[NTLUG:Discuss] Re: Freedomware and TheOpenCD

[Bryan J. Smith]

On Wed, 2004-12-08 at 16:11, Johnny Cybermyth wrote:
> For the record, I don't have any connection to TheOpenCD.  I found out 
> about it through your post and was thanking you for the post of the link 
> for everyone's edification.  I don't want to accidentally take credit 
> for other's good work.

Oh, sorry about that.

> The reason why I posted was to backup your very honest suggestion that 
> wiping Windows and going the purest route might not be the right first 
> step for everyone :)  And to give a little encouragement to those others 
> who have the desire to support the open source revolution but don't know 
> what the first little steps might be.

The idea is to get your data out of a Hostageware format in the first
place.  Once that is done, you've removed a major barrier to Linux
adoption.  The common attitude that OpenOffice.org/StarOffice is "where
MS Office was in 1997" is just false.  Maybe for conversion, but not
native features.  Not at all.

Nothing gets to me more than a person who claims he is a Linux advocate,
while he consistently talks about the merits of MS Word and Office.  Not
because they are "forced" or anything, but because they prefer it more. 
So they constantly talk about emulation or virtualization while they
continue to use MS Office.

Such a person makes people like myself feel like we must be idiots for
dropping MS Office years ago (I adopted StarOffice at version 3 --
largely _because_ of features like Internet integration ;-).  And they
pretty much miss the point of adopting Linux.  Linux will _never_ be a
better Windows than Windows, so if you have a Windows app that you
prefer, you might as well run Windows (even if it is a virtual instance
under Linux).

> While we work with open source, let's keep an open mind and work with 
> the problem when necessary because the goal will sell itself once it's 
> benefits are evident.

People get focused on Linux so much they forget people use apps, not
OSes.

I might have gone 100% Linux in 1999, but I don't expect others.  I
already had most of my documents in StarOffice and LaTeX at that time,
so it made it cake for me.


-- 
Bryan J. Smith                                 b.j.smith at ieee.org 
------------------------------------------------------------------ 
Beware of advocates who justify their preference not in terms of
what they like about their "choice," but what they did not like
about another option.  Such advocacy is more hurtful than helpful.