wolfen69
December 11th, 2008, 04:40 AM
http://discuss.itwire.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=7704
Re: The evolution of a Linux user
Postby Bruce on Tue Nov 25, 2008 10:02 am
(a story (analogy) about people's experience with operating systems, windows/mac vs. open source)
~~~
Consider a cage chicken, living on a chicken farm where the cages are quite roomy, there is good light, warmth, some space to move around, and plenty of food and water (maybe not your average battery farm :). To the chicken that was born there, it is what they know, and it is comfortable. They can sit, stand, sleep, eat, stretch, and as far as that little chicken knows, free to do whatever the chicken knows it can do. All it knows is life in the warmth of their comfy home, but because it doesn't know any different, it is comfortable and doesn't know that there is anything but this life.
Then one day, through a gap in the shed, it sees another chicken running outside. the chicken outside is saying - come out here, we're free!. Free thinks the chicken, so what, I am free to do what I want in here too, aren't I? Anyway, the cage chicken one day gets a chance to flee his cage and heads out into the yard. At first its strange. There are new sights, smells and experiences - its unfamiliar. Food isn't provided in a shute, there is no warm lighting, just open space. For the cage chicken, this is unfamiliar. So, it does not have food, light, warmth and protection provided, it needs to find these things itself, and that takes some getting used to. That in itself may be enough to make the chicken run back to the safety of its cage. If that doesn't, the first encounter with danger, clap of thunder, cold night, or hungry day may be enough to send that little battery chicken running for the safety and comfort of its familiar cage.
Then there is the chicken living outside (yes, grounp #3). Long ago it too was a cage chicken, but nowadays it spends its life roaming the yard. It doesn't have the warm cage, light, food and water provided to it, it must spend some time finding these. But it has real freedom and can do whatever it likes - no cage bars constricting it. It can run, scratch in the dirt, play and whatever else it feels on the spur of the moment. Sure there are some days where it wishes it didn't have to worry about looking after itself, but by and large it knows that it is free, and boy does it value that freedom. It knows that the chickens in the shed do not have real freedom (they just think they do), so the free chicken is always crowing to them how great it is out in the yard. The free chicken also can't understand why, whenever a chicken gets out from shed it spends a little time outside, and then usually goes back inside to the warm cage they are familiar with.
~~~
As windows devotees, many users don't feel the bars of your cage - it is a familiar and comfortable environment. You also don't understand what true freedom is, or recognise why it is so important to the free software users that have escaped their cage. If you did, you'd be one of us. That is why the arguments for each side rarely result in a constructive engagement. Neither side can see why there is any appeal with being on the other side.
I'm glad I'm free, and I hope some of you get to experience the thrill of it someday yourselves.
Bruce
Re: The evolution of a Linux user
Postby Bruce on Tue Nov 25, 2008 10:02 am
(a story (analogy) about people's experience with operating systems, windows/mac vs. open source)
~~~
Consider a cage chicken, living on a chicken farm where the cages are quite roomy, there is good light, warmth, some space to move around, and plenty of food and water (maybe not your average battery farm :). To the chicken that was born there, it is what they know, and it is comfortable. They can sit, stand, sleep, eat, stretch, and as far as that little chicken knows, free to do whatever the chicken knows it can do. All it knows is life in the warmth of their comfy home, but because it doesn't know any different, it is comfortable and doesn't know that there is anything but this life.
Then one day, through a gap in the shed, it sees another chicken running outside. the chicken outside is saying - come out here, we're free!. Free thinks the chicken, so what, I am free to do what I want in here too, aren't I? Anyway, the cage chicken one day gets a chance to flee his cage and heads out into the yard. At first its strange. There are new sights, smells and experiences - its unfamiliar. Food isn't provided in a shute, there is no warm lighting, just open space. For the cage chicken, this is unfamiliar. So, it does not have food, light, warmth and protection provided, it needs to find these things itself, and that takes some getting used to. That in itself may be enough to make the chicken run back to the safety of its cage. If that doesn't, the first encounter with danger, clap of thunder, cold night, or hungry day may be enough to send that little battery chicken running for the safety and comfort of its familiar cage.
Then there is the chicken living outside (yes, grounp #3). Long ago it too was a cage chicken, but nowadays it spends its life roaming the yard. It doesn't have the warm cage, light, food and water provided to it, it must spend some time finding these. But it has real freedom and can do whatever it likes - no cage bars constricting it. It can run, scratch in the dirt, play and whatever else it feels on the spur of the moment. Sure there are some days where it wishes it didn't have to worry about looking after itself, but by and large it knows that it is free, and boy does it value that freedom. It knows that the chickens in the shed do not have real freedom (they just think they do), so the free chicken is always crowing to them how great it is out in the yard. The free chicken also can't understand why, whenever a chicken gets out from shed it spends a little time outside, and then usually goes back inside to the warm cage they are familiar with.
~~~
As windows devotees, many users don't feel the bars of your cage - it is a familiar and comfortable environment. You also don't understand what true freedom is, or recognise why it is so important to the free software users that have escaped their cage. If you did, you'd be one of us. That is why the arguments for each side rarely result in a constructive engagement. Neither side can see why there is any appeal with being on the other side.
I'm glad I'm free, and I hope some of you get to experience the thrill of it someday yourselves.
Bruce