On Sat, 2013-03-16 at 15:43 -1000, david wrote:
What I was always demanding when I was a kid near a
McDonald's wasn't
the food specifically - I'd pretty much eat anything back then - but the
toys ... ;-)
That's a good bridge. For me it was different. They had no toys when I
was young, or at least I wasn't aware of it, but McDonalds was new, from
a nation that was very impressing to for me, when I was a child, so I
was interested to visit McDonalds and as a young adult it was very
comfortable to have a drive in, that was opened at night, while anything
else in Germany was closed.
The bridge to Linux is, that today I'm not interested in audio
engineering as a job, but I like to work with children. I already worked
at to elementary schools. They have computers for the children and they
are missing software for children. On all computers is Windows
installed. When they searched for a good panting software I introduced
Tux Paint, so the educators tested it at home and they were very
impressed. I also recommended Edubuntu.
The problem
I was willing to maintain the computers for free as in beer, they were
not interested. They didn't like the Windows software they had, they did
like Tux Paint, but they did not install it, even not as a Windows
version.
One educator already tried to install Ubuntu on his machine, before he
knows me, but installation failed, seemingly a hardware issue.
They'll keep Windows, because it's on the computers, they install all
kinds of crap, all kinds of virulent software, as long as it is common,
even cracked, software.
They 1. all don't trust the free software that is good and they 2. don't
trust me and they won't trust you.
They guess it could damage the computer. They guess you or I would be
interested and able to get access to their office network, if we would
install software to the children computers, that aren't connected to the
office network.
The adults aren't educated, but they educate children in using
computers, especially regarding to security. My last boss was sued,
because somebody else downloaded illegal music over her not bad
encrypted wireless network. They have knowledge about didactic, but no
knowledge about computers, so they know how imprinting does work and
they know about their own bad experiences with Windows, so they make the
children becoming Pavlov's Dogs regarding to computers:
- The most safe OS and software is the latest version of Windows with
even illegal copied software
- Even the academic educators using this most safe software made bad
experiences with using it (Windows), _from_ illegal downloads with
non-protected or at least bad protected wireless network, _to_ female
educators that had 3 bad ex-boyfriens, gotten to known by a social
network (with Linux they guess it would be 6 bad ex-boyfriens)
If it's for free, it must be evil. Why should people give something for
free as in beer and in speech? Even something serious and trustful as
Windows and it's software already is unsafe. And when I one time tried
to install Ubuntu and it failed, that must be, because Linux is risky.
Ok, we often hear from computer freaks that Linux is more safe, but a
computer freak I trust helped me to make my Windows secure, but I still
run into issues, it wasn't safe, so even the computer freak couldn't set
up my Windows safe enough, that does mean something less known, giving
less information than Windows, must be less secure.
You've got no chance to educate those adults. Explain them that there's
a community and that the source code is available (more information than
for Windows), so there can't be something bad in the programs, they
don't understand.
They understand that open source code is more risky (wehn they nderstand
that there is more information) than closed source code. You can give
them the information how to learn them self that Linux is more secure,
if they won't believe your words, but they won't learn, since the adults
who make the children becoming Pavlov's Dogs are Pavlov's Dogs them
self.
They are caught in a paradox. First Linux is unsafe, because there is
less information, than when they know more about Linux, it's unsafe,
because there's too much information.
It's not about facts, it's about emotions.
And hey, haven't you seen the commercial for the current, best version
ever, of IE? Alex Clare is such a cute man and "To close" is such a
wonderful song. They never ever would go to McDonalds, because it's not
hip to do it, but they don't reflect it, it's just a fashion. If it
isn't McDonalds, they believe all the commercials. The female educators
get wet panties when they listen and watch Alex Clare (don't call me
sexist, when I simply say the truth) and hey current Microsoft
commercials show me that I can set up Windows using different colour
themes. I can make my Windows fit to my Ikea furniture, while Linux
still does look like XP ... yes, thanks to all the computer magazines
we've tons of "improved" Linux in Germany.
The medias for those magazines often provide e.g. Debian, Suse, Ubuntu,
but not by the original install media, they make own versions, it's not
only that they sometimes make it look like XP, they also make tweaks
that break the stability.
IMO the Linux community shouldn't start to compete against Windows
commercials. Windows does the "better" commercials, Alex Clair won't
sing for Linux and even if we could pay him to do it, that's IMO against
the idea of free as in speech. Linux anyway isn't a Windows replacement.
People need education and you can't force them to learn, so what we need
is time, they need to touch the hot cooktop again and again and they
need to see, that we have less burned hands, than they've got. One day
they will understand.