On Nov 2, 2003, at 11:25 PM, Alan Dayley wrote:

> Let's see if I can put this in writing without rambling too much.

I'm very impressed with what you wrote. I tend to agree with most of it 
because it addresses the organization. The advantages of Linux for 
organizations are undisputed, certainly by me. I think there are big 
problems with getting Linux into lots of  organizations but that 
doesn't have anything to do with any flaws in Linux. It has everything 
to do with people in those organizations who owe there positions, 
formally or informally, to their ability to cope with the quirks of 
Windows.

My original questioning of the value of advocacy was aimed at the 
individual user simply because that is where our advocacy is being 
aimed. And while some of the responses here have opened, or at least 
cracked, my mind, I'm not totally convinced.

Let's consider a simplified taxonomy of home users:

User A: She bought a Gateway at the Big Box store. It came with Win 98 
and Office Home edition. She uses it for surfing email and writing 
letters. Maybe once in a great while she brings home a spreadsheet from 
work, also a Windows only shop. She has added a few games for the kids 
and a program that prints out cross stitch patterns. She used to run 
Software Update religiously but then her computer started telling her 
when it needed updating.

She has never had a problem with her computer except that the 
supposedly plug and play digital camera she got has never worked. She 
doesn't care enough to pursue it. She hates to tweak with things.

User B: Lets his daughter play on the net with Kazaa. She also likes to 
DL that thing with the monkey. Every few weeks the computer stops 
working completely and his daughter bugs him to fix it. He has learned 
how to boot from the CD, wipe the drive, and re-install Windows. His 
daughter is happy and he is a hero.

Some on this list have asserted there is a third type who behaves like 
A but suffers like B. I don't disbelieve them but I have yet to meet 
one. I suspect they may have cheap e-Machines that are just wearing 
out.

Now I think that User A is the ideal person for Joe's approach. She can 
be persuaded of the superiority of Mozilla to IE/Outlook with one 
glance. She can be persuaded to stop sending out .doc files by simply 
pointing out that it is impolite in the same way that it is impolite to 
hold a conversation in German in a group where only some people speak 
that language. Suggest plain text or rtf. On the other hand, she 
probably emailed a document in any form twice in her life.

Please don't talk to her about 'freedom.'

User B really wants his computer to be a mess. His daughter enjoys 
screwing it up and he enjoys 'fixing' it. Linux has nothing to offer 
him and we really don't want him on our side.