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On Fri, 21 Jan 2005 13:39:16 +0000 Julian Hall wrote:
Alternatively, I have used: "Most of these people are 'professional' software developers anyway. If David Beckham plays football free-of-charge for a charity do, will he necessarily play a bad game simply because he's not getting paid?"I'll not mention Greece or penalties then *cough*
Don't worry about it on my part. Not much of a football supporter - my preferred sport is Canoing/Kayaking, in which we did quite will at the Olympics.
There is nothing inherently wrong with that. Why learn how Windows/MacOS/Linux/BSD etc arrange the file structure when all you want to do is surf and write emails? It's like asking me to take a car mechanics course just because I want to drive 3 miles to a friend's house.
Ah, but you might want to know about people like The AA or The RAC should your car breakdown in those 3 miles. You might also find it useful to learn how to discern between a "nice engine note" and when it's "making a funny noise" so that you know *when* to call the AA/RAC... hopefully before you break your car completely. Note that I didn't say learning the difference between "funny noises".
Why? Windows works for me, I like it and I know how to do what I want with it.
For these people, Windows will still work for them regardless of Linux or GNU.
Demoing is the answer IMHO, and someone else replied to my comment about this month's Computer Shopper having SUSE 9.2 Live cover mounted (apologies if that was you, my memorry is appalling :)). Live CDs popped round to a friend's house, or demoed for a group, or even a laptop with Linux installed is the best way to actively show people that: a) Linux is not scary or "techie" if you don't want it to be. b) In many cases (if not all) it does the same jobs better than Windows. c) The programs may have different names but OOO etc do an identical job in an identical way to the commercial variants on other OSs.
Indeed. I almost always have a Knoppix CD in my bag somewhere. And my laptop runs nothing but Linux. 'Twas very useful to have my laptop running Linux when I was doing a talk about "Linux" to a group of degree students last week. I could actually drop out of Impress and show them exactly what I meant!
BTW, something I thought of earlier. This whole discussion embodies (to me) the essence of Open Source and Free Software. We're not locked into a "This is how it is, live with it" corporate mentality. We can have a reasoned intelligent discussion about the topics at hand, throw ideas around and remain open to the viewpoints of others. I like that! :)
Again, indeed. The "Freedom of Speech" rather than "Freedom of Software". Both *very* closely related concepts. Perhaps a nice little motto could be adopted: "I may not agree with your Software [methods], but I will defend to the death your right to write it!" Grant. -- Artificial intelligence is no match for nuratal stidutipy. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG Mail majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe list" in the message body to unsubscribe.