[Lancaster] Re: Help -- Video importing/processing software

[Richard Robinson]

On Fri, Aug 04, 2006 at 11:32:00AM +0100, David Jenkinson wrote:
> 
> [excuse random snippage]
> 
> As Richard Robinson said.
> 
> >It reminds me of the recent attitude of some well known polititians. 
> >They tend not to last very long.

[wasn't me. A Ken, I think. Not to worry]

> >Call it preconceived, but to the average (non techy) computer user it 
> >can only be very significant blocking factor.
> 
> Perhaps the amount of Linux users is high enough already, and I just 
> don't see the concern people have in getting everyone to use Linux. If 
> some don't want to and they have no problem not doing then why try to 
> change their attitude?

I agree with this, mostly. I moved over to Linux in '94/'95, and am still
pleased I did, _because_ it was easier to use. For my purposes; which are
not commercial-mainstream enough for anyone to have built the "killer app",
that would do everything for me already, so I've been hacking together my
own ideas.

It's in my interest for Linux to have a large (and contributing) user base -
distributed debugging works; and also general "kudos", encouragement and
appreciation for the developers, is helpful - but it's not a religion. I
don't understand this "we've got to capture all the windows users" approach.


> >>I agree, though I also remember why I started using Linux - because I 
> >>find using windows so frustrating and am prepared to make some 
> >>sacrifices in order not to have to live with the frustration.
> 
> >You are knowledgable enough to be able to make those sacrifices. Most 
> >people are not and do not wish to be. That is not likely to change in 
> >the foreseeable future.
> 
> Yeah so forget about them. Theres is enough Linux users now to not have 
> to worry about gaining more. There is enough  hardware support if you 
> are careful about which product you buy, and its better now than its 
> ever been. I don't think the sacrifice of making an operating system 
> that appeals to the masses to ensure hardware support is worth it. 
> Theres no problem in making it difficult enough to use so that the base 
> level user is at least able to read a faq before whingeing to the 
> developers mailing list. Where's the elitist streak in you?

*grin*

I bought a scanner, a few months back. I went to Matticks, on White Cross,
because they're very local, and because I quite like them. They gave me the
usual semi-teasing "uh-oh, here comes the Linux weirdo, this is going to be
a problem", I pointed them at the SANE support page, we looked at the lists,
they suprised themselves discovering that the basic cheapo one they had in
stock was documented as "well-suported", I handed over 35quid and took it
away ... attempting to set the thing up revealed it wasn't as simple as
that. There was a chunk of binary info needed, that turned out to be buried
in some windows-format thing on the drivers disk (documentation recommends
just reboot into windows & extract it ... huh. I don't run one), google
shows one (really, only) relevant message to a mailing list pointing out
an open-source utility that can, and did, do the job. So I mailed the
relevant developer, he's put links to it into the documentation, and no-one
else will ever have to think they're stuck on this. Situation improved.

My point is, that's how it works. Lots of people wouldn't want to go through
that - heck, I wasn't exactly pleased - and that's where there's room for
people to *make* *money* by making it easy for the people who just want to
get their work done. But if lots of people contribute what they can without
getting paid ... well, its pretty astonishing how well it's worked out.
Microsoft has made fortunes by having to respond to the "I won't use it
unless it's all really simple" demands; there is no "Linux" to get rich by
competing with them. As I said before, in the absence of employers deciding
what the developers do, they're highly likely to do what they want, in the
way(s) they think are The Right Thing; and mass-appeal is likely to emerge
as a side effect, if at all - more than I would have expected, actually,
eveidently a lot of people do think that's important. (With the result that
most KDE pointyclicky "help" pages are completely damn useless. "File Menu /
Open - Open a File". No, really ? Who'd have thought ? But I digress ...)


-- 
Richard Robinson
"The whole plan hinged upon the natural curiosity of potatoes" - S. Lem