AB <fardblossom@xxxxxxxxx> espoused:
> On 2007-07-21, High Plains Thumper <highplainsthumper@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> claimed:
>> As Mark Twain stated in 1935 in his Notebook, "Nature knows no
>> indecencies; man invents them."
>>
>> Of these inventions, much has been said that is negative toward Linux.
>> This is of no wonder. As the 11th hour is approaching and as more
>> users, Governments and corporations embrace Linux and open source, the
>> more desperate the FUD tactics will become.
>>
>> Back in February this year, the following article pointed out increasing
>> FUD:
>>
>> http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS2225368488.html
>>
>> The best way to combat FUD is for the IT community, business managers,
>> employees, teaching staff and students to try it themselves. Those who
>> are astute will do their own research.
>>
>> First hand knowledge will always overcome FUD.
>
> Someone asked on a forum I frequent for somebody to do a small writeup
> on linux: what is it?; what are the advantages?; what are the
> disadvantages?; can people duel-boot?; and a whole lot of other
> things.
>
> I took it upon myself to start it (I'm hoping to get some help from
> others there, and I'm making every effort to go overboard on being
> unbiased as well). I'll answer a lot of what was mentioned. But I won't
> be explicit about what people should or shouldn't do because my only
> real recommendation is: TRY IT. Grab a handful of live CDs, boot them
> up, see what works and what doesn't poke around and poke some more.
> Then boot up others and git to pokin'. And ask questions if needed. But
> nothing will be lost except time, and perhaps a few cents making copies
> to boot.
>
> In the same forum I've already sent some CDs to a few people that were
> on dialup. 2 of those made the switch without much help from me. I
> guarantee one of those isn't going back. I strongly suspect the other
> isn't either, but it's too early to tell. These guys raving on their
> own have spurred another to try it, and he likes it, too. There were
> already 2 other linux users (that I know of) that I never even knew
> used it until these guys picked it up.
>
> There are a couple of odd men out (they don't like it, or it doesn't do
> what they want it to do). They get gripey at me even though I never
> pushed it. In fact I only ever mentioned it if the subject came up.
> Anyway, I keep assuring the people that have some troubles with it that
> it's OK if they don't want to change anything. The main point is that
> they tried it and decided for themselves.
>
> You're right. The key is: TRY IT! Don't listen to me. Don't listen to
> the trolls. Don't listen to the tech press or TV or the statistics or
> any of FUD, Inc. Just plug it in and make up your own mind. And feel
> free to ask questions if you have something that isn't apparent.
That's the best way, I think. Mild underselling usually gives the
strong impression that there's a very good product underneath - recall
the Rolls Royce response to the power of their vehicles (before they
became VW or BMW or whatever they are now): "it will be adequate, Sir".
No overstatement, no "Wow", no "Shock and Awe", in fact, a quite different
approach to getting the confidence of a market.
Captain Cook, the discoverer of the treatment for scurvy on ships, when
faced with a crew who refused to eat the sauerkraut on the menu, took
the simple approach of declaring the sauerkraut as for "officers only".
It didn't take very long before the crew wanted it back on their menu.
Of course, everyone remembers the limes, now, but even so, it worked.
You can sum up the approach as something like this:
"It's really good, but you don't have to have it, you can
continue with what you have, which is fine, but I don't
like it myself, because I prefer this one."
Even here in cola, things only really start to get out of hand when we
have a proprietary software zealot trolling, throwing in the insults,
childish behaviour, and so on. The open-source folk are, by and large,
more of the understatement crowd.
--
| Mark Kent -- mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk |
| Cola faq: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/linux/advocacy/faq-and-primer/ |
| Cola trolls: http://colatrolls.blogspot.com/ |
| My (new) blog: http://www.thereisnomagic.org |
|
|
