[odf-discuss] Linspire's MOOX initiatives

[Christian Einfeldt]

On 7/11/07, Daniel Carrera <daniel.carrera at zmsl.com> wrote:
>
>
> Ask Jean about Ubuntu. Just today she was telling me about how great and
> newbie-friendly the latest version is. And Shuttleworth has said that
> Canonical will not sign any patent deal with MS. Ubuntu is also Debian
> based, and it has a GUI program for installing applications that is
> probably not much more difficult than CNR.


I use Edgy Kubuntu for capturing, compressing, and uploading video to the
Internet Archive's Digital Tipping Point Video Collection (IA DTP VC).  I
tend to use the Adept package manager for doing so, and it is fine for me,
but it is still a little daunting for newbies, I am afraid.  Same for
Synaptic on Mepis.  The incredible thing about CNR is that GUI.  Boy, all
you have to do is sit someone down in front of CNR, and they instantly know
what it is.  All you really have to do is tell them that all you have to do
is type in the kind of program that you want, and then click on the name of
the programs that come up, and it will install an icon on your desktop and
put in in your "Start" menu, and boy, they get it.

I'll tell you, after struggling with newbies to teach them stuff under GNU
Linux, it is so nice to give them one tool that is dirt simple to use.  Same
for Firefox. Same for Google Docs.  I have to twist arms at the public
middle school to get the teachers to use anything that is even SLIGHTLY
different than their Microsoft apps.  You see their eyes glaze over
immediately, and they just stop listening, and turn their heads away.

But there are actually one teacher and one administrator in the school
actively advocating Google docs because "it is so easy to use" and it allows
collaboration.  It is possible that by the end of this year, we will have
stripped Microsoft Outlook out of that school, which will be a major
accomplishment. Next will be Microsoft Word and Excel.  All that will remain
is PowerPoint.

The principal refuses to use OOo, and she won't allow teachers to use it.
She refuses to use Firefox.  She gets huffy at even the slightest suggestion
that she should change her life at all for freedom in cyberspace.  Won't
listen to it.  And this is a principal who is as left wing as most of the
people in the San Francisco Bay Area, and who has Malcolm X slogans up all
over the school, as well as slogans by the Black Panthers.  Hell, she has
posted the Black Panthers Pledge of Allegiance to My Fellow Black People
posted outside the boy's restroom.  But ask her to change one thing in her
technological life and she will ignore you unless it makes her life easier
RIGHT NOW.  She can't afford to hire a teacher that she needs, but she
insists on Microsoft products.  Never ever have I ever seen people so
passionate about loving their chains.  And it is getting worse.  She has
gotten into an alliance with other schools to spread the cost of technology,
and they have decided to use someone who is committed to Microsoft
solutions.  The only place that we are allowed to bring in FOSS is the lab
for the kids. And even there, we are hanging by a thread, because the
principal asked the operations manager, who is somewhat of an advocate for
FOSS, "Well, don't the kids need to know how to use *Microsoft* products
when they get to high school and college and the work world?  Are we really
adequately preparing these students by allowing them to use this Linux
stuff?"

Fortunately, the operations manager used the analogy of teaching people how
to drive cars, not how to drive Fords or Chevys.  People love to give up
their freedom, because they see it as gaining efficiency.  It is very
discouraging.
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