Be the signal

Mary

Lucy Turnbull noted a few years back that if one was tired of fireworks one was tired of life. We had a harbour view at the time, and were getting tired of life.

MC

Your Linux on the desktop comment has poked an old question (open wound?) for me.

I’m one of those for whom the sight of a rudimentary Linux desktop in the Windows 95 days was revelatory. My immediate reaction was, “If the free stuff can do this, why would anyone buy the paid one?” And that was way before I understood free as in ‘freedom’ and way, way before I really understood what a linux desktop represents in technological layers.

Ever since then I have wondered about people who attack a linux desktop. I have never understood the whining about something free that doesn’t do exactly what their non-free thing did - no matter how silly or useless that thing was. People who will gripe about a new interface seem to forget that they weren’t born knowing a particular way of doing something.

My biggest difficulty in promoting FOSS is in understanding why people miss the self-evident benefits. Seriously, I feel for people who want to communicate a religious revelation. As a non-religious person, I want to say ‘Get away from me, you freak.’ As a FOSS person, I want to spread the gospel and share the love. Of FOSS that is.

Should have seen me at SFD - out evangelising Chris Smart. Almost.

Oooh, I’ve rambled. — MC

dbmoodb

oh and http://www.google.com/trends?q=ubuntu%2C+debian%2C+linux%2C+windows+vista%2C+novell&ctab=0&geo=all&date=ytd&sort=4