Linux users who like Wiindows (was: Drafts and the larger leadership picture)

Subject: Linux users who like Wiindows (was: Drafts and the larger leadership picture)
From: Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 27 Sep 2002 11:19:03 -0700


Andrew Plato wrote:

Yeah, you're looking for la la land, that's two lights down past world peace and
Linux users who like Windows.

Joke received.

However, since lack of an understanding of geek culture is a major problem among tech-writers, I'd like to take the last five words seriously for a moment.

Briefly, they're based on a widespread misunderstanding.Yes, there are some Linux users who are rabidly anti-Microsoft. However, this group is a minority, and many of its members aren't old enough to vote.

The majority of Linux users fall into one of several camps.

The first camp is the free software advocates, who are against any proprietary software and won't use it, no matter whether the manufacturer is Microsoft, Adobe, or anyone else.This group is probably the smallest of the three.

The second camp is the open source advocates.This group uses Linux because of its stability, and the belief that open source software is of higher quality, has fewer bugs,and develops quicker than proprietary software. This group may use proprietary software if no other tool is available. For example, Linus Torvalds, for whom Linux is named, insists on using a piece of proprietary software for kernel development (and has come under attack for it).

The third camp consists of people who simply want to try something new. This group has no strong feelings about Windows or any other proprietary software one way or the other. This group is probably the largest of the three, although the second is probably a close second.

I've listed these groups in order of their acceptence of proprietary software in general and of Microsoft in particular. However, even the free software advocates don't spend a lot of time thinking about Windows. For many of them, Windows is mostly irrelevant. They may worry about some of Microsoft's manoeuvers in the marketplace, and the second and third group may keep Windows around to run an occasional program, but that's about it.

For example, practically speaking I am in the second camp, although I have strong philosophical sympathies with the first camp. Although I've logged over forty hours on the computer this week, I haven't booted Windows once.I think it's been about ten days since I used Windows at all. In fact,these days, the only time I use Windows is when I need to use FrameMaker, or when I want to play certain games (something I rarely have time for anyway). Otherwise, I could live quite happily without it. Windows just isn't a big part of my life, and I don't waste time demonizing Bill Gates or Microsoft. Like any other computer user, I'm just getting on with what I have to do.In this way, I'm fairly typical of most Linux users.

--
Bruce Byfield bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com 604.421.7177
http://members.axion.net/~bbyfield

"Looking back at the long years
All that happened this way and that
I think I liked most the rice and the salt."
- Kim Stanley Robinson, "The Years of Rice and Salt"



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Re: Drafts and the larger leadership picture.: From: Andrew Plato

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