When people are happy with the status quo…
… they’d rather let things stay that way.
That seems to be the gist of the Wired article as to what Linus Torvalds thinks are reasons why people are not shifting to Linux.
But according to Torvalds the reason Linux hasn’t taken off is that most people are happy with the way things are. “If you act differently from Windows, even if you act in some ways better, it doesn’t matter; better is worse if it’s different.”
Torvalds also attributes much of the frustration with Windows Vista to this same idea. In other words, it’s not that Vista is worse than XP, but it’s different and that causes distress among users.
He has a point. After all, people are still installing Windows XP on the Asus EEE because of that. It’s the mentality, the convenience of knowing Windows already that keeps people to it and maybe even if Linux is better in ways that are applicable to them, they’d still rather have Windows XP or something.
Well, it’s time to rock the boat! I’ve seen it happen before and it could still happen. I’ve seen co-workers who have been given Linux desktops and they were productive on them. It’s awesome, really. :) If only we’d be brave enough to do something like suggest it to our colleagues and give them enough support to get them started. One of our administrative staff in the office was comfortable enough with the Linux desktop she had.
You never know when you’re going to be an instrument of change. :)
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POSTED IN: The Free World.
1 opinion for When people are happy with the status quo…
Arnold L. Johnson
Feb 9, 2008 at 11:24 am
It’s like being drugged and trying to snap out of a stupor. We have been programmed to believe that we are so habitual that once we are imprinted we will not change and have no desire to learn something new. The truth is that GUI’s are not all that different and OS’s all operate the same hardware in the same ways. We users are endowed with the ability to use our 10% functionality beyond what years of marketing research and commercial imprinting has told us. I consider live-CD Linux a wakeup. “Take the red pill and see how deep the rabbit hole goes”.
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