it was exactly what you had been pushing for in the first place. But sometimes it made you wonder.
Soon, the round table discussions over new technologies in the library were replaced with sheep-dip seminars (thank you Andy Hunt), row after row of zombies watching someone explain what a mouse was for, and how to put things in the trash. Soon you had all these 'experts' saying that they knew more about computers than anyone because they had taken a class. Oh, the humanity...
So what a surprise that after all these years, we are still seeing the same type of revolution. Yes, I miss the 'Internet' when it was between 10,000 and 100,000 users, but those times are gone, and in the big picture, the new even more nerdy stuff is worth it.
They say that Linux userbase / marketshare (or whatever way Microsoft feels like measuring it one day to the next) is about 1%, but it is easy to see it is the top 1%. Maybe it is just me, but I don't see an even distribution be user base as a whole of computer experts between exclusive Linux users and exclusive Windows users. It is the same one percent 20+ years ago trying to get people to use computers because it was the futu
Don't confuse common store policy with law.
Scams typically work better being more passive. That way a company can claim the money was volunteered and they never harassed anyone. This is typical business practice in the US. Convince people you sell a legit service, and most people that figure out it is a scam will walk away. To the very few that feel upset, try and blow them off, but those that are at all insistent, give them a quick refund. Nothing worse to ruin a good scam than getting exposed with a lawsuit, let alone the time to deal with it. No harm in refunds because you are lucky to get any money you can get. Not to mention most people are so lazy, what you can get is often quite a bit.
HA HA HA!!! That's really funny and sad all at the same time.
Yeah, if firefox, nautilus, and or movie player are already open, many people don't even notice a difference. But for some reason my oddly shaped book shelf on my desk with an Ubuntu sticker on it people think is another computer. I assume nothing with people anymore.
saving as an MS Office document does NOT preserve OOo's document formatting like it should.
There are only certain features that do not translate well. In particular, line breaks and tables I have had issues with, but avoiding the things that don't work well, which isn't much, shouldn't keep you from being able to follow the assignment. Also, for mac, OpenOffice really lags behind the other version the most. If you would like to have your computer back, consider Google Documents for simple stuff, or ThinkFree for fancier documents.
.NET applications, you need to get mono. If the school isn't going to help, you can do site specific documentation to help others. If you start getting significant hits, they may feel they are loosing control of their site and will try and adapt to the demand. Worse than sheep, they are extra lazy. These are non tech people running a big web site. Motivating them to even fix things for one specific platform is a pain, but I doubt it is as forelorn as you make it out to be. Further, don't worry about influencing the change yourself, just be the really annoying guy amongst many annoying people that will inspire future annoying people to eventually help them change. Just because they don't change to your request doesn't mean you didn't make an impact. Look at how class action lawsuits typically start :)
And while it seems really stupid, typically a user agent switcher can get you around the IE only stuff. If they are
Some people just need to see things a specific way, or they are totally lost. I know people that couldn't work an upside down door handle. Please never let that difficulty drive Linux development. Fortunately, Linux has always been about options. there may be a distribution out there that is for people that can't find their car if it is parked on the wrong side of the driveway (I think it was called SugarOS), but I believe it will be an evolutionary thing. Kids today are starting at very young ages with much better technology and are getting more intimate understandings. Kids are reaching competency and proficiency very quickly like kids do with anything they can actually get their hands on. Most adults if, say, they were pasty the age of 20 when they first got introduced to a computer, without much concerted effort, ever become more than very well trained novices. For anyone familiar with learning theory should understand that with that type of 'experience', it can't be adapted, no step or detail seems any more 'important' than any other in accomplishing a task, they don't see see the big picture, and the challenge in learning anything new is equal to the number of new steps to memorize. In what way is Linux ever going to be easy for these people to learn, and in another way, the kinds of challenges Linux can deal with, the tools are virtually worthless to a computer novice, those that don't see it holistically.
I think this explains why it is easy for little kids to use Ubuntu. The learning curve is great with just a few bumps, but while the system isn't designed to limit out at novice use, there are plenty of tools and methods to let novices work their way through the system doing basic tasks till they get a better understanding of all whats going on.
Tasks in Windows are just as simple in Linux for a novice, but the methods are different. The big difference between Linux and Windows, for me, is lifting that ceiling. If you begin to understand what all is going on or how things work, Linux gives you new and creative ways to do complex things in very simple, non-obvious ways. This is where I think people get intimidated. A novice watches a proficient Linux user do something seemingly "magical" and the novice begins to believe that is the way they need to do things. While maybe it should be the way to do things, that doesn't mean it is what they need to be doing right away. Linux is a world of possibilities: Be aware of where you are in your understanding with your computer and take appropriate steps to learn things in a way that is appropriate for your level. And if someone that helps you works their magic in ways that are beyond your level, don't worry, it probably took them some time to get to that level themselves.
However, if you really don't care to put in the mental effort to get past novice, I recommend getting a Macintosh. There are fancy expert features of OSX, but they are kept pretty hidden as so not to appear confusing.
It is a lot like a high performance car and their maintenance. Drive it hard, and it is going to need more work. If you need to hire a mechanic every few hundred miles, it is going to be very expensive unless you do your own mechanic work. Some people need to be rich, some people need to be mechanics, some people need to learn to drive carefully, and some people just need to buy slow cars.
Windows is like riding the short yellow school bus; it gets you where you need to go.
Windows is adopted well enough that it is pretty easy in an environment with computers to find other people that have used windows before and can help. I remember decades ago when Windows 3.1 was the hot new thing. I didn't understand what the big deal was, classes on what a mouse was, and how to start applications like word. You would think that this basic knowledge would be adaptable, but it sadly that isn't the way people look at computers. I work at a school, and we had a 2 hour seminar to show people how to use the new photocopy machine. It was pretty fancy and could do cool stuff, but that wasn't what the class taught. It just had the very basics. I didn't get the trouble. We had other copy machines that worked in, what I thought, worked in the same basic way. Evidently not everyone saw it like that.
Linux is fine. People that are very productive on their windows machine and have explored the system past the basics I don't think would have any difficulty in learning a major distribution in a short period of time to get the basics down. But it does take effort. It is different and it will take the same kind of effort it took the first time when people were introduced to windows 3.1 or 95.
But for anyone that insists "But I don't want to learn anything, I just want to use it", get a mac. The important and good software is being ported to mac, and more companies are beginning to understand that it is possible to approach a project from a cross platform approach such that software never need be ported. This will mean hopefully soon, software will pretty much be platform independent, or that adding a platform will require negligible effort. With this in mind, the people that want to be able to mimic other people in what they do with the computer, get a mac. If you want a tool to express yourself without limits, get Linux. Between the two, where does that really leave Windows? I say "good riddance to bad rubbish".
I think part of the problem is lack of cross platform support by places like Verison and what I am going to guess is University of Phoenix. As far as "what people are used to", if these two companies only train in XP and Vista, if you have NT4, Windows 2000, Windows 98, 2003 Server or anything that isn't EXACTLY what the phone techs were trained for, they arn't going to be able to help you AT ALL. Same issue with Word. If today the schools techs are only trained in Office 2008, if you have Office 2003 (or whatever was last) you are totally screwed. They can't help you one bit. OpenOffice is very easy to use and to learn, but if you get stuck, don't expect a phone monkey following a book to give you any assistance.
But I can understand in a way. When you are helping someone with a computer, you might be able to use it intuitively, but even another expert describing some version of software you are not intimately familiar with, you are going to be completely lost in your ability to help them.
Sure, there are some things that could make certain features more obvious in how to use, but personally in the way I use the computer today, that would just amount to bloat. I am a bit saddened that so much work is going into dumb GUIs to enable people to do things in an over simplified way that already worked just fine if you took a sec to look at the documentation for the config file, or where CL switches have just become check boxes. BLEH! But I will admit that came after quite a bit of poking around and making a deliberate effort to understand why things were designed the way they were. It is why Linux was always referred to (10 years ago) as the system by computer experts for computer experts. If it is by experts for experts, isn't it probably pretty good? It does "just work", but it does work differently.
But hey, deliberate learning for the sake of it isn't for everyone.
The issue is that Windows is easy to get started with, and there isn't a lot to learn. Simple GUIs for everything, and you wouldn't know about any advanced features unless you looked them up and knew what you were doing.
Linux is about productivity first. Linux is easy to use, but not completely obvious. With the power to begin any complicated task just a click or keyword away, it can feel like being dropped into an ocean and being asked to swim. The most extreme example of this type of design where productivity is valued over obviousness or 'intuitiveness' is Blender3D. Blender is a F***ING nightmare to figure a damn thing out. I used 3D studio max and poked around and was modeling simple buildings and funny creatures in a matter of hours. Blender I was just like WTF!?! and by the time I figured out how to draw a simple cube, I gave up. Last summer, I thought I would give it another go after watching Elephant Dreams. I figured, ok, of they can do this, I must be able to do better than a box. I thought: What would be the pragmatic way of going about this. Hmm.. Read the damn documentation maybe? The first thing the documentation covered was that the GUI ia intentionally designed a very particular way and they are NOT going to change it. While it requires a lot of memorization, once you 'get it', it will enable you to model faster than ever. Despite not knowing how to do anything, the GUI didn't seem so 'stupid' anymore. If every little detail was very well thought out, then I needed to give it a chance. I jumped on youtube and did a search for "Blender tutorial". MANY results. I picked a series and followed along. While the controls were not obvious in any way, they were easy to remember and simple to use. Every few videos or so, I would try to figure something out on my own, but usually with complete failure. But continuing with the videos, each 20 minute segment was showing me whole new aspects of what could be done. I got to give credit where credit is due. super3boy did a pretty good job. The videos were a bit on the crude side, and the examples were really simple and drawn out, but considering how effective he was in assisting me with my learning, it was perfect. I even showed a friend that had never even much used a computer but to check email, and within a week we were making beautiful scenes, fun simple games, and such. Water, fireworks, explosives taking out buildings, whatever came to mind could be put together right away as the thoughts unfolded. It wasn't like having to think of one part then work through it and then think about the next part after the first part was done.
Anyway, the point is, Linux can be over whelming. I know many people are interested in Linux, but watch people who are comfortable with it, and it all just looks like magic. I have been using Linux for several years now, and I still see people do clever things that appear "magical". Maybe that is why Macs are so popular. I don't think there is anything I have ever seen done on a mac that couldn't be copied by a monkey. Maybe that is the appeal. One simple way to do certain things that people want to do with their computer that make them look cool. But while mac is much like a "choose your own adventure" novel, Linux can feel like pencil and paper, but give it a little time and energy, it is more like Harold's Purple Crayon.
I can understand that some people just want the choose your own adventure. I get that. But Linux enables your computer to be a tool, and as with any complex piece of machinery, the novice needs a teacher. Just because its complex and there is much to learn doesn't mean there is anything wrong with the machine. It means people need help. This is why I feel the Linux community is so strong. It is necessary for people to share their knowledge. It requires upstream developers to hang out in their own irc channel. It requires LOTS of third party documentation to a
I thought people would be turned off to using my computer because I run only Ubuntu, but I actually had the opposite happen. Most of my friends all loved it and wanted to give it a try on heir own machines. Man, fixing problems on Ubuntu is so much easier at least in the respect that you can know if something in particular is the cause of the problem, and it is quick and easy to see if a particular solution is going to resolve the problem. Not to mention SSH means never having to leave your own computer (unless it is an Internet connectivity issue, obviously :)
:) except my wife of course. She gave it a shot and discovered it improved her typing speed significantly within a few days. Better than me cause I still use qwerty at work :(
So Ubuntu didn't keep them away, so I switched my keyboard to Colemak (a DvorÃk variant for those used to qwerty). Yeah, for some reason nobody wants to use my computer anymore
but when guests drop by and are like "can I check my email", they sit down for a sec wit the keyboard, and are like "never mind, I'll check it when I get home". Muah ha ha haha ha!
is ndiswrapper too much to expect of anyone to use, even the easy as hell to use gui for wireless because it isn't installed by default?
I am sure this must have been University of Phoenix, they are really behind in the times. They really caught a trend decades ago, but they have done nothing technology-wise to keep up to date.
I think it has something to do wit the motherboard I got. It has a LOT of stuff on it. I hit the power button, and the fans come on quietly. after a couple seconds, the computer beeps, and the fans get really loud for maybe 3 seconds before they slow down, and the screen lights up, and the animation for the bios appears. 3-4 seconds later, the screen goes black, some text appears and disappears in less then a second, and a cursor sits there for 7-8 seconds before the grub menu appears to do its 2 second count down. I can hit enter right away, or even just while the cursor is blinking, and when the menu appears, it goes to the Ubuntu loading screen within a second, and 12-15 seconds later, the GDM appears. After name and password thing, the desktop is ready to use in about 6 seconds, but a bit sluggish for about 20-30 seconds depending on how many things I try to open up right away.
I wish I could get LinuxBIOS cause I know that would fix some of it, but not exactly being legacy hardware, it isn't supported. I have tried grub2, and that takes MUCH longer. So my entire boot up time, if I got it right, is about 38 seconds. Like I said, I don't get why grub is so slow, but I figure all in all, life is too short to spend it being impatient.
It is like open source. It is about enabling freedom that should have existed if not for technical barriers. Few people will watch this like few people can code even reasonably well. The most common excuse used for taking rights away is that "nobody uses them anyway". Really, how many innocent people open their mouth and say stupid stuff that gets them in trouble. Miranda Rights really seem like an obnoxious waste of time that just makes jobs harder for cops. How many people would this really affect, and think about how much we could reduce crime?
Miranda is stupid at face value, just like this move with youtube. The issue is that SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE will be the nerd paying attention to everything, and they are going to hear or see something that is going to get them all twittergasmed, and people are going to become aware of things just in time to really make a mess for people that might want to get reelected.
This will enable something important necessary to give people a chance to really see what our government does with our money. This is the first thing I have seen in quite awhile that really excited me that the government is doing. I encourage you to look at what this could enable. If Miranda has any meaning or value, I encourage you to see at least the same level of value here.
Yeah, I don't even count the time after the boot loader it is so fast. The bios and grub are what take by far most of the cold start to desktop time. Measuring time from after boot loader to GDM is like measuring your penis from tip to asshole.
The odd thing reading through this stuff is that I know the majority of my boot up time is just getting to the point where the grub screen is shown. after that it is 10 seconds for everything to be loaded. My bios and grub together take the longest, so thir really makes me curious what is going to be faster.
Is that the proper nerd way to benchmark nerd time? Hit the power button and if you and your computer finish at the same time then you know things are going well.
What about some kind of *sql and php? (sorry if that sounds absurd, but I would think it would give you a lot more options without loosing anything)
So you do not believe that software is evolutionary where the present is always taking the past and building upon it to create a future where some code grows and some code dies and in the end 'better' is emergent?
You are really going to argue that each person or company exists in a bubble and just writes whatever code is necessary to make / improve their project in such a way that beats out all the competition?
That's great! Must mean we only have a few more years until the software we need will all be written and we will be done. And developers can spend the rest of their days doing seminars showing new people how to use the software.
Yeah, come to think of it, this whole progress just building upon progress building upon progress just sounds like an endless cycle that just creates more and more work for people, like as if for every answer there were just three new questions. Yuck, who wants to live in a world like that?
I think the best part about your vision of the world is that once we have this whole 'science' thing done, technology will be the best, nobody will ever become obsolete because their knowledge will always be up to date because they will only learn the right thing the first time, and schools will save TONS of money because they will never need to replace their science textbooks ever again.
And since we know it is perfect, we can then convert all the religious people because it is unchanging, so they can count on it, and everyone will start calling it The New Holy Bible, and it will be easy to see who is defective and unfit for society: Those who disagree with it are heretics, because only people that understand that we now live in a perfect world are good.
I think we should just give the money all to Microsoft since they are the closest to creating the one true operating system. They must be, just look at their market share. I am sure their team of geniuses are pretty close to making the one perfect operating system for everybody that will never need to be upgraded again and finally everyone can be happy!
And then not long after that, think of how easy Google will have it when it can finally finish indexing the Internet. I am sure it just pisses them off all the time that while they are busy trying to organize the Internet people just keep adding stuff to it over and over and over again. How does that help anybody?
I'm going to write Lawrence Lessig right now expressing my frustration for him lying to me all these years, nonsense about "ideas building on ideas of others". What non-sense! Stuff like that is for Pirates, Communists, and kids who cheat in school. Thanks for setting things straight.
So what you are saying is that progress always builds on the past? Wow, think you have just made a great argument for FlOSS, because the more we can keep track of past accomplishments, the less likely we will find ourselves reinventing the wheel.
Honestly though, I am not sure if you are being serious or not. There are two things going on with the Kernel to my understanding in this context: Either new things come about, and support is added (old code doesn't change) or people examine the way something is done and find a way to improve upon it (old code still exists in that the improved version is a derivative. how do you make something better without something to start with?).
Another thing I think of is the collective work of the ancient Greeks. Are you going to say that all their math, science, architecture, technology and such were a waste of time because we have stuff that is so much better now? Are you joking? There are many ways that the money could be wasted, but most of that is a matter of poor oversight. I would expect it to go something like Google Summer of Code where money will be given to specific projects that have specific goals and a track record of success... versus these banks that seem to have a history of scams and failures. FlOSS is a real way to invest in the community rather than giving someone money to find a way to get money from others. Government grants for science, medicine and such are released as public domain... so unless these are 'works for hire' (which they usually are) they can legally be GPL despite all the "restrictions".
"Collecting information is only the first step towards knowledge, but sharing information is walking the path to civilization."
I have heard conflicting information regarding this, but it does have me very curious. Right now I have only been checking out Windows 7 in a virtual machine, and I like it so far. Think I will have to throw it onto a notebook and check it out. Thanks.