Ubuntu's not GNU/Linux?

[Kristian Rink]

Michael, *;

Am 20.04.2010 21:59, schrieb Michael Kesper:
> Thank you for your very long but good post!

No problem. :) Actually, I've been a quiet lurker on this list for quite 
some time, but some of the discussions goin' on here recently just feel 
"strange" somehow... To add some thoughts:

> I'd say it's important to show people the different mindsets.
> If I'm forced to use windows (at work), I'm always again astonished how
> difficult it is to get the tools to just do your work, how much pain it is
> to keep everything updated etc.

Yes. Same here. Well, not exactly the same: I am not forced to use 
Windows. As a company, we're open to both "open source" and "software 
libre", and I am using software libre on my day-to-day development 
notebook and, asides this, as much as somewhat possible... with the 
compromises necessary and outlined before (most notably the viewer 
problem which, even though this easily would be possible regarding any 
other applications we use/need, so far forces us to stay with Windows on 
workstations).

> The tools are all inclusive.
> Maybe you can also show that even people who are not programmers can help
> A LOT by translating, sending bug reports, designing themes etc.

Yes. Indeed. But I think in many respects, there is one big field where 
Ubuntu, despite all "libre vs. non-libre" discussions, excels: By 
putting the user in the center of things.

Take something like the "100 papercuts" project [1], and put that in 
relation to your experience outlined earlier (how difficult things are 
on Windows on many respects), which I share with some of our users (some 
of them right now suffering because our viewer manufacturer, for 
whichever stupid reason, decided to go with "ribbon" user interface in 
its latest release):

Most users who "just" want to get work done suffer in day-to-day work 
simply for usability, accessibility, ergonomy reasons. "Open community" 
(including software libre people and the whole crowd "just" focussed on 
building open-source software) really could make a difference here 
simply by taking the user "more seriously", by making him/her more than 
just a customer. That, to me, is the "human" thing about Ubuntu, and it 
seems reasonable (and, overally, success of that distribution even among 
non-technical users seems to prove this approach right).

Or, the other way 'round: To most users (leaving out idealistic / 
enthusiastic people like you, me and the rest of folks around here), I 
think switching to software libre / becoming active somehow needs good 
reasons beyond "just" freedom/liberty, as this reason is something they 
eventually aren't experiencing as an advantage anyhow. If you don't have 
someone to share software with, don't want to look at or even modify 
source code, and so far never experienced either the legal or the 
technical boundaries of a system like MacOS or Windows, what advantage 
(asides the obvious fact of "being free", having total control) does 
"software libre" bring you?

Let's compare it to motivating people to buy groceries made in fair 
trade and/or ecological / sustainable agriculture: Surely, there is a 
group of people buying right _this_ kind of products for ethical or 
political reasons. But to "Joe Average" (who doesn't really know/care 
about these things), in the end it comes down to products (a) being more 
expensive, (b) certain products not being available at some times of the 
year (you don't have strawberries in Europe in winter...), (c) 
eventually looking a little less "perfect", looking a little less like 
right off a food magazine cover shot (look at some biologically grown 
apples and you know what I mean). So, how to make this "Joe Average" 
interested in biological food? Give him reasons _he_ will see as 
advantages: Products being healthier (because of the lack of any 
chemicals along the production trail), products tasting more intense 
(compare the taste of tomatoes grown in-house in winter to those grown 
outside in the sun, given the time it takes...), knowing better what is 
inside because after all these are the tomatoes, potatoes, ... grown by 
the farmer just next door not packaged and imported by some global 
corporation, ... . Being provided with advantages like this, "Joe 
Average" eventually will see why this is good for him/her _besides_ 
being "just" ethically / politically better.

And, to get back to software, this is where I see Ubuntus "user-first" 
approach come in: Provide the user with reasons to use software libre, 
even those users that don't do that "for the sake of liberty". Provide 
them with a framework stable enough to have as much freedom as somehow 
possible. Maybe the most constructive thing we could do about this would 
be to embrace Ubuntu and its community and gently guide users into 
values of software libre, gently being the acceptance that sometimes 
compromises have been made or else, the overall freedom of this user 
might drastically be reduced (as in worst case (s)he gets back to 
Windows, finding him-/herself unable to open what seems an "ordinary" 
PDF file on a software libre platform). This is what I do these days, 
this is how I try making people aware of free software, and at the very 
least, with Ubuntu working out of the box on most systems, the hurdle to 
even show people what software libre can do is incredibly lower. That's 
good, I'd say. :)

K.



[1]https://launchpad.net/hundredpapercuts

-- 
Kristian Rink * http://pictorial.zimmer428.net # kawazu at jabber.org
"What was once thought can never be unthought."
(Duerrenmatt - 'Die Physiker')