What Excites You?

John Abreau jabr at abreau.net
Mon Mar 24 19:34:13 EST 2003


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Jon Hall <maddog at dtype.org> writes:

> Hi,
> 
> I am writing a talk on "What Excites Me" about Linux.  The object of this
> talk is to not only talk about the philosophical things that excites me, but
> honest to goodness "neat" programs.

I don't know if you'd count this as "exciting", but I'd compare Linux to 
a good pair of glasses. When I look at something through my glasses, 
I generally just take the glasses for granted; I don't have to think 
about how to operate them, I just put them on and use them. 

By comparison, I guess Windows would be like having a clumsy, 
condescending
moron who holds my glasses for me while I look through them. I can tell 
him
where to point them, but he's convinced he knows better than I do what 
I "really" want to see, so he points the glasses where he wants as often 
as where I want. 

Another way of describing this is that with Linux, when I want to do 
something I can basically just go ahead and do it, and occasionally 
I have to decide what additional tool I need to fetch to handle a 
small part of the task. With Windows, I have to decide in advance what 
huge application domain to use to handle the entire task, and if that 
application doesn't handle one part of it, I have to work my way through 
a file-format maze to travel back and forth between distant application 
domains to handle it. Or I can redefine my task to suit the limitations 
of the application I've chosen. 

I've often seen people use a metaphor where they essentially describe a 
computer as a digital butler. If Windows is such a butler, then in 
comparison I find Linux is a prosthetic extension of my brain. 
And I find a *huge* difference between doing something myself, and 
asking a butler to do it for me: if you want it done right, you gotta 
do it yourself. 


- --
John Abreau / Executive Director, Boston Linux & Unix
Email jabr at blu.org / WWW http://www.abreau.net / PGP-Key-ID 0xD5C7B5D9
PGP-Key-Fingerprint 72 FB 39 4F 3C 3B D6 5B E0 C8 5A 6E F1 2C BE 99


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.1 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Exmh version 2.6 02/09/2003

iQCVAwUBPn+kAVV9A5rVx7XZAQJAtQP/Takb78xOBx8UiZyQM1HVB1OwcNoG0gI1
p+2nG32UWS7HqNhk1wWuLGHrfoiq5VsHeJZxlkDx5WhYsxmnAJsULNjdRnee+pFC
qVYCPWXMlOEKgeSLEBmEGQdF0AubeZKh4TZjfT4cu3Sdssagvqbgxe0n8qjkY9S4
o531dgfPlJ0=
=Whin
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----




More information about the gnhlug-discuss mailing list