On 1/30/06, Wilson John D. Barbon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Silly of me for asking in this mailing list--intended for "technical" matters. But I remember when I signed up for this list when I stumbled into PLUG website a couple of months ago it says--mailing list for newbies.
The plug-newbies list has been deprecated. If you cared to read through the archives, you'll learn why.
I don't intend to be philosophical in raising that question. I got the idea of asking that question after reading some articles in Linux Magazine about how Linux solutions can also have myths--and can be very frustrating for desktop users like me and the many PC users on the planet.
The thing is, the way you phrased your question required answers that will go nowhere. There are questions, and there are smart questions. As Paolo said, the question you raised is of the type that's "amorphous" and better left for beer-drinking sessions -- or in the case of PLUG, our catch-all channel, plug-misc.
Since we talk about philosophy, Socrates was famous for saying "know thyself" or "the unexamined life is not worth it"--for linux failing to see linux beyond the many "technical" blabber in this mailing list or beyond the flame wars that are happening--we may never know where we are going.
Linux can and do see beyond mere "technical blabber". (Now, why do I feel weird about this personification of Linux?) Linux developers and the community are all humans -- well, most are, and rumor has it that *some* kernel hackers are actually Turing machines -- and they have actually bothered to make road maps for Linux. We wouldn't be able to do half the things we can do now in Linux, had there not been careful examinations of what makes Linux tick.
Personally, after many sleepless nights looking for solutions just to make my soundcard work, or wifi device to work--I am aksing myself is it worth it? Using OpenOffice alongside MS Office users is a nightmare.
<snip>
Damn it, I completely trusted OpenOffice Impress to just smoothly convert to .ppt and did not bother to check if its ok for the file to be opened in powerpoint.
OpenOffice.org != Microsoft Office. Never was, never will be. ;)
Am i more productive in Linux than using MS Windows XP? I asked.
Rhetorical?
Flame wars, it really sometimes annoying but it is in flamewars that we get feedback from Linux users. It is through rants and complaints that Linux and other FOSS shape up
No. Flames burn, some more badly than others. It is only through well-thought discussions that Linux/FOSS (and the community) can grow.
I have expected some more factual information from the views of Filipino Linux users like how these articles view Linux. But instead of getting these, i was dismissed as irrelevant and should stay in the "plug-misc" maling list. Again, if this mailing list is technical in nature, I apologize for the error. I do understand the limited resources we have Linux and spending bandwidth for these "intellectual masturbation" is really a waste of resources and time especially for a maling list intended for geeky and technical blobber. Months after I have been a member of this list most of the entries and subjects are coming from sysadmins, developers, programmers--few are coming from desktop users. I sometimes I get the impression that linux is not ready for the desktop user all the more for people who are not into programming, sysadministration and the like.
I'm sorry for the tone the post you're referring to has taken. I would have taken umbrage in it myself, but people here have to don asbestos suits sometimes. ;) The common misconception, though, that "Linux is for geeks" is outright false. Linux is for those who care enough to learn it. It's not for the impatient. (And, yes, Linux on the desktop has been around. I have "users" here who take to Linux on the desktop as penguins to water (or salmon); and to take they've been weaned from MS quite successfully.)
If you have specific questions (read: not open-ended ones that tend to go nowhere), fire away. But think through your questions first: maybe you already have the answers -- you're just not looking very carefully. Read the manual. Ask Google (it's your friend). If all else fails, post it here, complete with the steps you took. But please note that people here volunteer to answer questions -- they're not your personal butler nor Google keyword factory -- so they appreciate well-crafted questions, and will answer them happily, if they can.
Well, hey, Wilson. Don't fret, and don't get discouraged. :)
--
Ian Dexter R. Marquez
http://iandexter.co.nr [PGP key: 0x707F6E40]
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