Countering bias with bias?

Weblog:		Linux Desktop - An Analyst's Nightmare
Subject:		Countering bias with bias?
Date:		2005-09-19 15:06:27
From:		kollivier

You talk about 'discrimination' against Desktop Linux and NDL, but yet you draw lots of conclusions without telling us how you got there. (i.e. "my research shows...") Really, reading this argument doesn't tell me why Linux is 'ready', it only tells me you think it is, and perhaps that it is ready for you, and that everyone else is wrong due to 'bias'. But you never prove the critics wrong with facts or evidence, so you give me little reason to believe your perspective is any more 'valid' than the people you say are biased, etc. Instead, you just fall into the typical justifications, like "If you cannot figure out Linux, you have no place pontificating about information technology." Or praise Linux on its benefits while ignoring its faults. Nothing I haven't heard before, and words are less convincing than my own experiences. I ran into the usual problems when I tried Novell Desktop Linux, though overall the experience is one of the better ones I've had with Linux distros. It did handle i18n fairly well, and a lot of stuff worked out of the box. But I quickly ran into the problem that, outside possibly of their subscription package service, there really weren't many NDL packages out there. I don't mind paying for my OS, but heck if I'm going to pay a subscription fee just to be able to install software on it. Nor am I going to install everything from source - I've got better things to do with my time. Also, their media player choked on a LOT of my files, even standard MPEG ones, meaning I was quickly on the hunt for third-party software to fix this. Then I realized it wasn't really worth my time when I have perfectly good boxes running other operating systems. So I found myself (once again) back at my Win/Mac boxes pretty quickly. There is no way that I could use NDL as my primary desktop. It will work in the enterprise, where IT depts can lock down unnecessary functionality and focus on email/web and office software. But for the average user, there are still a number of rough edges compared to Win/Mac. I'm glad it works for you, but you might want to seriously investigate what's wrong before blindly concluding that everyone must be biased or stupid if they don't see how great Linux is.

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Countering bias with bias?
2005-09-20 09:28:56 bigpicture [Reply | View]

I am both a Linux and a Windows user. I have also over many years examined the nature of prejudice, and it seems to be deeply ingrained in the human condition. Otherwise why would we have these extreme polarizations of human opinion.

These prejudices in most cases are relatively harmless, but then there can be cases where these can be extremely dangerous. Take Hitler who presented rationale for his actions, and even sold this to the general populace and got voting support, so they must have thought his rationale made sense. Here is a sample of the logic: It is OK to dispossess the Jews of their property because that is the LAW. But then who made this law??

You think this insanity is all in the past, then look at todays Islamic LAW and the rights of women. Or even some of todays American LAWs. The way I see it with all the flaming that goes on on the internet, that prejudice and insanity is alive and well. It is that just as long as it is focused on OSes, it may not evolve into road rage, or war, or something more harmful.

bigpicture.

Countering bias with bias?
2005-09-19 16:56:20 Tom Adelstein | [Reply | View]

If you couldn't use NLD as your primary desktop, then you can't do what a patient recovering from neorologial surgery did. In fact, that person not only found it as an aid to recovery, but also was offered a system analyst position at a major hospital. Prior to that, the same person could not master OS X or Windows XP before the illness.

Thanks for grain of sand in an endless desert of remarks from trolls on the Internet.

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