On 10/24/13 12:55 PM, Richard Talley wrote:
On Thu, Oct 24, 2013 at 10:32 AM, Ken Springer <snowsh...@q.com
<mailto:snowsh...@q.com>> wrote:
I can't speak for Rich, but it was not my intent to leave an
impression of "mass exodus". Just my pulling back from the
potential promise I saw that open source has, but IMO is not doing a
good job of meeting. I think Canonical is making that effort, but I
have no feel as to their success. Someday, when I'm rich but not
famous, and have the time, I really want to try Linux. Personally,
I don't care for the direction MS and Apple are going with the
operating systems. AKA, I'm not a cloud fan and a devotee of the
cloud idea for personal use.
I see an opportunity for open source to be a real contender/option
to be an alternative to MS and Apple for the users. I think this
should be obvious with the success of the Android/Linux based
phones. I am a fan of competition, of which there is little today.
But I think the attitudes of many in the open source community may
be undermining that opportunity.
The words I wrote that started this thread were a little harsh, but I
was frustrated. My experience with LyX has been excellent - it's gotten
out of my way and allowed me to concentrate on the content and structure
of my documents, just what it was designed to do.
In other circumstances, with no time deadline, I would not have minded
working on the problem. But I was writing from the point of view of the
majority of users to whom computers are not intrinsically interesting,
but just tools to get some work done. The response to this is often an
exhortation to them to learn about their computers, an attitude that
there's something lacking in those who don't. But I've known any number
of intelligent doctors and lawyers and teachers whose cognitive loads
are already high enough that telling them that they need to gain an
intimate of knowledge of computers is just a bar too high. They want
their computers to just work, the way the other appliances in their
lives do. Apple seems to understand this better than the rest of the
industry; it's striking to watch toddlers pick up iPads and just get to
it. (Noting that Apple OSes are based on FOSS and they contribute in
important ways to the community; who would have guessed 25 years ago
that Apple would achieve the apparently impossible - a Unix-style
operating system usable by the average person?)
Your experience with other computer users mirrors mine! And then, when
something goes wrong, who do they call? Me. When I tell them they need
to learn more, I get the old "I don't have the time" speech. We all
have 24 hours in a day, it's how we choose to spend them. You can spend
the time learning how to avoid the bad things, or ultimately spend more
time dealing with problems a little at a time.
Having the computer just work is why I bought this Mac. So tired of
that little yellow shield in Windows telling me there were updates and
bug fixes waiting.
And as you noted, LyX got out of your way. That's the way all software
should work. You don't expect to have to work on your car, your TV,
whatever in order to use it. But you do have to take the time to learn
to drive and operate your car, TV, whatever.
We are past the days of the Model T and no power tools.
That said, there are two attitudes common in the open source community
that are orthogonal.
The first is that free (in Stallman's senses) and open software is just
better, intrinsically, philosophically and politically. It should take
over the world. The bazaar is better than the cathedral.
But when people complain about how impenetrable, geeky and poorly
documented much of FOSS is, it's often thrown back in their faces (we're
all volunteers, we scratch our own itches, learn about your computer,
learn to code and contribute).
Exactly. Those responses aren't exactly customer friendly, are they.
Which is why my respect for the efforts of some has dropped. In another
open source program list, I've had people tell me since the program is
free, that's good enough. It's not. Not in computer programs, car
repair, or anything. Have some pride in your work. I'd rather pay for
something that works than have to fix something that's free. And I
have. I think I've mentioned that somewhere.
FOSS is wonderful, at times. FOSS is terrible, at times (sometimes the
same time it's wonderful).
Proprietary software is wonderful, at times. It's terrible, at times
(sometimes the same time it's wonderful).
True in both cases.
A lot of human technology is old (controlled fire goes back before H.
sapiens!) and we've learned lots of ways to control and cope. Digital
computer technology is less than a century old and we're still in the
early learning phase of controlling and coping with it.
I divide software organizations, not into FOSS vs. proprietary, but into
apathetic or hostile to criticism vs. receptive and listening.
The "receptive and listening" group will be the ones to survive and
prosper in the long run.
This list
provides a lot of patient handholding that is atypical (perhaps that has
something to do with the fact that it's a community of people who write,
for whatever purpose). I appreciate it very much.
I'm a member of lists of both types.
One real positive thing I notice about this list that speaks well of
most of the posters in this thread, everyone has a genuine email address
in the header. No "john_...@invalid.com".
--
Ken
Mac OS X 10.8.5
Firefox 24.0
Thunderbird 17.0.8
LibreOffice 4.1.1.2
