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Geek's perspective: Advocating Linux

Posted by michux on · 10 comments
Polishlinux.org; By Keyto, trashcat 		Mail this story
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Keyto in his article Understanding the Common User points that "everything should be as simple as it is.. or even simpler" and warns that converting a common user to Linux without giving him enough protection leads to a imminent failure. Karol Trojanowski, in a rebuttal Get Real or How NOT To Convert Your Grandma to Linux stresses that dumbing down is not the key to success, understanding is. Both articles are a must-read for Linux nerds trying to convert anyone on their way.

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Comments (10)

Sander_Marechal ·
From the article:

Quoting:Put your grandma in front of the screen and show her Firefox, Thunderbird, how to play a DVD with Kaffeine, maybe show that OpenOffice.org Writer doesn’t differ from Word that much. But sit back and ask yourself, why are you doing this? Are you doing this because you want your grandma to have a better desktop or Web experience, or are you doing this to prove you just can? Once you think about it, you should realize grandma is already doing well with Windows, and there is no particular reason that she should just stop using it, as long as she paid for it.


That's something I really have to disagree with. Grandma isn't doing well with Windows at all. She's playing host to one and maybe more botnets. She's spamming the internet. She's being keylogged. Etcetera. She just doesn't know it.

Quoting:Besides, such a situation, when the user is just technologically impaired (no offence to your grandma) can be sustained only if you’re around sufficiently often. There will always be something to fix, there will always be something that doesn’t work right away.


But that is true regardless of the OS being used. Windows doesn't "just work" and any one of us who has been using Linux for some time and at one time had to use a Windows box for some reason knows it. Plus, you're always fighting virusses and malware on Windows.
Abe ·
Quoting:I know most of you have pigeonholed this text as boring.
He is wrong, it is the author who is boring, not the text.

Quoting:and there is no particular reason that she should just stop using it, as long as she paid for it.
Your premise of grandma is doing well is fundamentally incorrect.

And yes, there are reasons why she should just stop using it. If you buy bad food (fish or whatever) would you still eat it? or an unsafe car, would still drive it? Obviously not unless you are a moron.

Why settle for second class if you can fly first class for less money?

This article is rubbish.

jrm ·
Quick story...

I used to teach a Basic Computer Skills class to senior citizens. Most of them had never used a computer. The lab was set up with Windows and MSOffice, but one day I took in a bunch of Knoppix discs to show them OpenOffice. I couldn't keep up with them. Half of them were surfing the 'net; other people found Frozen Bubble. They were all over the place.

"Grandma" might deserve more credit than the author is giving her.
tqk ·
Quoting:I couldn't keep up with them. Half of them were surfing the 'net; other people found Frozen Bubble. They were all over the place.
I experienced the same thing rolling out a Linux LAN for a bunch of non-native English speaking Sudanese. At the end of the day, they were showing us stuff we didn't know it could do.

Leaving someone running Windows because it's easier for you isn't doing them any favours. The best antivirus software is only catching 80% of the malware out there, and new and slightly different stuff shows up every day. Licences time out, meaning they have to shell out more cash to stay up to date with substandard software. The OS gets fatter with every release, forcing them to abandon old hardware and buy new stuff.

Helping someone to stay on that treadmill is just cruel when you know how to get them off it. Install it, set up some typical apps, lock down the machine so they can't break it, and make sure email works. When they need something that's not there, tell them how that can be done in plain English (or their language, whatever), not Geekspeak. Ideally, ensure you can ssh into their machine to do the necessary admin chores. Tell them what you're doing so after a while, they may learn what needs to be done.

This is all just common sense. It's not advocacy and it's not zealotry. It's helping people move away from bad software that nickel and dimes them to death, and towards a working environment that works for them.

Nobody's grandma deserves to be left running that other stuff when she doesn't have to.
Read the whole comment
tracyanne ·
Quoting:"Grandma" might deserve more credit than the author is giving her.


Grandma DOES deserve more credit, I know that for a fact, from direct experience. I have recently given an 83 yo, a 72 yo and a 67 yo - all grandmas - Linux computers (Mandriva of course) and they are all thriving on it. One lady doesn't want my help because she is having too much fun learning.
jezuch ·
Quoting:One lady doesn't want my help because she is having too much fun learning.


I love that attitude :) And I wonder if it only appears at that age...
numbers ·
Reading this thread made me think of someone Helios wrote about.

http://blog.lobby4linux.com/index.php?/archives/70-86-Year-O...

We need more grandmothers like Alice.

:)
tuxchick ·
There are gazillions of grandmothers like Alice. Only dorks like the author of the articles use them as the poster children for clueless, incompetent computer users!
gus3 ·
My mother (now in her 60's) uses Linux. It was her idea, not mine. She had a Win95 system, but got tired of blue screens, so she told me she wanted a Linux system for Christmas 2000.

I tried to talk her out of it:

"You'll have to re-learn how to use a computer."

--"I learned Windows, I can learn Linux."

"I'm not sure how many of your saved files will be accessible with Linux."

--"You can convert them, can't you?" (Turned out I could, mostly. StarOffice was a godsend.)

Finally, the kicker:

"What will you do when Linux crashes, and I'm out here in California, and I can't sit down and fix it?"

--"I know it won't crash as much as Windows does."

She got her Linux system for Christmas.

She has issues once in a while, and has gotten a couple hardware upgrades (replacement IDE controller, and a sound card that *she* replaced under my supervision), but she still shudders at the thought of going back to Windows.

Oh, and she was highly impressed with how quickly I got her new H-P printer+scanner to work with Linux. Kudos to the Hewlett-Packard management for giving us HPLIP.
Scott_Ruecker ·
>StarOffice was a godsend

>Kudos to the Hewlett-Packard management for giving us HPLIP

You got that right gus3.

Without StarOffice/OpenOffice ability to convert and/or read old file formats and a really good chance to recognize and configure most printers/AIO's with the added bonus of by at least a 90+% rate with HP printers, it makes the odds of successfully transitioning to Linux for the new user go up exponentially.

Without the awesome hardware recognition and a real (and more usable) counterpart/replacement for MS Office. Linux usage and we as a community would still be in its infancy.

After reading the last statement I realize that I might as well have said that the sky is blue and water is wet in an attempt to equal its obviousness.

:-)

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