Newbie flunks firefox update

Quoting:You need to refresh yourself with the ideals of free software: freedom for users, not just programmers and not just experts.

I would agree with you at first glance, but... There's always, a "but," isn't there? Allow me to explain.

For now, I work as a temp in a factory. Normally, I would put things in cartons, put the cartons in boxes, according to the requirements that I've learned over the past (N) months. There are several others like me.

However, due to a recent shake-up in the department, I'm no longer doing productive work as my mainstay. I'm doing a thing called "post-auditing," meaning I check other people's work before sending it to be stored or shipped.

I have done this before, and I am reasonably qualified to do it. The reason I stopped doing it before was because, after a couple months, I felt like a glorified babysitter. It wasn't the newbies who bothered me; it was people who had been there several months, who should have known how to do their jobs, but who couldn't be bothered to pay attention, that finally sent me over the edge. Someone else could deal with the apathy in the daily grind; I did it only to fill in for the next post-auditor when he was absent. Mercifully, those times were few.

Now, I'm doing it again, every day. The one other person on our shift who could do it, is needed elsewhere in the department. I have let our team leader know that I don't want to do this forever, and she understands. She was the glorified babysitter many moons ago. However, this time around, I'll put up with only so much b.s. and laziness: one warning from me on a particular mistake, and the next one goes to the attention of the team leader. I have too much real work to do, to add "babysitting" to it all.

How does this relate to FOSS and "lazy sponges"? It's actually quite simple. The article's author probably has on his bookshelf a whole row of books relating to Windows: "The Missing Manual," "For Dummies," "In 24 Hours," and the like. How much extra reading has he done for Windows? I'll be presumptuous and say probably quite a bit.

Well, where does he get his Windows updates? From Joe Blow's Hardware and Barbecue? Uh, maybe... in which case, he'd get his instructions on how to install those updates from Joe Blow. OTOH, if he gets his updates from Microsoft, like most normal people, he'd install them according to Microsoft's instructions.

Was this guy too dense to figure out the same applies to the Linux side? If you get your updates from Mozilla, you follow Mozilla's instructions on how to install them. If you get your updates from Mepis.org, then you follow the Mepis instructions for updating your system.

Is it possible for a coddled Windows user to convert to Linux? Yes. My mother did it, and it was her idea. I am her sysadmin, but I am helped tremendously by the fact that she knows what she doesn't know, and isn't afraid to ask for help when she needs it. My tech support experience makes my help more effective (I've learned how to explain things, and how to document for future reference), but she is willing to learn, and willing to admit when she needs help.

But just because she can't do something, doesn't mean she'll abandon Linux and return to Windows.

I won't go so far as tqk, but I will say Murray should stick to Windows for now, use Firefox, and everyone will be happy. Throw in Thunderbird, OpenOffice.org, and maybe Cygwin, and he can minimize Microsoft's grip on his system while still allowing him to be a productive netizen. When he is willing to climb the learning curve for desktop Linux (a very similar curve he already climbed with Windows), then he'll be ready to take the plunge.