Most people have at least heard of Linux at some point or other, and usually understand that it is a free operating system that is designed to compete with proprietary systems.
Explaining that GNU is all those useful tools like ls, gcc, make, cp, rm, mv, etc. is pretty much pointless. How many people do you know outside of computing that have ever used a command line? You get about exactly as far with this line of reasoning as you do explaining the ins and outs of web standards when offering Firefox. Explaining that Firefox is easier to use, is capable of prettier web pages, and is more secure does the job nicely.
If RMS wants people to use the GNU tools, and any other sort of free software for that matter, he'd be much better off making the next Photoshop/Office/Windoze killer than sending pointless emails to people who already know what the hell the difference is anyway.
Most people that I come across don't find the recursive acronym particularly amusing either. "must be a geek thing"
Last time I checked, KDE, X, GNOME, etc aren't part of GNU either. Should we call it GNU/Linux/X/KDE or GNU/Linux/X/Fluxbox? When you say Windows and MacOSX, people think of a computer that crunches numbers, plays music, sends email, and has a pretty point and clicky GUI over the whole thing. The english language (and it seems many other languages, but correct me if I'm wrong) has settled on Linux. Let's just go with it. Don't underestimate the importance of simplicity.
Honesty is what drew me to Linux in the first place.
How many of the Linux distributions have "social contracts"- Social contracts that include things like: "We will not hide problems". In fact, this is used as part of their marketing strategy.
Most commercial software is marketed as the best/only solution to your problem. Never a mention of potential problems (which we all know exist)
It's good to see a leader in the community talk openly. I find it to be encouraging.
Sheesh, for the millionth time folks, Linux doesn't usually ship with mp3 support because of licensing issues. It certainly isn't the fault of the various Linux distributions. If mp3 was an open format, they'd ship it out of the box.
And really, is opening Synaptic, checking the LAME (or xmms-w32codecs for that matter) checkbox and hitting install that difficult to figure out?
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Oops, one correction to the above. GNOME is part of GNU.
GNU/Linux is a pain in the ass name.
Most people have at least heard of Linux at some point or other, and usually understand that it is a free operating system that is designed to compete with proprietary systems.
Explaining that GNU is all those useful tools like ls, gcc, make, cp, rm, mv, etc. is pretty much pointless. How many people do you know outside of computing that have ever used a command line? You get about exactly as far with this line of reasoning as you do explaining the ins and outs of web standards when offering Firefox. Explaining that Firefox is easier to use, is capable of prettier web pages, and is more secure does the job nicely.
If RMS wants people to use the GNU tools, and any other sort of free software for that matter, he'd be much better off making the next Photoshop/Office/Windoze killer than sending pointless emails to people who already know what the hell the difference is anyway.
Most people that I come across don't find the recursive acronym particularly amusing either. "must be a geek thing"
Last time I checked, KDE, X, GNOME, etc aren't part of GNU either. Should we call it GNU/Linux/X/KDE or GNU/Linux/X/Fluxbox? When you say Windows and MacOSX, people think of a computer that crunches numbers, plays music, sends email, and has a pretty point and clicky GUI over the whole thing. The english language (and it seems many other languages, but correct me if I'm wrong) has settled on Linux. Let's just go with it. Don't underestimate the importance of simplicity.
Honesty is what drew me to Linux in the first place.
How many of the Linux distributions have "social contracts"- Social contracts that include things like: "We will not hide problems". In fact, this is used as part of their marketing strategy.
Most commercial software is marketed as the best/only solution to your problem. Never a mention of potential problems (which we all know exist)
It's good to see a leader in the community talk openly. I find it to be encouraging.
Sheesh, for the millionth time folks, Linux doesn't usually ship with mp3 support because of licensing issues. It certainly isn't the fault of the various Linux distributions. If mp3 was an open format, they'd ship it out of the box. And really, is opening Synaptic, checking the LAME (or xmms-w32codecs for that matter) checkbox and hitting install that difficult to figure out?