http://www.reallylinux.com/docs/snobsoped.shtml
Interesting food for thought.
I have to say I have not experienced that in this list...but I have
witnessed it other places.
A kneejerk RTFM, or man **** response assumes the person has the ability
to understand what is contained therein, not always the case...
Also, Windows users are coming from a world of support that was paid for
and in which every question is answered. This is what they are
conditioned to expect. True, there are Linux distros out there that have
support, but it must be acknowledged that most Windows users attempting
to switch are probably going to try a free (AIB) distro first...The
point being that paid support doesn't answer question with RTFM or look
it up yourself.
I was luckily raised to find my own answers and am fortunate enough to
have will power from hell...:) In addition I ejoy a good flamewar every
now and again so an answer like the above would not have discouraged me.
But I can easily see how this would slam the door to others.
What this really reminds me of was the first access I had to Usenet
(through FIDONet) in 1993. The professors and students that dominated it
at the time took offense to "the invasion" that was to eventually
manifest as AOL-user bashing....( I have to say I was guilty of that
myself, a bit, having been a devoted Compuserve user, before they had
Internet access)
I agree that people are people and you are just going to run into this
in every OS, but the article is not about every OS, it is specifically
about the Linux community.
What I see there so far seems to be lamentation that Linux is not more
widely implemented "on the desktop"....It took me quite a long time to
realize that what most Linux users and articles meant by that was Linux
being used in the business environment and not necessarily the home-user
enviroment.
I see businesses imply the reason they don't switch is the learning
curve and the costs of retraining. This is where I fail to understand
the Linux community somewhat. If they want to see Linux on more
"desktops", and setting training revenue aside for the moment, why in
the world don't they concentrate of getting more home-user to make Linux
their choice. Home-users apply for jobs. If the use Linux at home, IOW
if there were more people out there with the ability to use Linux, I
would think it would be much easier to get business to make the switch!
As to lost training revenue, which has more potential? Trying to talk a
company into making a switch that requires every single employee to
acquire a new skillset from scratch with no guarantee the employees have
the ability to learn the skillset (Linux), or to show an employer that
there are people out there that use this OS to be hired and that people
would be workstation employees. Then you'd sell them on system
administration training with add-on sales potential coming after that
and it's resulting success?
IOW, is the key to cracking the desktop egg to be found in the home-user
environment?
Chris in DC
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