<div dir="ltr"><div><div><div>yep. Stupid people all the place.<br></div> Not all that long ago, you had to have a PhD to _touch_ a computer and now and yahoo living in a trailer can buy one from Walmart.<br><br></div>Maybe it's because I've taught adult learners in college classes (physics and astronomy) that I know the only difference between those that can learn new technology and those that don't learn new technology is attitude. Every time people get a new car, it's "different" yet they get accustomed to it. It not because they understand more of what's under the hood on the car than the computer. It's very, very personal. With out understanding how to drive that new car (where the AC control and the wipers?) they are personally stuck at home and can't go anywhere. So they muddle through it and commit enough brain tissue to remember the new stuff.<br>
</div>So if a desire to make a transition to a new desktop is high, I'll pass along a secret: Don't help the fearful. Ask "what did you try first?" and send them back to try some more. There is no better teacher than personal discover.<br>
</div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, May 19, 2014 at 2:43 PM, Lightner, Jeff <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:JLightner@dsservices.com" target="_blank">JLightner@dsservices.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">Are you the ONE who is tasked with transitioning people in your organization from iPhone to Droid? Are you the one that migrated users from Windows 95 to
Windows XP or from XP to 7? If not then being pedantic about “easy” is meaningless. You seem to think I’m arguing that migrating to Linux is a bad idea which I’m not. I’m arguing that just because IT types think something is “easy” for themselves does
NOT mean it is “easy” for end users. Arguing about the degree of “easy” is specious at best when I’ve continually said that it is “change” not the “specific change” that is resisted.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">However, using your example I know that KDE is NOT as “easy” as you say because I’ve seen many a question by Linux folks specifically about using KDE (or Gnome
or Unity or…). Even if it WERE that “easy” to you or me it does not mean it is to the average end user.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">Years ago I learned a valuable lesson when I was taking accounting 101 in an evening class. Each class the professor would give us things to do (e.g. make
a P&L or a balance sheet or just a simple T chart) to be ready for the next class. Before class several of us got together in the student lounge and would go over the solutions we’d come up with. Usually when they’d ask me I’d start out by saying “It’s
easy I just …”. Finally one woman said to me “It may be ‘easy’ for a god like you but for us mere mortals it actually takes some effort.” Up until then it had never occurred to me that everyone didn’t find something as logical as double entry accounting
seemed to me to be “easy”. In fact I later found out most folks took Accounting 2-3 times before finally eking by with a passing grade because to them it is “hard”.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">Another lesson I learned was back in the days when electronic cash registers became computerized. One guy I worked with could NOT get the “cash register”
to work because he “didn’t know anything about computers”. He had this attitude because the new register had a tiny CRT screen on it. No matter how hard I tried to explain to him that he wasn’t actually dealing with the “computer” aspect of it I couldn’t
get through his head that it was just as “easy” as the “cash register” he’d been using before. (This was before touch screens so it still used the same type of keys the old “cash register” had and still used the hard copy guest checks the previous register
did.) <u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d">There IS a real world resistance to change and arguing that something is “easy” because YOU think it is does not change the fact that it may NOT be “easy” to
the individuals to whom you’re trying to push the change.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""> <a href="mailto:ale-bounces@ale.org" target="_blank">ale-bounces@ale.org</a> [mailto:<a href="mailto:ale-bounces@ale.org" target="_blank">ale-bounces@ale.org</a>]
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Wolf Halton<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Monday, May 19, 2014 1:51 PM</span></p><div class=""><br>
<b>To:</b> Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [ale] Chinese government recommendation - Linux<u></u><u></u></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">If they figured out an iPhone or a Droid phone, they can figure out the Linux desktop. It is less of a jump from XP to KDE than from XP to Windows 7, and the Ubuntu desktop is very similar to Win 8. Actually, I think that there is less
disruption from Windows 7 to KDE than from Windows 7 to Windows 8 (or even 8.1).
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt">Wolf Halton<br>
<br>
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http://sourcefreedom.com</a><br>
Security in the Cloud - <a href="http://atlantaCloudTech.com" target="_blank">http://AtlantaCloudTech.com</a>
<u></u><u></u></p>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div dir="ltr">-- <br>James P. Kinney III<br><i><i><i><i><br></i></i></i></i>Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you
gain at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog on his
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