Surely the vast majority have seen The Incredibles from Disney / Pixar. Let's remember a little part.
The villain, Syndrome, has captured the entire Incredible family and tells them about his evil plan. To those who do not remember, Syndrome has no real superpowers "Innate" but are technologies conceived by him as superpowers. Plain and simple, they are weapons. Let's go back to the plan, which in short, comes to be something like this
I will create the worst threat, and when everyone is in despair, I and my superpowers will save them. Everyone will need me.
And then when I'm tired and old, I'll sell my powers ... and when they are all super ... no one will be »
This scene from The Incredibles came to mind insistently while reading your comments in the post regarding "First Impressions of Windows 7".
Dear, we are looking at the tree and not the forest.
Save some specific cases in the comments, it was clear that they don't want to try windows not because they are not interested in the product, they are not comfortable with the OS, it is useless or they simply do not feel like it. They don't test it because it's from Microsoft, because it's not GNU / Linux, because they don't test anyone for free, because it must be crap like Vista, because it is better to try other projects without diffusion, because blah, blah, blah ...
My idea was that we could properly discuss improvements (And surely you deteriorate! it's Windows and everything is possible ...) of the new OS. I even commented that, if someone was doing the same tests, they would leave a comment. But not.
We are seeing the tree and not the forest.
As I suggested and some asserted (even without testing it, eg our good friend sources;)) Windows is quite similar to a KDE4 environment.
Follow me in this reasoning and tell me if I am wrong: for a common Windows user, who really does not care to go to the free and wonderful world of GNU / Linux, make a change or an update between Windows versions it will always be easier than switching to a GNU / Linux environment. If I gave my father the Windows 7, it would probably cost you a bit at the start (the change of visual interface without going any further between Windows XP and Windows 7 is quite extensive) but surely after a while X would get used to it. If after that time I left my father in front of a PC with SuSE Linux or any distro that has a KDE desktop environment I could assure you without hesitation that it would be handled perfectly well. I am convinced.
Now: always we complain because Windows is not similar to GNU / Linux, but when a version of Windows appears that could bring users closer to GNU / Linux or make the passage between OS's less traumatic, we complain ... because it looks like GNU / Linux.
Why don't we let go of the tree?
I continue with my reasoning. In the future, many 'normal' PC users will find that they can be handled in similar ways on Windows and GNU / Linux. Did we achieve our mission? Did we go out to celebrate? Nerd. One moment. Hundreds and hundreds of newbie users are going to be using Linux distros without caring about the kernel, the command line, the packages, or the sudo, at least initially.
These users could choose to start the slow, somewhat difficult but extremely rewarding way of become absolute owners of your PC. We will admire and embrace them, because we know how frustrating and also how wonderful this path is, because we walk it day by day.
Others, seeing that Linux demands a little more attention from them, will return to Windows. But they could use a GNU / Linux distro if they wanted. The kickoff was already given by Microsoft for them: it gave them a glimpse of how beautiful their PC can be and forced them to operate in a new environment. Thanks, Microsoft guys.
And yet we still cling to the branches.
As Syndrome said "When everyone is super, no one will be". Imagine when all those dumb users GNU / Linux that Microsoft gave us use their beautiful distros without knowing (and without being interested at all) if it is Debian Lenny's beta X, the Ubuntu release candidate or without ever having recompiled a kernel. Thousands of silly terminals that do not care what the hell they are using, only that you can navigate, write documents, play solitaire and listen to music. People, let's wake up: if Microsoft becomes friendly to GNU / Linux environments, Microsoft users will too. A double edged sword. THEor that it was exclusive and super will no longer be. Everyone will be able to access without problems. And all the buzz, the specs, the commands, the scripts, and "I can't wait for the most unstable version of my distro to come out to test it, solve 751423 problems and have to feel like Mr. Incredible»Are going to be anecdotal. Few things. Just like so far, only we are not going to be the 1% of GNU / Linux users. We are going to be many, many more.
The issue is that We are not going to be as special as we are now.
Microsoft Windows 7 It is offering us on a tray trained users for access and basic management of a GNU / Linux environment. Now, it's up to us to keep these users from returning to the comfortable side of OS's.
This reasoning has already become quite long, so I leave you the last short comment: of all those who commented on disseminating projects that need it, they did not even name one of them. Take advantage of this medium, it will not be much but it is made with you in mind, and we like to investigate here.
Greetings to all, and just one more question: freedom in the head of GNU / Linux users does not come on the installation CD. Builds on yourself. Let's open the mind.
It is quite limited the reasoning of many when saying "it is like KDE" when KDE is exactly the environment strange lover more like the Windows Shell.
For sample a button is missing, or perhaps the menu K appeared before the start menu ...
Greetings Naty, great post.
You are right in the essence of your comment, but we also have to analyze other issues, those of us who are in the SL, well in my case it is because of free systems and because of their ideology it is something that has caught me, and if we want new users At least they care about the Free OS something, you have to instill those ideologies, maybe they will say that it will be too much work but then we are on time, and something if it is very true we will always have to use the console for one thing or another, and for those who want to induce someone to use SL based on W7 here I leave something that an Ubuntu user did, greetings
http://www.muylinux.com/2009/01/16/ubuntu-a-lo-windows-7/#comment-1673
this is like kicking an anthill ... save, they're coming to bite you!
Good post!
I bought a new pc, I formatted the disk and I am sooo busy installing all the bullshit. More than anything, what interests me about W7 is its compatibility with everything. If he's good at it, he's good then.
Although I keep repeating, the best thing about Microsoft was xp, like rock was the Beatles… .everything else, has a taste for repeated.
And I'm not comparing xp to the Beatles, I'm just using a metaphor. : D
I find you right, very right that if W7 looks like KDE, Linux wins something, but I can't help but say what I think, too bad Windows has not been rewritten, it has evolved, but based on the old Windows as always and the People will continue to have problems that they would not have in other environments, that is what I claim and that is why I said what I said.
On the other hand, what the previous article suggests is that we try Windows 7 Beta and, apart from the fact that for a common Linux server (not even for a LAW) it is already too strong to ask this because we are used to ranting about closed software, perhaps the effort should focus on learning to tolerate Windows, not ranting at just hearing the word Windows or Microsoft.
It is understandable that a Linux user does not want to try Windows 7: It means taking a long time to install a system and use it for daily tasks in the search, mostly for errors and useless things. Nor is it that in a W7 beta one is going to be able to make a greater contribution as is usually done in Free Software, where you can expand much more widely and ask for new features.
In summary, if Windows looks like KDE great, but trying W7 to test it seems to me to ask too much and it is an effort that escapes the interest of teaching Windows users the benefits of Linux later.
I hope I'm wrong and that W7 is a great OS.
If I have expressed myself wrong, which is likely, consult me.
I comment something. I can't prove it for a simple reason. I don't have a new machine. What's more, it's so old that if you didn't use a free sofa it wouldn't work with anything else. The rest is debatable.
I think the interface issue is the least important thing. Linux is known to accommodate whatever. For a long time, XP themes and Vista themes have been seen to decorate the desks. There are even distributions that use them to bring Linux to Windows users.
I think the issue happens because Microsoft is a company, and as such the only thing they are interested in is making money, and if they can do something that hurts us to earn a few more pennies they will do it without having to think about it much.
I am not against trying Windows 7. I did it out of curiosity, and because it is not necessary to close to a single option either. But for beta testers they have their employees, and I find the idea of trying it out to help Microsoft seem terribly ridiculous.
but where is he who has not commented ???
@ LJMarín: dear friend, have I asked you to solve Bill's life? No, I suggested you give W7 a try so you can complain and speak properly, but it is hard to understand it seems.
It's easier to complain outright, obviously, and I'm not saying it for you, I'm saying it for everyone (and I include myself).
"And because of its ideology it is something that has trapped me, and if we want new users to care at least about Free OS, we must instill those ideologies,"
"There is" what?
In my opinion, pretending that people value the freedom of software before its functionality is a good excuse to keep operating systems free at 1% of their current desktop quota.
I agree with the author of the post. It is my impression that the motivation of many who claim to be advocates of software freedom is not that they deeply believe in the benefit of the impact on freedoms that free software brings; it is pure and simple * the will to be exclusive * because sadly today it is not trivial to do without proprietary software for some, luckily less and less, tasks.
I bet that in those little heads, every time the usability of a piece of free software is improved, an alarm goes off that screams: «shit! with that anyone could use linux! »
I have been watching for years how someone enters the linux forums who identifies himself as noob, who uses noob terminology, who asks a noob question, and who is answered with an average of 5 linux commands. this is a failure. I'll say it again in case someone doesn't get it. this is a failure.
I don't know if it's because of stockholm syndrome (Linux was very difficult and as it becomes easy, some prefer it difficult), because of sociopathy (come on, they prefer it difficult to fuck) because of snobbery (they prefer it difficult to be cool) or why.
I have bad news for those who believe that reporting bugs to Microsoft will have it smaller: you have an inferiority complex.
free software can and will be as easy and powerful as we * want * it to be. and microsoft won't be able to stop it. there you have firefox with 20%, there you have more and more people who do not depend on microsoft office, there you have mac with 9% and going up and there you have a linux distro installable from windows (ubuntu, with wubi). all software-fiction only 5 years ago. I insist. anyone you predicted any of this to in 2004 would have patted you on the back. including my mother, father, richard stallman, mark shuttleworth, or barack obama.
If free software makes users happy while using it, they will use free software. is demonstrated. that's the way to go, in my opinion.
N @ ty I think when you wrote the post you had serotonin at 0: P
I think you forgot that many use linux for -as they already said- ideology, for their own conviction, and for other things than for sure, you know, then, tell one of these linux users to be a win beta tester, umm, at least I pass, please do not take it the wrong way, I defend and support your right to try and install whatever comes your way.
Anyway, the weekend catharsis was good: D
Regards!
I very much agree with «a», and I think that mainly the cause is quite simple, this is a Blog totally related to Linux, full of readers who use Linux, Most of those readers have already been using Linux for a long time and that implies in who have already taken their OS as something important, any Linux user who has little time knowing it, very little time, those who still have that partition for Windows, those users will more easily understand your position N @ ty, because they still use Windows daily, but for Linux users who already have our little time using Linux and who apart from using it we take a, well almost sweetheart, those users just don't want anything with Microsoft ... I see it that simple: P haha ...
At least in my case, I do not hate Microsoft, but I do not support him, I do not hate Bill Gates, I just do not like his product, which if I hate the truth is the manager of Microsoft, the one who runs like crazy for everything the stage in a presentation ... aaah that one who was thrown with eggs too haha ....
Cheers ;)
1. I do not download anything over 1Gb because I do not have a DVD burner and it is not consistent for me to occupy that the installation CD of an OS (in other words, I do not meet the requirements).
2.- There are enough of us who see it with a KDE face, why? because it simply reminds us of KDE without further ado, and in fact there are people who like this desktop because it looks like Windows.
3.- The average user is not going to use Linux until you force it (or they make a definitive anti-copy system, or the cracks do us the great favor of not making Keygen or patches for Windows 7).
4.- If I write this from Windows, why is my wife doing research for her patient, and I am not sorry to say that I liked XP, but I am unaccustomed.
Perfect then!
stay with your idiot, unstable, uncomfortable, complicated and closed kde. I still use gnome.
Well I think that then I am from the minority that hates to see a windows similar to linux or a linux similar to mac or vice versa
that annoys me more than anything, that is why I have always said each soft has to be treated as what a new user is, the worst thing in the world is to put a cover of windows on a pc with linux »'ique» so that it becomes familiar and don't feel lost
As for the copy of windows 7 with respect to kde, I do not criticize it for simply copying it but because they have engineers who charge in a week what it will take me years to charge me and they have money to pay and support the world for 3 days, so why can't they make a quality software that is different from all the others?
We who are on foot without resources are more innovative, but when I see an internet cafe or a pc with linux, with images of windows or a pc with linux with images and mac cover, let's say that discourages me a bit, because I consider what it is to throw our work on the floor and not value it, it is like seeing
a transvestite in the street and say she is a woman because she looks like a woman or because she dresses like one
then we get upset when a person with little knowledge sees a kde and says, molaaa did you install windows 7 or asks what windows is that?
Imagine with what face I say, look at that is called GNU Linux when the machine I put it with a cover of xp so that it becomes familiar, psychologically you will not feel the change, your subconscious will tell you it is xp and it runs well so far
That's why I say if they do something, let's improve it but let's do it 100% different from what they can imagine.
long live gnu linux
excuse the spelling
excellent post :) sorry for the relief hehe
It's just that I don't want to use it or test it fairly. It is not that I am small-minded, but what Microsoft has done to my country (Chile) is very bad, I practically buy it, that is why it has hurt us Free Software users in a great way. That is why I do not mind testing MS OS, in any way, in fact in my house and everyone uses Free Software, those are my reasons.
mine are simple too:
a) The installation, and especially the post-installation of windows, is exhausting, especially for the little it offers. I doubt very much that win 7 is something so different, and if it is, better for windowseros. I install and configure in 1 hour. 2, if my connection goes bad.
b) Windows has no problem in forcing me its system shit on all the computers I want to buy, making it difficult to buy the same thing without OS Just for that, they can already put the beta through ... I don't know, somewhere where it hurts a lot.
c) Win 7 looks like KDE. Ok… And is that good? No, it will make the next one you see a kde say "pffff go copy of win 7". And that does not attract many new ...
d) I could go on ...
And when all are super (linux), the super geeks will have to use BSD, open solaris, haiku, reactos, or hurd (does anyone remember hurd? Maybe some debianite). The good thing is that for projects without diffusion we do not stop.
Curious that windows 7 looks like KDE, being that KDE always tries to make things easier for the windows user by looking like him.
At the end of the day this only shows that Microsoft is already beginning to care about Linux and that is a sign of the progress that Linux has had, especially in recent years.
Hurd is a project that is still alive! wait just ...