Re: [OS:N:] Re: Open Source in Schools and then some

[Evan Leibovitch <evan telly org>]

On Wed, 4 Sep 2002 jmcdermo redhat com wrote:

>    You have some interesting points. However, what you have done is
> reiterated what I was trying to say. The fact that most people do not
> know why the stick shift is better than the automatic is irrelavant
> here for 2 easilly defined reasons. 1, this model is not a stick shift
> or an automatic, it is whatever you want it to be. 2. This "car" to
> use your analogy allows for cleaner burning gas, smoother roads,
> leather bucket power seats, and of course cruise control, and going
> forward into the future it will actually start to just "drive" you
> where you want to go by asking.

You have totally missed my point by miles.

Answering "what is it?" with "whatever you want it to be" will get you
blank stared, ignored, and (in the worst cases) laughed at. Most people
neither can nor want to mold a computer to their needs; they expect others
to do it for them, and will pay for the convenience.

Do not discount the attraction of similicity. Developers may love the
swiss army knife approach, most people hate it. Some people like to build
their own airplanes, too. Not me.

>    So when I said "I am still amazed that everyone in the world has
> not seen and heard of Linux." I meant " Given the benefits that so
> outweigh the challenges of the user or sys admin to configure the
> system, ie. the freedom, the collaboration, the obvious technological
> benefits, and sociological change that is quite evidently occuring
> from this movement, how is it that every major news network and
> subsidiary has not jumped up and down spreading the story.

Sociological change? Give me a break.

Open source is a Really Neat Thing, and can cause some major upheavals in
the future in the way software is produced and distributed, but as
societal change goes it's a non-issue. Spend some time at a local food
bank or womens' shelter, extolling the wonders of open source and how it
will liberate people, and see how far you get.

Open source of is profound interest within the IT community, but hardly a
blip outside it. Most people simply don't care, and I'm not convinced that
inflicting open source advocacy outside of the IT world (and those
interested in it)  is a productive effort.

To many people a computer is a tool to help them accomplish some
non-computer-related task (communicating with a friend, composing
a musical score, etc.) Most people don't care whet's inside, and they
certainly don't care about "benefits" expressed in abstractions (ie,
freedom).

How is open source going to allow the musician to compose a score more
creatively or easily? Until you can answer that in specifics, don't even
talk to her. There is a very real line between advocacy and zealotry and
it's not a line worth crossing.

> The fact of the matter, as you pointed out below and I intended
> originally, is that you, or I have not told them. I consider this my
> duty. Not because I work at Red Hat, and not because I want to see a
> world of Linux computers, but very simply because I _believe_ through
> facts, logic, reason, and gut feeling that Open Source is the model
> for the future.

And in the IT world you're right. Outside the IT world the relevance of
your message is far less compelling, often to the point of irrelevance.

>    So, evan, I believe you understand this, however there are a number
> of folks on this list that want to know more about Open Source and why
> it is right for their application.

By their very act of asking this they have entered the realm in which the
answer is relevant. I'm merely addressing the original point, of wondering
how anyone in 2002 still doesn't know what Linux is.

My point is simply to consider your audience. If you insist on answering a
question that people don't think is worth asking, you're potentially doing
more harm than good.

Open source is a great technology, but it's a lousy religion.


-- 
Evan Leibovitch, Brampton, Canada <evan at telly dot org>
Anything not worth doing is not worth doing well.