Juan Alberto Cirez wrote: > Mitchell Brown wrote: > > >> Thanks to hype0 for sending this to me. It made my day :) >> >> >> >> MGBs, TANKS, AND BATMOBILES >> >> Around the time that Jobs, Wozniak, Gates, and Allen were dreaming up >> these unlikely schemes, I was a teenager living in Ames, Iowa. One of >> my friends' dads had an old MGB sports car rusting away in his garage. >> Sometimes he would actually manage to get it running and then he would >> take us for a spin around the block, with a memorable look of wild >> youthful exhiliration on his face; to his worried passengers, he was a >> madman, stalling and backfiring around Ames, Iowa and eating the dust >> of rusty Gremlins and Pintos, but in his own mind he was Dustin >> Hoffman tooling across the Bay Bridge with the wind in his hair. >> >> In retrospect, this was telling me two things about people's >> relationship to technology. One was that romance and image go a long >> way towards shaping their opinions. If you doubt it (and if you have a >> lot of spare time on your hands) just ask anyone who owns a Macintosh >> and who, on those grounds, imagines him- or herself to be a member of >> an oppressed minority group. >> >> The other, somewhat subtler point, was that interface is very >> important. Sure, the MGB was a lousy car in almost every way that >> counted: balky, unreliable, underpowered. /But it was fun to drive/. >> It was responsive. Every pebble on the road was felt in the bones, >> every nuance in the pavement transmitted instantly to the driver's >> hands. He could listen to the engine and tell what was wrong with it. >> The steering responded immediately to commands from his hands. To us >> passengers it was a pointless exercise in going nowhere--about as >> interesting as peering over someone's shoulder while he punches >> numbers into a spreadsheet. But to the driver it was an /experience/. >> For a short time he was extending his body and his senses into a >> larger realm, and doing things that he couldn't do unassisted. >> >> The analogy between cars and operating systems is not half bad, and so >> let me run with it for a moment, as a way of giving an executive >> summary of our situation today. >> >> Imagine a crossroads where four competing auto dealerships are >> situated. One of them (Microsoft) is much, much bigger than the >> others. It started out years ago selling three-speed bicycles >> (MS-DOS); these were not perfect, but they worked, and when they broke >> you could easily fix them. >> >> There was a competing bicycle dealership next door (Apple) that one >> day began selling motorized vehicles--expensive but attractively >> styled cars with their innards hermetically sealed, so that how they >> worked was something of a mystery. >> >> The big dealership responded by rushing a moped upgrade kit (the >> original Windows) onto the market. This was a Rube Goldberg >> contraption that, when bolted onto a three-speed bicycle, enabled it >> to keep up, just barely, with Apple-cars. The users had to wear >> goggles and were always picking bugs out of their teeth while Apple >> owners sped along in hermetically sealed comfort, sneering out the >> windows. But the Micro-mopeds were cheap, and easy to fix compared >> with the Apple-cars, and their market share waxed. >> >> Eventually the big dealership came out with a full-fledged car: a >> colossal station wagon (Windows 95). It had all the aesthetic appeal >> of a Soviet worker housing block, it leaked oil and blew gaskets, and >> it was an enormous success. A little later, they also came out with a >> hulking off-road vehicle intended for industrial users (Windows NT) >> which was no more beautiful than the station wagon, and only a little >> more reliable. >> >> Since then there has been a lot of noise and shouting, but little has >> changed. The smaller dealership continues to sell sleek Euro-styled >> sedans and to spend a lot of money on advertising campaigns. They have >> had GOING OUT OF BUSINESS! signs taped up in their windows for so long >> that they have gotten all yellow and curly. The big one keeps making >> bigger and bigger station wagons and ORVs. >> >> On the other side of the road are two competitors that have come along >> more recently. >> >> One of them (Be, Inc.) is selling fully operational Batmobiles (the >> BeOS). They are more beautiful and stylish even than the Euro-sedans, >> better designed, more technologically advanced, and at least as >> reliable as anything else on the market--and yet cheaper than the others. >> >> With one exception, that is: Linux, which is right next door, and >> which is not a business at all. It's a bunch of RVs, yurts, tepees, >> and geodesic domes set up in a field and organized by consensus. The >> people who live there are making tanks. These are not old-fashioned, >> cast-iron Soviet tanks; these are more like the M1 tanks of the U.S. >> Army, made of space-age materials and jammed with sophisticated >> technology from one end to the other. But they are better than Army >> tanks. They've been modified in such a way that they never, ever break >> down, are light and maneuverable enough to use on ordinary streets, >> and use no more fuel than a subcompact car. These tanks are being >> cranked out, on the spot, at a terrific pace, and a vast number of >> them are lined up along the edge of the road with keys in the >> ignition. Anyone who wants can simply climb into one and drive it away >> for free. >> >> Customers come to this crossroads in throngs, day and night. Ninety >> percent of them go straight to the biggest dealership and buy station >> wagons or off-road vehicles. They do not even look at the other >> dealerships. >> >> Of the remaining ten percent, most go and buy a sleek Euro-sedan, >> pausing only to turn up their noses at the philistines going to buy >> the station wagons and ORVs. If they even notice the people on the >> opposite side of the road, selling the cheaper, technically superior >> vehicles, these customers deride them cranks and half-wits. >> >> The Batmobile outlet sells a few vehicles to the occasional car nut >> who wants a second vehicle to go with his station wagon, but seems to >> accept, at least for now, that it's a fringe player. >> >> The group giving away the free tanks only stays alive because it is >> staffed by volunteers, who are lined up at the edge of the street with >> bullhorns, trying to draw customers' attention to this incredible >> situation. A typical conversation goes something like this: >> >> Hacker with bullhorn: "Save your money! Accept one of our free tanks! >> It is invulnerable, and can drive across rocks and swamps at ninety >> miles an hour while getting a hundred miles to the gallon!" >> >> Prospective station wagon buyer: "I know what you say is >> true...but...er...I don't know how to maintain a tank!" >> >> Bullhorn: "You don't know how to maintain a station wagon either!" >> >> Buyer: "But this dealership has mechanics on staff. If something goes >> wrong with my station wagon, I can take a day off work, bring it here, >> and pay them to work on it while I sit in the waiting room for hours, >> listening to elevator music." >> >> Bullhorn: "But if you accept one of our free tanks we will send >> volunteers to your house to fix it for free while you sleep!" >> >> Buyer: "Stay away from my house, you freak!" >> >> Bullhorn: "But..." >> >> Buyer: "Can't you see that everyone is buying station wagons?" >> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> >> _______________________________________________ >> >> >> > Here are my "dos centavos": > I have been using Linux since 1993/1994. I have always used slackware > (and only briefly used debian/Stormix while building their Firewall/VPN > server). Although Linux has gotten easier to install and maintain, it > does still requires a basic understanding of computers to make full > use of it. Until Linux is 100% idiot-proof and supports as many devices > as Windows does (right out of the box), it will be relegated to the > "Gourmet" user... > To paraphrase Friedrich W. Nietzsche: Every advance in human society is > only made possible when and if the powerful elite deems it necessary, or > convenient...(EVERY elevation of the type "man," has hitherto been the > work of an aristocratic society and so it will always be...). Not until > the business world (not just a few; but a concerned, unified effort) see > the economic benefits(to themselves; not the consumer) of promoting > Linux as a viable alternative (and Linux continues to mature into a > true user-friendly OS) will it reach the critical mass it needs to > "compete" against the StationWagon dealership...Not matter how cool it > is to drive a tank on the freeway (or how nice it's to blow s**t up with it) > >
Nietzsche is old school and over rated ;-) . ... Now back to configing this Mr. Fusion power plant for my Hyperdrive M1 with XGL and wobbly windows.... -- Chaos, panic, & disorder - my work here is done. _______________________________________________ clug-talk mailing list [email protected] http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) **Please remove these lines when replying
