[CentOS] OT: linux desktop market share more than 1%

[Arturo Fatturi]

Mathieu you make a good point in your email.

People don't want to make a rational choice. I live in Brazil and I was
thinking that in the USA and Europe things would be different. Here in
Brazil we can buy a computer - cheap or not - as they say "configured",
that is: with  MS installed and all the things ready to use. Obsviously,
withou any license. To me this is a cultural problem: if the mam in the
shop say that I can have a computer - or laptop - ready and not pay so
much, that's ok!

I am a teatcher of philosophy. I teach philosophy to IT courses in the
university (private) every semester is the same thing: why did I have to
think? My course is about computer and webcommerce. Linux?Oh, nobody use
linux in a desktop!

I am using Linux since 2003. Actually I am using Fedora because I dont
Know how to make a HP f4480 scanner works, only the printer. I use
Centos and Scientificlinux for years, before I buy this HP thing. But I
make my "rational" choice: scanner or insecurity? Well, as I am not a
very important person and have no secrets, I can use some insecure OS.

Scuse for my rough english.

Best wishes 

Arturo








Em Sex, 2010-10-08 às 09:46 +0200, Mathieu Baudier escreveu:
> > The main thing about Linux that is 'hard' is the fact that you have to
> > use your brain and make choices: Which web browser? Which office suite?
> > Which email client? Which desktop? Which Linux distro? For lots of
> > people this is way too much work.  I guess if these people looked at,
> 
> I think that you raise an important point here, but I would rather
> relate it to a question of "education".
> 
> People simply don't know that there are alternatives, or that this
> alternatives are manageable. They are not "educated" to consider the
> OS and their software ecosystem as something that can be configured
> and tweaked (I don't say that everybody should hack the kernel).
> 
> I am always puzzled when I talk to non technical people that, while
> everybody knows what is an Excel spreadsheet, almost nobody knows
> precisely what is a database. Or what are the roles and relationships
> between CPU + memory + disk. Or how does a website work, etc. People
> now spend their lives dealing with a DB, a computer or a website, and
> it takes less than one hour to explain how they work! (I did it many
> times and people are always very eager to know it)
> 
> We spend years learning how to read and write, but we could not spend
> a few hours as kids learning what *is* a computer and what it can do?
> (I don't talk about learning how to open a browser, download from
> iTunes or fill a spreadsheet).
> 
> I really don't think that MS Windows or Mac or Ubuntu or CentOS are
> better or less good for desktop in general (CentOS better suits my
> personal needs). Same for iPhone vs. Blackberry vs. Android for mobile
> devices.
> 
> When I discuss this with other people, I therefore don't try to
> convince them, but I just want to make sure that they are aware of
> which tradeoffs they are doing: versatility vs. security, nice design
> vs. freeedom, works-out-of-the-box vs.
> works-not-out-of-the-box-but-after-this-has-been-properly-configured-will-always-work-perfectly
> (eh, eh, that's what I like with my CentOS desktop).
> 
> People are of course free to give up (some) freedom, I just wish they
> would do it consciously.
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