[CoLoCo] Appropriateness of posts to this list (Was Re: evince crash)

[Jim Hutchinson]

On 12/6/07, Michael TheZorch Haney <thezorch at gmail.com> wrote:
> The sad truth is, I've run into this roadblock a lot, is that a majority
> of people (about 9 out of 10 so far) have this perception of Linux that
> it's really hard to use, that you've got to know how to use the Terminal
> all the time to do the simplest things, and that there isn't a lot of
> software out for it.  Trying to change their minds about Linux is hard
> because they've all bought into the lie that you've got to have Windows
> to have a useful computer.

I have been trying to advocate for Linux from the time I discovered I
could use it instead of windows (about 2 years). My advocacy efforts
were sufficient to earn me ubuntu membership despite the fact that I'm
pretty much a noob and not a programmer at all. With my membership I
can feed my blog to planet ubuntu so I have been using this wider
(albeit mostly ubuntu user) audience to continue to promote Ubuntu and
Linux in general. Unfortunately, even with a most Ubuntu audience, I
still manage to get trolls visiting my blog and telling me how much
Linux sucks and why OSX (it's usually OSX and not Windows) is so much
better.

I don't understand why it is so hard for people to understand that
Linux does have strengths and that if those strengths are not what
they need that doesn't mean it's true for everyone.

I'm a little disappointed that the community is rather fractured. I'm
sure that's not news to long time users but it is to me. I don't see
why any one part of the community has to disparage another part. Even
the big names like Stallman and Torvalds model this. The philosophies
are not that different. Although I guess it's just human nature.
Catholics and Protestants have been at it for ever and they are not
all that different either.

jim
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