Re: [Fsuk-manchester] freedoms analogy

[Simon Ward]

On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 10:22:48PM +0000, Roy Evison wrote:

> not everyone is as far thinking as you, nor as skilled.

I provided a ready made solution, it had already been designed and
created by skilled people.

Then there are the freedoms that are not taken away from you with free
software.  It’s all too true that many people don’t see why they should
care about these because they wouldn’t be able to take advantage of
them.  It is then important to emphasise that these freedoms are still
useful, even if not everyone is skilled, as I said:

> > You can change the design, or *get someone else* to do it for you
> > (because *designing these things well is not everyone’s forté*)

I just about managed to replace a washing machine door handle without
leaving the door in bits, but that’s about as far as I go.  A few years
ago I had a leak when using the washing machine, and didn’t know where
to start, so I called someone out.  I’m not a skilled washing machine
mechanic (I don’t even know if you call them “mechanics”), or a skilled
plumber.

(The washing machine is proprietary, but at least most of the plumbing
comes in standard sizes.)

> The lure of a quick quid or an easy to use solution appeals to many,
> handcuffs not withstanding.

If you didn’t notice the analogy with Ubuntu, that’s what it was.  You
hear stories of peoples’ grandparents being able to use Ubuntu without
many problems at all (I doubt that’s really the case but it’s no worse
than trying to figure your way around Windows or Mac OS X), and those
people are somehow surprised by this (I’m not).

It’s not “an easy to use” solution that people latch on to, it’s a
familiar solution.  They’ve used Windows in education and work, and it
just seems easier to use something that is familiar, after all, they’ve
already learnt how to use it.

The surprise grandparents may well have had relatively little experience
with *any* system.  This allows them to learn to use something that to
others may seem like a strange and unfamiliar system without being held
back by pre‐conceptions about how the system should work.

> The immediate impact of time vs. money is also a factor in people's
> choices, as short sighted as that maybe.

You can wear my ready made shirt, created using a free design, right
now¹.

¹Any implication that I have designed and made any shirts in real life
that you can have right now is simply unfounded.  I’m not a very skilled
designer or shirt maker, I usually go for something already designed and
made for me.

Simon
-- 
A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a
simple system that works.—John Gall

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