Roy Schestowitz wrote:
> Mere Users Could Leap Into Tinkerers' World
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | The Linux operating system -- a free, open-source alternative to Windows
> | and Mac OS X -- has long served to define the gap between people who
> | merely use computers and those who tinker with them.
> `----
>
>
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/19/AR2006081900101.html?nav=rss_technology
> http://tinyurl.com/zwhtj
Wonderful, very much the sort of thing I'd be hoping to see, and exactly why
it's important to have a distribution like Ubuntu doing these things right
to reach a mainstream audience, and complementing all the other distros
with their particular strengths, weaknesses, and intended audience.
It's interesting, and I suppose unsurprising, to see the way Linux always
appears coloured by the perspective of a user who has been inured to
proprietary ways and Windows software, almost a kind of cognitive
dissonance or impedance mismatch.
You see the same thing in this group, people discussing Linux, both
sensible, but at cross-purposes to each other, and it doesn't seem to be
something that can be explained as such, but requires a mental gear-shift
to "get it" - and then it's obvious, and doesn't require explanation.
Examples from TFA are:
Third-party programs:
"The system features a well-edited set of third-party programs, including
the Firefox Web browser, an Outlook-ish e-mail/address book/calendar
program called Evolution and the OpenOffice productivity suite."
W-e-e-ll, sure in a sense they are "third-party" programs, but if you're
going to say that then in a way Ubuntu itself is "third-party" to the core,
since it's really Debian. And with Linux, those "third-party" applications
are an integrated part of the whole, for example when it comes to being
updated by the package manager. However you turn it, it's not like having
third-party programs bundled with an OS in a proprietary world, and it
leads one astray to think of it like that, trying to relate it conceptually
to what's familiar when it's fundamentally different.
Multimedia support:
"But Ubuntu doesn't support the popular music and video formats (most
importantly, MP3 and Flash), which the developers could not include and
still keep this distribution free. Adding them is easy enough if you know
where to look -- but neither Ubuntu's setup screens nor its help file
explain this, much less provide the helpful installer (
http://easyubuntu.freecontrib.org/ ) that fixes this and a few other
omissions."
Again a common one, and of course it comes up; actually, the writer is doing
well, drawing attention to the reason for it, that these things
aren't "free" (nor are they Free), just as they are not free or Free on a
proprietary OS even if that's concealed from the end-user.
A shift of perspective is required, however, to recognise that this is not
something "to be fixed" nor is it an "omission" - it's an intentional
design decision, for very good reasons, to exclude what is not Free, and
the correct answer is for the relevant parties to make these things Free,
if they want them included. For users, it's an important clue that if it's
not supported "out-of-the-box" by Free software such as Ubuntu, then it's
probably not Free, and it might be time to think about whether you really
want to be using these things unless they are made Free first.
Software package management:
"Adding most extra programs, however, is a breeze."
"Removing an installed program is just as quick."
"This centralized approach can seem odd, but it works -- and sticking to
Ubuntu's repository of programs drops the already-low risk of catching a
Linux virus to just about zero."
Ok - but again it's interesting to see the clash of perspective, as it
seems "odd" to the writer because it's different to the way proprietary
systems work. Again, this ties into the "third-party" programs angle
discussed above, where with Linux when it's Free software you just install
it from the package manager, and it's effectively part of the whole system,
without really noticing anything special about it. He's right, though, that
it's one of several aspects that helps make it difficult for
adware/spyware/malware to target Free software users.
Centralized packages also make an enormous difference when it comes to
upgrading, which the writer doesn't mention, and to backing up, where I've
known Windows users purchase additional software so that they can
make "images" of their system partition, in order to preserve a backup of
their purchased proprietary applications which they can restore "as is"
when their Windows software slows down/is infected/breaks.
For Linux we have partimage if we want it, of course, but in practice for a
desktop user like me doing nothing exceptional, one of the nice things
about using Free software is that all I really care about backing up is my
data from the '/home/' directory. If I need to recover/reinstall, I'll just
replace '/' with a fresh install, very likely with more modern software,
and apt-get in extra applications as needed, without needing to worry about
whether I can find original disks and license codes and what-not stashed
away if I've still got them, or if they'll still validate over the 'net to
the vendor's servers.
The conclusion of TFA is spot on, however:
"But that leaves a large group of people who use a computer just for the
Web, e-mail, and the occasional letter or spreadsheet. Some of them might
find that it's easier to get those things done in Ubuntu than in a
far-less-secure copy of Windows 98 -- if, that is, they can wrap their
heads around the idea of taking such a leap into the unknown."
Hits the nail on the head, and I know I see people who are in this position,
very often still using Windows 98 or Millenium, who don't particularly need
(or want!) to buy a new computer or spend money on proprietary software,
but could well do with a more modern OS such as Ubuntu that would suit
their requirements.
Mainstream attention such as Ubuntu has been garnering, including this
article, is an excellent step in making it not quite such a "leap into the
unknown".
--
JPB
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