Quoting Xavier Gentoo <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > > Well, you may not like it, but you are one. There's no way that > somebody > > could know everything about everything, and that's why we specialize > in > > different things. You have no choice but accept that most of the > > technologies and products in this world you will never completely > > dissect and understand -- it just all got too big for one person. > > Objection. 95% of people don't own BMW, use Hitachi DVDs, have an iMac > at home > and only drink Lipton "tea". That's because there's competition and > that's > because they have something to choose from.
You're barging into an open door here. Nowhere in my message was I talking about competition, or lack thereof. I was saying that every single one of us understands some of the technologies he's using, and blindly accepts and consumes most others, for good and bad. That's an unfortunate property of the exceedinly complex world that we live in. I said that as a response to Gilad's opinion that there are other properties of software besides usability and utility in the real world, such as moral issues of software freedom or technical issues of code hackability, that should interest someone who doesn't specialize in computers in school. I do not agree with that. I hope I'm coming across clearer now. As to competition, unfortunately you're very correct -- Microsoft has a strong and abusive monopoly on the OS and software market, especially here in Israel. More on that below. > > The "basic understanding" you mentioned elsewhere in your e-mail is > what > > makes all the difference -- it's very good to thrive to have a basic > > understanding of everything, but tweaking the source of your word > > processor is way beyond that. So the boy who specializes in music in > his > > school has a computer class, and you as a teacher must give him the > > knowledge that will serve him best when he later has to use a computer > > (as a *consumer*), and not draw him into the free software argument > and > > make him a showcase of your opinion at the expense of his time and > > mindshare. > > Let me summarize you the free software argument in schools for you so > that you > rethink your above statement: > > 1) There's no reason why a state maintained school should waste > taxpayers' > money for proprietary software when an [equally good] free alternative > exists. In fact, in a people's government (wow, a herd of pigs flying > by) > there is absolutely no reason why proprietary software should be used at > all. Again, you're hitting beside the mark. In a perfect world, you would be completely correct. However, your message is somewhat akin to that of the sixties hippie pacifists: Lets just all stop fighting, throw all our weapons away, and there will be world peace. As reality has showed, our world is a little more complicated than that. I agree that the Microsoft monopoly is terrible in just about every way possible, and we must do our best to change the situation. However, *today* the poor boy who learns music *will* have to use Word, whether you like it or not, because we haven't done changing the world yet. So making him a tool in the anti-Microsoft revolution is irresponsible towards him. I think that the way to changing the Microsoft situation lies through the computer specialists. Those are the people who can handle changing software environments. At this point, even among this folk there's very little awareness to Microsoft alternatives and issues of software freedom. Especially in Israel -- c.f. the thread about Israeli web development. *That's* where our efforts should be concentrated. This includes schools, too -- I definitely think that kids specializing in computers at schools should learn different kinds of software, especially free software, and should be made aware of the issues of software freedom and free competition. However, kids who will only use computers as users, and the only reason they learn computers is to be able to make them do their job with minimum effort, should learn the tools that they will get to use in the real world, and for the time being, these are Microsoft tools. -- Alex Shnitman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.hectic.net/ UIN 188956 PGP 0xEC5D619D / E1 F2 7B 6C A0 31 80 28 63 B8 02 BA 65 C7 8B BA ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
