Opening A Can Of Source
Because my brother worked in the World Trade Center up until just about a year ago, my mom got a little emotional on the 11th, and so she called me up to talk about just about anything else. It was a good little chat.
There was a scary, worldview-shaking moment, though. Mom was talking about how she was getting awfully tired of Windows crashing on her, and mentioned that there was a seminar going on at the community college in which, if you brought in your laptop, they would install, "what is it called," Mom said, "Linux?"
Mom. Linux. Mom. Linux. Oh boy. Now, don't get me wrong, Mom's not an idiot. She's very intelligent, but she's just never been computer oriented. She can learn how to use applications without too much difficulty, and is proficient in several on both Windows and the Macintosh, but some basic concepts have given her trouble. I just know that I was overwhelmed by Linux, though admittedly I had Slackware, which is apparently one of the trickier distributions.
Interestingly, Mom had no idea that Linux was free. I found myself going into a lengthy explanation of Linus Torvalds, the open source idea, the Open Source movement (the latter seeming lately to be two entirely different things), and so on. Mom liked the idea of not supporting Microsoft, because, as she says, "Anyone who has as much money as Bill Gates should be able to afford to get a haircut."
I don't know if I like the idea of Mom getting Linux or not. On one hand, down with Redmond; on the other, am I going to have to do support for her? And is she going to be able to handle it at all?
Really, I guess it depends on the level of support she'd be able to get locally. If there's somebody who's willing to put Linux on people's systems for them, they're going to be advocates if not activists, and that does bode well, especially since Mom's the type who can form a relationship with people, or at least talk to them more than is technically necessary.
And I don't know what I'll do if she starts posting to /.
There was a scary, worldview-shaking moment, though. Mom was talking about how she was getting awfully tired of Windows crashing on her, and mentioned that there was a seminar going on at the community college in which, if you brought in your laptop, they would install, "what is it called," Mom said, "Linux?"
Mom. Linux. Mom. Linux. Oh boy. Now, don't get me wrong, Mom's not an idiot. She's very intelligent, but she's just never been computer oriented. She can learn how to use applications without too much difficulty, and is proficient in several on both Windows and the Macintosh, but some basic concepts have given her trouble. I just know that I was overwhelmed by Linux, though admittedly I had Slackware, which is apparently one of the trickier distributions.
Interestingly, Mom had no idea that Linux was free. I found myself going into a lengthy explanation of Linus Torvalds, the open source idea, the Open Source movement (the latter seeming lately to be two entirely different things), and so on. Mom liked the idea of not supporting Microsoft, because, as she says, "Anyone who has as much money as Bill Gates should be able to afford to get a haircut."
I don't know if I like the idea of Mom getting Linux or not. On one hand, down with Redmond; on the other, am I going to have to do support for her? And is she going to be able to handle it at all?
Really, I guess it depends on the level of support she'd be able to get locally. If there's somebody who's willing to put Linux on people's systems for them, they're going to be advocates if not activists, and that does bode well, especially since Mom's the type who can form a relationship with people, or at least talk to them more than is technically necessary.
And I don't know what I'll do if she starts posting to /.