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Re: [LUG] Computer shops and Linux



Dear Jon

I understand your feelings and I have to say that I am one of those people that is probably unlikely to contribute back into the Linux community. I am a youth worker with limited computing skills. Probably more than the average joe but nonetheless limited!

I started using Linux in 2000 and without the help of this user group would probably still be struggling to do anything with Linux. I had probably used it for nearly a year before joining the LUG and then with advice from folks on the list I really started to get to grips with it. I even ventured into html, mysql, php and various others. I have had to put the learning to one side for the minute. I can't wait to get my hands on another Linux box.

Why Linux? Because I seriously found using w98 to a pain in the @*&^! I couldn't say why, I didn't understand why. I just knew I didn't like it. Surely there are many more people out there that find using windows is difficult. The approach of Linux and unix in general is far easier to understand and maybe if we start to promote Linux and people start to use it and start to ask questions.... maybe we will get tons of users who don't have a clue but just want to try something different and maybe one of those tens/hundreds will develop on to return something to the list but just think of the bondage (!) we will be releasing people from.

Remember Windows Works is an oxymoron!!!

Rich


On 9 May 2004, at 21:03, Jonathan Melhuish wrote:


David Pithouse wrote:



Maybe I'm misguided, but I thought it was basically for like-minded (or
perhaps, like-aware would be a better phrase) people to help each other and at the same time promote the many possibilities of Linux?
Indeed I agree it is, maybe my messages was a little misguided! Maybe the better point that there a lot of people out there which aren't willing learn something new and may just jump on something like the DCLUG as a free source of help, without getting anything out it themselves, while helping people is all well and good, helping ungrateful/arrogrant people isnt!

This may be contentious opinion, but I'm not sure your original reply was as far off the mark as you may think.


What is our motivation for promoting Linux? Is it just an ambition for "a computer on every desk and in every home, running GNU software"? But why? For some, perhaps it is so that they can earn money providing support, in which case an all-inclusive attitude makes a lot of sense.

But for most of us, the driving force is perhaps the notion that the more people that use it, the better it will become. So how is spoon-feeding point-and-click idiots going to help further this aim?

I'm lucky enough to live, work and socialise with a bunch of technical people, many of them programmers. I try my hardest to help them tackle difficulties they encounter, because I know that if I succeed in persuading them to persevere with it, it's likely that at some point in the future they will contribute to the open-source community. Even non-programmers may eventually contribute documentation, which is perhaps even more valuable.

But those who complain "this is crap, it should just work!" and look at me as if all the failings of Linux are my fault and that I am therefore personally obliged to fix it. Those who throw their hands in the air and boot straight back into their other OS. Those who lack any perseverance whatsover, who are not prepared to make an effort to get their own machine to do what they want. Will these people ever help me?

I apologise if I come across as selfish; I'd just like to say for the record that I firmly believe that sharing makes us richer as a whole, and I try to apply this to everything I do. But I still live in hope that others share my view.

Cheers,

Jon


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