
When Linux fails - sant0sk1
http://www.tuxdeluxe.org/node/287
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Shamiq
Please try to read down to the section mentioning Jon "Maddog" Hall. What he
says is true.

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Tichy
Partly, I guess. One the one hand it makes sense to apply one's skills where
they can help best, but in the case of the kid in the bush, perhaps some
creativity would yield interesting results? Maybe one could build a cheap
satellite link or something...

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windsurfer
I think that Ian Howards point that the local "computer support person"
resented a solution because it was too easy to use is the wrong conclusion.
I've found that frequently, people reset linux simply because it's unfamiliar.
In remote african villages, I would wager that this unfamiliarity is amplified
by the lack of widespread technology in general.

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donw
The point that Howards makes seems to be that the unfamiliarity of Linux isn't
the problem, inasmuch as the people who 'understand' the complexity of Windows
not wanting to be out of a job. After all, if your bread-and-butter comes from
keeping Windows running for a bunch of people, you're going to resist any move
off of Windows, and as a local in a tight-knit community, you carry a hell of
a lot more weight than some well-meaning yahoo from the States.

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trezor
Or maybe it was just that the "simple" Linux solution wasn't really that
simple to the person who didn't already know Linux and the software used
there? And the the "complex" Windows based solution was already well known,
both how it works and what quirks it has and really quite simple to the person
which already managed it.

I've seen ton of Linux people presenting so-called "simple" solutions, which
while not mindstaggeringly complex, requires you to familarize yourself with a
whole new toolchain, new commands and new concepts.

While _they_ have seen the light in Linux-based solutions, they have also
stared themselves blind by not recognizing that a lot of things which are
simple or obvious to them are skills that need to be learned.

Basically it boils down to not fixing something which is not broken and
sticking to the tools you know.

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halo
I'm sick of sensationalist headlines, but this does put across one of the
problems emerging technologies have that people often miss: the social issues
are often just as, if not more, important than the technical ones.

