Advocacy: A discouraging conversation

[stu]

On Wednesday 12 July 2006 04:46, Mike Schwartz wrote:
> On 7/11/06, Alan Dayley <alandd at consultpros.com> wrote:
> > [...]
> > I always thought I understood that average people were somewhat ignorant
> > about the Internet, what it is, etc.  Then I was shocked into the
> > reality this Sunday.
> >
> > I was showing the funny GetFirefox commercials to my visiting extended
> > family when the following conversation between my sister-in-law, my
> > mother-in-law (both reasonably intelligent) and myself occurred:
> >
> > Mother: What is Firefox? Is that an Internet service?
> > Sister (before I could answer): Firefox is like AOL or MSN.COM, right?
> > Mother: Oh, so you go on the Internet and visit there. We have cable
> > Internet at home. Can we get Firefox there?
> > Me: Firefox is a web browser not a service. Like Internet Explorer is a
> > browser.
> > Sister: So it IS like AOL.
> > Mother: But can I get it through cable?
> >
> > I was dumbfounded that two normal people had no concept what a browser
> > was.  I didn't feel like starting an Internet 101 class at that moment,
> > nor did we have the time, so I dropped it.
> >
> > How can Firefox, for example, sell itself to people who think it is an
> > ISP? We FS/OSS advocates have a lot education to do before people even
> > understand what the choice IS, let alone that they have one!
> >
> > Alan
> > [...snip...]
>
> I second that emotion.
>
> I myself  sometimes feel lost trying to
> find something in the on-line documentation
> for a program, especially if it is, like, some DB
> or spread sheet, or presentation graphics
> (or even Word Processing) software,
> that I don't know very well.
>
> However, my parents (in their 80s) still do
> not have e-mail,
> and one of my sisters
> (who has a son & daughter both getting
>  straight A's in college)
> still thinks it is too much strain on her brain,
> for her to learn (or, is it, remember, once
> she learns) how to use COPY and PASTE.
>
> I guess everything is, it is all relative.
> [so], keep things in perspecitve,
> all the best, from

Ha! A few weeks ago at work I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing out 
loud at a Windoze Fanboi who rambled on about how lousy and worthless Linux 
was while he "Googled" information off the internet! ~ Stu