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. _______________________________________________ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos