[ale] Chinese government recommendation - Linux

Mon May 19 16:55:31 EDT 2014

In discussing how "easy" or "hard" learning a new desk top, OS, 
technology, etc. is, one element I think that has been overlooked is 
TIME.  Learning takes time and we all live very busy lives.  When we are 
busy in my organization, it is not unheard of to have 12 - 16 hours of 
work to do in a 8 hour day.  Furthermore, when you get the assignment, 
it was actually needed a week earlier.  And if you think that just 
because new tools have been introduced into the work atmosphere (ei.  
new word processor, etc) means that you will get more time to complete 
the task or even training on the new tools - that usually isn't always 
the case.  To get caught-up on how to save a file or change the font for 
15 minutes is a huge killer.  My point is that many people resist change 
because they often do not have the time (real or perceived) to learn new 
skills to accomplish a task they could already do with a previously 
learned skill set.

For us technical people, learning a new skill/technology is a double 
edge sword.  We get the task done while learning new skills that add to 
our skill set and marketability while having fun.  For end users, it is 
a single edge sword in that only a needed task has been completed.

Donald

On 5/19/2014 4:03 PM, Jay Lozier wrote:
> +!
>
> Jim, I think you hit the nail squarely on the head. It is mostly 
> attitude rather this or that desktop/application/OS is truly more 
> difficult than some other to use. Having used a variety of GUI's from 
> early Macs to know; I do not think most about the same difficulty to 
> learn and use.
>
> In sales, sales staff is normally taught to handle objections.
>
>
> On 05/19/2014 03:42 PM, Jim Kinney wrote:
>> 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 <mailto: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>
>>     [mailto: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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>>
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>>
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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/
>> ////
>>
>>
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> -- 
> Jay Lozier
> jslozier at gmail.com
>
>
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