Parent gives some examples of The Standard Misconceptions on Linux-for-Normal-People:
a) There's not one Linux, there are so many different distro's, normal people don't know what to choose
(or, the strong version: normal people don't understand the concept of a distro at all);
b) Too many different apps for every task, people get lost;
c) Dependency hell/compiling/tweaking/installing/whatever the reason may be: Linux is too technical for normal people.
Ad a) ever heard of a 'cell phone'? There's a frottilion different cell phones on the markt (with even more methods of paying for your calls), still very normal people can decide 1)they want a cell phone, and 2)choose which model they like. Same for trousers, by the way. Normal people can very easily understand that 1)Linux is a cool system for your computer, and 2)one can choose many different brands (and even try them out for free!).
Ad b) same point, actually. Any distro has a menu tree which shows normal people where to look for an application for a certain task. "Just choose the one you like" is not a very difficult message for a consumer. Consumers enjoy it.
Ad c) ever heard of 'Amazon'? Certainly a lot of normal people can handle that. In any modern distro, installing is exactly the same, it's one-click-shopping. Only the paying-part lacks. Sure consumers can handle that! All depency-troubles are not for the user, you only run into them when you want obscure software. When you reach this point, you should know how to use Google.
Compare that to windows, where every installation has a different dialog, with 30-days try-out nonsense, with programs asking for your email, where you need to know how to get cracks (no, consumers will never pay for programs they use twice a year, so they need cracks), where installing apps goes one by one and asks for reboots, etcetc. Not to mention the fact that with installing a distro, most users have all they want. Windows is not a distro, since it contains almost no apps.
Comparing Linux to Windows for normal people comes down to this: Getting & using Linux is funshopping! Cheap, or even free.
One doesn't need a education in computer science to understand this concept.
If everyone carried a.44 Magnum, there would be no less armed robbery, only the scenario would be different: as a robber, make sure you shoot first, and aim better. Then take the money. That's not so hard, since a normal citizen has better things to do than holding a gun pointed at anything that moves. After a few hits, it will become more easy, since you've learned to shoot from the back, at a moment the victim doesn't expect it, and shoot well. So instead of robbery, we get kills-for-robbery.
However, in the case of patents, it's not that friendly. The robber can shield himself from the gun of his victim, by not producing anything. These robbers exist. One day, some big corporations might outsource their warfare-patents to a small company, which doesn't produce anything, but holds a lot of trivial patents and has a bunch of lawyers skilled in shooting from the back, at a moment least expected...
USA: Do as we say.
UN: Sorry, the rest of the world doesn't agree.
USA: You must do as we say.
UN: But really, the rest of the world doesn't agree.
USA: You are running out of time. You must do what we say, and do it now.
UN: You are irritating the rest of the world. They want something else. You should respect that.
USA: The fact that you don't take your responsibility to do as we say, proves you irrelevant because of your disrespect for freedom and democracy.
UN: Still, the vast majority is against your proposal.
USA, puts fingers in ears: DOASWESAYDOASWESAYDOASWESAYDOASWESAY NOW YOU FORCED US TO START BOMBING TO DEFEND THE FREE WORLD. THE FREE WORLD, THE FREE WORLD, THE FREEEEEEEEEEEE WORLD. WE ARE THE FREEEEEEEE WORLD, NOONE IS FREE ONLY WE ARE FREEEEEEEEEEEEEE, THE FREEEEEEE WORLD, THE FREEEEEEE WORLD [...]
So the university management talks to the scientists about this (they sometimes do!). The scientists reply something like "do WHAT with our precious cluster...?!?", university management spends a short time thinking about core business. University management stumbles upon some desktoplinux company, connected with the computer science department of same university which happenes to host a mirror for this company. Company offers better deal. Some scientists mention they're already using it. It turns out 80% of the systems in the labs runs some form of linux with custom apps the researchers won't leave alone in case of a nuclear assault. University management thinks again about core business, for a very short time now.
Let's add to your diet one of the following: - 375 ppm of arsenic - 375 ppm of opium - 375 ppm of berrylium - 375 ppm of botox - 375 ppm of...
The point is, complex systems with many feedback loops (like you or the climate) can be disturbed by small changes of parameters. This depends on the structure of the system, not on the magnitude. It works also in simple systems:
x=y^at with 't' being time.
You can change 'y' from 2 to 20, and it will have a significant effect. But this effect wil be dwarfed by the effect of changing 'a' from 0.9 to 1.1
"As an IT contractor I've worked inside government, and the culture is very different compared to the commercial world. Government jobs are jobs for life. There is nothing that encourages the learning of new skills, and the only real way to lose your job is through misconduct or negligence. "
But the guy you work for, can very easily loose his job. If a minister is inaccurate or not in time informed, he's in trouble with the parliament and the press. The point is not that the people at the government don't learn new skills (we do constantly, because else we can't inform the minister). The point is, all systems have to be very fail-safe, without well-defined data. The formats never fit perfectly, just-in-time is always-too-late-but... On top of it, the really important people never have time to touch a computer.
This is why governments tend to stick to old systems and procedures that work (sort of, most of the time...). I work at the very ministry for the environment, but we use lots of paper were bytes would be suffcient. We spend all those trees just to be sure all steps in the hierarchy get to see the text, get to sign it (sometimes with remarks) and the minister will have it, even while walking from the car to the press.
So if you want governments to use more Linux, point out that it is more reliable, and build easy to use, fail-safe but flexible document routing systems.
"My solution to terrorism? Take the amount of money we've spent in Iraq and direct it towards fusion power research. Once fusion power is achieved, we don't need to prop up those regimes in the middle east any more. At last, we will be able to leave and flip them off on the way out. Then when the middle east is still a hellhole they can't blame us."
When fusion power is achieved, the result will be that we use more energy. We will not use a new source to replace an old one. When we discoverd coal, we didn't stop cutting forests. We discovered oil, but we didn't use less coal. We found natural gas, built nucleair power, and still we use more and more oil and gas and coal and wood.
This is called the rebound effect, and unless we find a solution to this, all energy research is futile.
To put an end to the confusion of consumers about EULA's, the US government works on a standard for EULA's. Any software producing company or free-lance developer will be forced to use this, and only this, standard EULA.
It's main points are: - no complex schemes: software can only be licensed on a 'per-seat' base; - a clear focus: EULA will contain a clear description of the purpose and use of the software; - responsibility will be clear: EULA can only be an agreement between the consumer and the original holder of the copyright, and - the copyright on the software should be owned by one and only one company.
The standard for EULA's will be developed in cooperation with America's leading software companies.
Heu? I got support with my suse93-distro. I needed it too, because of my weird hardware combination, and since i didn't understand anything of computers i needed the support badly. But they helped me through.
Maybe it's just me, but i could never get used to windows. For me, Linux turned out a much easier system to adapt. The imago of Linux is "experienced user only". But actually, windows requires more experience.
I think the message should be: Linux is very suitable for beginners, it is easy to learn. It's much more logical than windows. Get just one set of cd-rom's and you're ready to do all you want. Installing new software is always the same, it goes with a click. If you think a program is too difficult, you just use another one which does the same. If you can't get used to the whole desktop, just put the cd-rom back in the machine and install another one. Now THAT'S what you need when you don't like nerding around with your computer.
The Dutch (i am one) have been best in dyke building and flood control for centuries. The problem is, we are too good in it. Like in Louisiana, with the pumping of the water, we also suck the land down.
The major mistake of the Dutch was the reclamation of land below the average sealevel. Because we became very good at pumping, we dropped the old technique of reclaiming land by accelerated sinking of silt http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landgewinnung. Instead we made a ring-dyke and pumped the water away. With the sea rising and the land sinking, it's getting harder and harder to keep those places dry, and the dangers of a flood are increasing.
The Germans on the coast of Ostfriesland and Schleswig-Holstein didn't drop the old way of land reclamation; even the polders of the 20th century are made by accelerated sinking of silt. Almost all of them are kept dry by "Sielen", nothing but big one-way valves in the dyke. They open at low tide, the water in the polder flows away and when the tide rises, it closes the valves again. To the contrary, almost all Dutch polders need pumps.
In former centuries, the Germans often hired Dutch engineers for their dykes. But nowadays, i think the German are ahead of us, just because they never became impatient and stuck with accelerated sinking of silt.
In Nordfriesland, the westcoast of Schleswig-Holstein, you can find so called "Halligen" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallig. These are small islands without a dyke or dunes. Houses are built on terps. When a stormflood hits the island, it is completely flooded except for the terps with the houses.
Those floods do some damage to the island, but also bring on new silt. These islands are in a dynamic equilibrium of damage from floods and (accelerated) sinking of silt. It was that way because the people couldn't afford a dyke, nowadays it's because of landscape conservation (you should see it, it's really beautiful!) but in the future it might prove to be the way to go for sustainable preservation of the lowlands.
M$ needs one much more than OOo, so they might be able to correct their own. Just checked a doc in msword. Of de 15-20 grammatical mistakes it found, none was appropriate. If i'd followed the advice, i would have introduced a lot of errors. In dutch, the feature is useless and harmful when used by someone not well educated in the language.
First: though i am an engineer, i'm not a geek. I don't understand much of computers. When i was still using win98, i always had to ask my girlfriend to help me when the computer messed up or so. She understands computers. She even knows what the "Registry" does!
I am also a cyclist. Bicycles are like OS. I never was very well into cycling, i used the thing when i needed it. When i wanted to buy a new bicycle, i thought: why not buy a recumbent? They're technically superior. And it is amazing! Not being trained at all, after a month i could ride 200 km a day! The technology is superior, especially for non-trained cyclists.
But everyone says: "It's difficult, isn't it?" "No, it's not. It's very easy." "But you need very special skills to drive one!" "No, you don't. You need special skills to ride more than 100 km on a normal bike." "Well, i couldn't ride one."
So, only people who are interested in technology, understand the benefits of the recumbent. Thus, you see only techies on recumbents, which proves only geeks with special skills can drive one.
Same with OS. I bought a new compu, so i thought: let's try Linux. It was a relief for a non-geek like me! I didn't need my girlfriend to get my computer working. I could install apps myself! (i never could - i don't understand cracks and other things you need to get something work on a windows machine, nor do i know where to get illegal software).
I simply don't see why OSS-people would contribute to it. They know, better than anyone, the whole IP system is flawed. IP has always depended on a physical product (books, lp's) which takes at least some industrial scale to produce. Now this is no longer the case, it's no use wasting time on attempts to prolonge the old situation. Like the Dutch say: stop pulling the dead horse.
I wouldn't be so sure about it. Combined with data from (variation in) heartbeat, it might give really significant info. It's really amazing what information about your health and condition those guys from Polar can get out of just an 150 euro HB monitor. Give'm more parameters, some athletes to test and enough time to research it, and they will show up with a device which can significantly improve the performance of a dedicated athlete.
Remember, just one minute on a complete Tour de France or ten meters in a one-hour timetrial is worth a fucking lot of research.
Slashdot Mirror
Parent gives some examples of The Standard Misconceptions on Linux-for-Normal-People:
a) There's not one Linux, there are so many different distro's, normal people don't know what to choose (or, the strong version: normal people don't understand the concept of a distro at all);
b) Too many different apps for every task, people get lost;
c) Dependency hell/compiling/tweaking/installing/whatever the reason may be: Linux is too technical for normal people.
Ad a) ever heard of a 'cell phone'? There's a frottilion different cell phones on the markt (with even more methods of paying for your calls), still very normal people can decide 1)they want a cell phone, and 2)choose which model they like. Same for trousers, by the way. Normal people can very easily understand that 1)Linux is a cool system for your computer, and 2)one can choose many different brands (and even try them out for free!).
Ad b) same point, actually. Any distro has a menu tree which shows normal people where to look for an application for a certain task. "Just choose the one you like" is not a very difficult message for a consumer. Consumers enjoy it.
Ad c) ever heard of 'Amazon'? Certainly a lot of normal people can handle that. In any modern distro, installing is exactly the same, it's one-click-shopping. Only the paying-part lacks. Sure consumers can handle that! All depency-troubles are not for the user, you only run into them when you want obscure software. When you reach this point, you should know how to use Google. Compare that to windows, where every installation has a different dialog, with 30-days try-out nonsense, with programs asking for your email, where you need to know how to get cracks (no, consumers will never pay for programs they use twice a year, so they need cracks), where installing apps goes one by one and asks for reboots, etcetc. Not to mention the fact that with installing a distro, most users have all they want. Windows is not a distro, since it contains almost no apps.
Comparing Linux to Windows for normal people comes down to this: Getting & using Linux is funshopping! Cheap, or even free.
One doesn't need a education in computer science to understand this concept.
This is why introverts would die out without alcohol. They'd never get together soberly.
who will sue us for stealing their client's content and distributing it illegally by P2P-networks...
Even the French understand irony.
If everyone carried a .44 Magnum, there would be no less armed robbery, only the scenario would be different: as a robber, make sure you shoot first, and aim better. Then take the money. That's not so hard, since a normal citizen has better things to do than holding a gun pointed at anything that moves. After a few hits, it will become more easy, since you've learned to shoot from the back, at a moment the victim doesn't expect it, and shoot well. So instead of robbery, we get kills-for-robbery.
However, in the case of patents, it's not that friendly. The robber can shield himself from the gun of his victim, by not producing anything. These robbers exist. One day, some big corporations might outsource their warfare-patents to a small company, which doesn't produce anything, but holds a lot of trivial patents and has a bunch of lawyers skilled in shooting from the back, at a moment least expected...
Or, move to Europe. There have been few tsunamis in Europe in the last centuries. Maybe that would make the US-gvrmnt think about their patent law.
It did not fly over my head. I just made fun of it, because it's bull. You are cleary referring to the Iraq-case, don't you?
USA: Do as we say.
UN: Sorry, the rest of the world doesn't agree.
USA: You must do as we say.
UN: But really, the rest of the world doesn't agree.
USA: You are running out of time. You must do what we say, and do it now.
UN: You are irritating the rest of the world. They want something else. You should respect that.
USA: The fact that you don't take your responsibility to do as we say, proves you irrelevant because of your disrespect for freedom and democracy.
UN: Still, the vast majority is against your proposal.
USA, puts fingers in ears: DOASWESAYDOASWESAYDOASWESAYDOASWESAY NOW YOU FORCED US TO START BOMBING TO DEFEND THE FREE WORLD. THE FREE WORLD, THE FREE WORLD, THE FREEEEEEEEEEEE WORLD. WE ARE THE FREEEEEEEE WORLD, NOONE IS FREE ONLY WE ARE FREEEEEEEEEEEEEE, THE FREEEEEEE WORLD, THE FREEEEEEE WORLD [...]
Any country where people do not blindly believe they're the most enlightned in the world (and get modded up "insightful" for that).
You must be a true American... cannot move his ass without a car.
...or a moderate conventional powerplant, or Tjernobyl after the accident, or a beowulf-cluster of 200 windturbines like this http://www.netwark.net/seaport/presse/EZ038.08.11. 05.pdf [pdf, german].
So the university management talks to the scientists about this (they sometimes do!). The scientists reply something like "do WHAT with our precious cluster...?!?", university management spends a short time thinking about core business. University management stumbles upon some desktoplinux company, connected with the computer science department of same university which happenes to host a mirror for this company. Company offers better deal. Some scientists mention they're already using it. It turns out 80% of the systems in the labs runs some form of linux with custom apps the researchers won't leave alone in case of a nuclear assault. University management thinks again about core business, for a very short time now.
Gates will not risk this scenario.
Let's add to your diet one of the following: ...
- 375 ppm of arsenic
- 375 ppm of opium
- 375 ppm of berrylium
- 375 ppm of botox
- 375 ppm of
The point is, complex systems with many feedback loops (like you or the climate) can be disturbed by small changes of parameters. This depends on the structure of the system, not on the magnitude. It works also in simple systems:
x=y^at with 't' being time.
You can change 'y' from 2 to 20, and it will have a significant effect. But this effect wil be dwarfed by the effect of changing 'a' from 0.9 to 1.1
Economists: "Customers point of view might influence business standpoint".
"As an IT contractor I've worked inside government, and the culture is very different compared to the commercial world. Government jobs are jobs for life. There is nothing that encourages the learning of new skills, and the only real way to lose your job is through misconduct or negligence. "
But the guy you work for, can very easily loose his job. If a minister is inaccurate or not in time informed, he's in trouble with the parliament and the press. The point is not that the people at the government don't learn new skills (we do constantly, because else we can't inform the minister). The point is, all systems have to be very fail-safe, without well-defined data. The formats never fit perfectly, just-in-time is always-too-late-but... On top of it, the really important people never have time to touch a computer.
This is why governments tend to stick to old systems and procedures that work (sort of, most of the time...). I work at the very ministry for the environment, but we use lots of paper were bytes would be suffcient. We spend all those trees just to be sure all steps in the hierarchy get to see the text, get to sign it (sometimes with remarks) and the minister will have it, even while walking from the car to the press.
So if you want governments to use more Linux, point out that it is more reliable, and build easy to use, fail-safe but flexible document routing systems.
If your wrist is the first part of your body starting to hurt, you're probably masturbating the wrong extremity.
"My solution to terrorism? Take the amount of money we've spent in Iraq and direct it towards fusion power research. Once fusion power is achieved, we don't need to prop up those regimes in the middle east any more. At last, we will be able to leave and flip them off on the way out. Then when the middle east is still a hellhole they can't blame us."
When fusion power is achieved, the result will be that we use more energy. We will not use a new source to replace an old one. When we discoverd coal, we didn't stop cutting forests. We discovered oil, but we didn't use less coal. We found natural gas, built nucleair power, and still we use more and more oil and gas and coal and wood.
This is called the rebound effect, and unless we find a solution to this, all energy research is futile.
To put an end to the confusion of consumers about EULA's, the US government works on a standard for EULA's. Any software producing company or free-lance developer will be forced to use this, and only this, standard EULA.
It's main points are:
- no complex schemes: software can only be licensed on a 'per-seat' base;
- a clear focus: EULA will contain a clear description of the purpose and use of the software;
- responsibility will be clear: EULA can only be an agreement between the consumer and the original holder of the copyright, and
- the copyright on the software should be owned by one and only one company.
The standard for EULA's will be developed in cooperation with America's leading software companies.
Heu? I got support with my suse93-distro. I needed it too, because of my weird hardware combination, and since i didn't understand anything of computers i needed the support badly. But they helped me through.
Maybe it's just me, but i could never get used to windows. For me, Linux turned out a much easier system to adapt. The imago of Linux is "experienced user only". But actually, windows requires more experience.
I think the message should be: Linux is very suitable for beginners, it is easy to learn. It's much more logical than windows. Get just one set of cd-rom's and you're ready to do all you want. Installing new software is always the same, it goes with a click. If you think a program is too difficult, you just use another one which does the same. If you can't get used to the whole desktop, just put the cd-rom back in the machine and install another one. Now THAT'S what you need when you don't like nerding around with your computer.
Photoshop rules!
The Dutch (i am one) have been best in dyke building and flood control for centuries. The problem is, we are too good in it. Like in Louisiana, with the pumping of the water, we also suck the land down.
The major mistake of the Dutch was the reclamation of land below the average sealevel. Because we became very good at pumping, we dropped the old technique of reclaiming land by accelerated sinking of silt http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landgewinnung. Instead we made a ring-dyke and pumped the water away. With the sea rising and the land sinking, it's getting harder and harder to keep those places dry, and the dangers of a flood are increasing.
The Germans on the coast of Ostfriesland and Schleswig-Holstein didn't drop the old way of land reclamation; even the polders of the 20th century are made by accelerated sinking of silt. Almost all of them are kept dry by "Sielen", nothing but big one-way valves in the dyke. They open at low tide, the water in the polder flows away and when the tide rises, it closes the valves again. To the contrary, almost all Dutch polders need pumps.
In former centuries, the Germans often hired Dutch engineers for their dykes. But nowadays, i think the German are ahead of us, just because they never became impatient and stuck with accelerated sinking of silt.
In Nordfriesland, the westcoast of Schleswig-Holstein, you can find so called "Halligen" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallig. These are small islands without a dyke or dunes. Houses are built on terps. When a stormflood hits the island, it is completely flooded except for the terps with the houses.
Those floods do some damage to the island, but also bring on new silt. These islands are in a dynamic equilibrium of damage from floods and (accelerated) sinking of silt. It was that way because the people couldn't afford a dyke, nowadays it's because of landscape conservation (you should see it, it's really beautiful!) but in the future it might prove to be the way to go for sustainable preservation of the lowlands.
M$ needs one much more than OOo, so they might be able to correct their own. Just checked a doc in msword. Of de 15-20 grammatical mistakes it found, none was appropriate. If i'd followed the advice, i would have introduced a lot of errors. In dutch, the feature is useless and harmful when used by someone not well educated in the language.
I hope the OS doesn't contain that many flaws.
First: though i am an engineer, i'm not a geek. I don't understand much of computers. When i was still using win98, i always had to ask my girlfriend to help me when the computer messed up or so. She understands computers. She even knows what the "Registry" does!
I am also a cyclist. Bicycles are like OS. I never was very well into cycling, i used the thing when i needed it. When i wanted to buy a new bicycle, i thought: why not buy a recumbent? They're technically superior. And it is amazing! Not being trained at all, after a month i could ride 200 km a day! The technology is superior, especially for non-trained cyclists.
But everyone says: "It's difficult, isn't it?" "No, it's not. It's very easy." "But you need very special skills to drive one!" "No, you don't. You need special skills to ride more than 100 km on a normal bike." "Well, i couldn't ride one."
So, only people who are interested in technology, understand the benefits of the recumbent. Thus, you see only techies on recumbents, which proves only geeks with special skills can drive one.
Same with OS. I bought a new compu, so i thought: let's try Linux. It was a relief for a non-geek like me! I didn't need my girlfriend to get my computer working. I could install apps myself! (i never could - i don't understand cracks and other things you need to get something work on a windows machine, nor do i know where to get illegal software).
Everybody thinks i am a geek now.
I simply don't see why OSS-people would contribute to it. They know, better than anyone, the whole IP system is flawed. IP has always depended on a physical product (books, lp's) which takes at least some industrial scale to produce. Now this is no longer the case, it's no use wasting time on attempts to prolonge the old situation. Like the Dutch say: stop pulling the dead horse.
I wouldn't be so sure about it. Combined with data from (variation in) heartbeat, it might give really significant info. It's really amazing what information about your health and condition those guys from Polar can get out of just an 150 euro HB monitor. Give'm more parameters, some athletes to test and enough time to research it, and they will show up with a device which can significantly improve the performance of a dedicated athlete. Remember, just one minute on a complete Tour de France or ten meters in a one-hour timetrial is worth a fucking lot of research.