Linux is a Better Teacher

Quoting:Compared to all the Tweak-utilities available, regedit is slow and cumbersome and a PITA to work with, that's what I meant.

But Regedit is more productive.

dban is even more productive. ;)

I have to confess that I, too, read this Ken Hess article, as I clicked on the lxer reference to it from the linuxhomepage.com page (an aggregator of aggregators!).

I think Hess is wrong in saying that you learn more with linux, but you have to keep windows or a mac around for "productivity". But my personal reading of "productivity" is to get a lot of stuff done in a reasonable, or short amount of time.

All the excoriation of Hess above fails to take into a account the Microsoft Playbook, page 115, sect 5, paragraph 6, line 52:

Quoting: Repetitive use of a common word (i.e. "productivity") to mean something specific or peculiar to a Microsoft product is encouraged. In due time, all of the friendly press members will use the common word only in the Microsoft-specific sense, causing confusing and consternation when read by Our Opponents.

Once you take into account that "productivity" means Something Different, just like "rich experience", "client side" and so many other words that Used To Have A Non-Microsoft Meaning, Ken's article makes complete sense. Let me translate:

You can learn things, and do tasks rapidly and well under linux. But in order to handle files in Microsoft-specific formats, you are nearly legally bound to maintain an Apple machine, or preferably, a dedicated, very modern and completely licensed Windows machine.

So there, mystery solved.

Oh, and Ken? It would be easier for us if you acknowledged using the Microsoft Playbook.

LOL, you guys kill me. Mac is more productive for computer illiterates but would you really want me to say that? And it's almost the same for Windows. C'mon guys, we're on the same side here.

Each OS has some positive points and negative points. Linux is better for those who really want to learn what a computer and an OS is all about. Macs are better for those who don't care about all that and just want to write an email or create a doc.

Not playing by any playbook but my own.

> Linux is better for those who really want to learn what a computer and an OS is all about. Macs are better for those who don't care about all that and just want to write an email or create a doc.

Preinstalled versions of all three primary OS'es are pretty much the same if all you want is to write an email or create a document. You click on the icon (about the only difference is whether it's a desktop link, a taskbar link, or a start menu link) for your email or word processor and go to work. There's not a lot of difference to be found.

Quoting:Not playing by any playbook but my own.

We noticed.

Quoting:Mac is more productive for computer illiterates but would you really want me to say that? And it's almost the same for Windows.

Until you factor in the slowdown from AV software and pervasive DRM, and the lost time to updates that hose things due to poor privilege separation.

BTW, you might want to explain to my dad (who is a self-admitted computer illiterate) that his Solitaire game, the only thing he does on it, would work better on Windows.

And my brother, another computer illiterate, sees that Ubuntu does far better for him than Windows ever could.

And my mother, not a total computer illiterate, but will never be a kernel dev, who, of her own initiative, asked me to build a Linux system for her nine years ago, and has never regretted that decision.

Don't forget tracyanne's similar stories about her little old ladies. And helios's families in the slums. And and and...

I could say more, but I think it would constitute a TOS violation.

Quoting:Linux is better for those who really want to learn what a computer and an OS is all about.

That's strange. The people I upgraded to Linux, chose to do so after being infected by viruses, and they didn't want to learn all that OS stuff, they just wanted a computer that works, and keeps on working.

Quoting:LOL, you guys kill me. Mac is more productive for computer illiterates but would you really want me to say that?

I would.

@khess

Quoting:C'mon guys, we're on the same side here.

I seriously doubt that. I'm on the side of the battlers, the non geeks who constantly fall foul of Windows, and malware,, who already have a viable computer, that just needs a decent operating system. I give them that operating system, it's called Linux.

Quoting:That's strange. The people I upgraded to Linux, chose to do so after being infected by viruses, and they didn't want to learn all that OS stuff, they just wanted a computer that works, and keeps on working.

Hear, hear. I have the same experience. People who just want to use a computer as if it were a device (like a VCR, TV, telephone) are much better off with Linux. Once installed and configured, they have nothing to worry about.

And how the heck can one make such a blanket statement anyway?

Someone using Linux to browse the web or use an instant messenger or write letters is going to be no more or less productive than someone doing the same thing on another platform using the same software.

One could make a case that doing task X is more productive on platform Y because the apps are better. But one can use that argument in favour or against any platform.

More productive for who, doing what?

Hess - stop trying to defend such an idiotic statement. And if you ARE going to defend it, please add some credible meat to the argument.

In a previous thread http://lxer.com/module/forums/t/30419, I wrote

Quoting:...IMHO, Ken Hess has repeatedly demonstrated that he's a click whore who willingly trades his credibility for publicity, by writing controversial garbage to bait readers into visiting DaniWeb to disagree with him...

Now I would like to modify that statement. Ken, you're either the click whore that I described earlier, or -- if you really believe the unsupported drivel that you write -- you're the William Hung of tech journalism.

@ComputerBob:

I just woke up, and where my own family couldn't make me laugh, you did.

Unlike nearly all the denigrating comments posted here regarding Ken Hess, I now hold him in high regard, because:

Quoting:Not playing by any playbook but my own.

Which means his checkbook. How can I not be in awe when his checks don't bounce?

YBT

Quoting:How can I not be in awe when his checks don't bounce?

How do you know that? He didn't say anything to indicate he's any better off than you.

Never mind facts, I think you're confused by your own wishful thinking. You hope his paychecks aren't bouncing, because that would mean yours might not bounce, eventually.

What's the frequency, Ken Hess?

Quoting:Unlike nearly all the denigrating comments posted here regarding Ken Hess, I now hold him in high regard, because:

Quoted: Not playing by any playbook but my own.

Which means his checkbook. How can I not be in awe when his checks don't bounce?

YBT

Don't you know ANY other jokes?

Hey CB,

Some people think I am Ken Hess. So I speak from knowledge.

Will that do?

YBT

Quoting:Some people think I am Ken Hess.

So you're wasting electrons under two different names?

What's interesting here is that people supply examples of where Ken Hess is wrong, but in his blogs he continues to repeat the same falsehoods.