[ale] Chinese government recommendation - Linux

[Jim Kinney]

yep. Stupid people all the place.
 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.

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.
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.


On Mon, May 19, 2014 at 2:43 PM, Lightner, Jeff <JLightner at dsservices.com>wrote:

>   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.
>
>
>
> 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.
>
>
>
> 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”.
>
>
>
> 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.)
>
>
>
> 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.
>
>
>
> *From:* ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] *On Behalf Of *Wolf
> Halton
> *Sent:* Monday, May 19, 2014 1:51 PM
>
> *To:* Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
> *Subject:* Re: [ale] Chinese government recommendation - Linux
>
>
>
> 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).
>
>
>   Wolf Halton
>
> --
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-- 
-- 
James P. Kinney III

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 own tail.
It won't fatten the dog.
- Speech 11/23/1900 Mark Twain


*http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/
<http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/>*
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