Over the last couple of days, due to some comments regarding the upcoming WLUG installfest [1] and "Software Freedom Day" [2], the issue of WLUG and new Linux users has come up again. While I realise that everything I'm going to say has been said before, hopefully any discussion that comes from this will explain a bit better about how some people feel, or get people inspired to do something about it. A lot of the people involved with the LUG are computing professionals, or higher level University students in computing science. It has been said that these people aren't new users, they don't have to do new things again and to keep them interested, we can't offer installation meetings every other month. It's not to say that these people don't want to help new people - lots of them, myself included, reply to posts here, sit in #wlug on IRC offering help. Yet people still don't think there's enough being done. There's a faction of Linux users that like Linux because they hate Microsoft. (Tip: if you use "M$", you're it!) Most of the aforementioned "clever" group, while they might prefer Linux for various reasons (open standards, open source, etc), don't hate Windows. There is a time and a place for everything. Pushing Linux before its time will just cause people to be aggrevated. As an example, if someone suggests running Linux to a home user, they will inevitably field a whole heap of the same questions over again; word documents, Flash. Questions that there exist easy answers for if people are prepared to look. (As an aside, people who deal with users every day who aren't prepared to learn for themselves, get a bit annoyed with that class of people!) Now, if you leave Linux to the people who find out about it themselves (or push it in a non-confrontational way; say "Linux exists, learn about if you want", and then help people when they have specific problems along the way, I think you end up with less problems. This is the approach that several people are espousing at the moment. Let people find Linux on their own merits - we don't have to replace every Windows machine in the world, and we certainly don't have to do it overnight. Then, if they have problems, we'll help them. That way we're sure that they are prepared to learn for themselves. No-one is paid to be involved with the LUG and some people put a lot of time in, only to be discouraged by the attitude of people who complain to other people, but not the LUG itself (so we have no idea how to change). We would love to see more new user based presentations. The general feeling that the people who have recently been new users should be presenting them. It's not tricky, and if you're worried about fielding questions you don't know the answers to, rest assured there will be someone in the audience who can help, or point to the wrong things. We don't want to alienate the people who have done this all before, because then at the current rate there will be no presentations at all. Not everyone in the LUG is interested in holding an "installfest", for the reasons above - Linux is not ready for everyone and we don't want to have to field questions from people who aren't ready to ask them yet. The people that are interested in helping, are. If you're interested, please shout out. Craig [1] http://www.wlug.org.nz/InstallFest [2] http://www.softwarefreedomday.org/forum/viewtopic.php?forum=2&showtopic=159 for us
There's a faction of Linux users that like Linux because they hate Microsoft. (Tip: if you use "M$", you're it!) Most of the aforementioned "clever" group, while they might prefer Linux for various reasons (open standards, open source, etc), don't hate Windows. There is a time and a
I use Linux, freebsd, and open software in general because it gives me freedom. Freedom to understand, and sometimes 'hack' software as far as my limited programming abilities allow. Freedom from the costs and licencing issues of propriatory software; I don't have a lot of money, what I do have I'd rather spend on hardware, and using pirated software makes me feel 'dirty'. II would be happy to ignore Microsoft, except that they are hell-bent on destroying FOSS, and this interferes with my freedom. ANd I try not to be a zealot; I'm sorry if I come off that way. I would like the rest of the world to be aware that Free Software exists, and that a lot of it is very good quality, for a number of reasons. I'll start with the selfish ones. I get a lot of spam. I know that most of it is being relayed via compromised home computers, and that the spammers were able to do this because one company, who's OS still comes pre-installed on almost every computer sold, designed that OS and it's co-mingled mail client in a way that makes attached programs easy to run and, once run, makes it easy for a malicious program to take control of the computer. If there were less compromised home computers available to relay spam and DDoS anti-spam websites, I would have less of a spam problem. New hardware is not always well supported under Linux. If Linux occupied a more significant fration of the 'desktop' market, Manufacturers would be more serious about releasing specs or developing drivers for Linux. And finally, it just -frustrates- me to see people wasting so much time (and in some categories spending money) on virus scanners, firewall software, spyware removal, popup-blocking, "random, unexplained software failure", yada yada yada, on a computer that they only use for email, web, WP. Trivial stuff that I know they could easily learn to do under Linux or using some of the more solid FOSS software under Windows. I don't want to force anyone to use Linux. I just want them to seriously consider it and not decide it's "too hard" or "not ready" because someone like Didio or Enderle said so.
participants (2)
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Craig Box -
zcat