The biggest impediment to getting free software used on campuses (and
in the business world) is the lack of beginner-level support for
switching from Windows or Mac to a free OS. The problem with multiple
Linux (and similar) setups, each adapted for different specific needs,
is that the average Windows user has no idea how to pick one, and
installation is often followed by problems like "this laptop can no
longer connect to the internet until you download a set of drivers for
it which you'll need to do on another machine, and then transfer
in."
Tech support for newbie problems is often downright hostile. "If you
don't know how to use a command line, just go back to Windows."
Alternately, the solutions offered are couched in technical language
that require several followup questions like "how would I find out if I
have that permission?" and "I don't know what those settings are, where
do I find them?"
And if they ask on Stack Exchange or Stack Overflow, newbie questions
are often faced with reactions like "question closed" followed by a
link to another question that they do not understand as similar to
theirs. The reactions to complaints about this are usually "We're not
hostile; we just don't want to waste time. Learn to ask better
questions."
That might be fine for beginning coders. It is not fine for high school
students who are just trying to have a functional computer that does
web browsing, document editing, and maybe a bit of gaming. The end
result is not going to be "this person studies the software and comes
back with better questions"; it's going to be "I guess I'll switch back
to Windows." As long as switching to a free OS comes with a 3+ week
self-directed training period of "google for answers to 'why isn't this
basic thing working like I expect it to?'" very few people are going to
switch - or at least, very few of them will switch and stay.
(Insisting "hey you should use duckduckgo or startpage instead of
google" will not result in more people converting to free software.)
And that applies to other free software as well.
The benefits of switching from MS Office to LibreOffice have to be
couched as something other than "you won't be supporting an evil
megacorp and you won't be handing them all your user data." Because for
most people, those are non-issues, and certainly not worth the hassle
of relearning office software and dealing with the lack of features
they've come to expect.
(If anyone knows a free-software equivalent of Acrobat Pro or InDesign,
I'd love to hear about it. And every few years, I install LibreOffice
and see if it'll cover how I use Word; it does not.) (It would cover
how I use Excel and PPT, but I don't see the value in using those
without switching the whole suite. Especially since my job insists on
the MS Suite.)
If you want schools & businesses to use free software, set up a website
that recommends one OS and has a quick-install bundle of common
student/business software. (PortableApps.com has a terrific setup for
this, but afiak it's Windows-only.) Set up a forum or (sigh) Discord
for questions, and be supportive to clueless people who are trying out
what they think is a new fad. Find volunteers who are happy to answer
endless beginner questions about how the command line works and explain
basic vocabulary, over and over. (There can be a FAQ page. Very few
beginners will read it, and some of the answers are likely to be too
technical or too long or both. And if the point is converting people to
free software, "go away and come back when you understand better" is
not going to work.) Offer bundle deals with tech support for small
businesses that want to convert their whole office to free software. Or
to schools that want to equip all their students with Linux laptops.
Offer to teach online classes to high school students, to explain how
computers work--because we've reached a point where millions of people
have no idea how "saving a file" works.
[1]https://www.theverge.com/22684730/students-file-folder-directory-str
ucture-education-gen-z
The free software movement is not friendly or welcoming to non-coders.
As long as that's true, it's not going to get strong inroads into
education or the business world. Complaining about how we got here
won't fix any of the problems, and only adds to the belief that the
free software movement is for elitist techies, not for everyday users.
On Fri, May 13, 2022 at 10:06 AM Lars Noodén <[2]lars.noo...@gmx.com>
wrote:
I fully support building curricula on Free Software exclusively, or
as
close to that as possible with an eye towards achieving 100% in the
near
future. RMS wrote an essay around 20 years ago, "Why Schools Should
Exclusively Use Free Software" [1], which could still serve as a
