[NCLUG] Re: NCLUG Digest, Vol 140, Issue 11

[James Bragonier]

nclug-request at nclug.org wrote:
> Today's Topics:
>
>    1. Re: OSS a Hard Sell to Consumers (Paul Hummer)
>    2. There will never be one OS to rule them all (Paul Hummer)
>    3. Re: Re: Thoughts on Linux Users (Sean Reifschneider)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 09 Nov 2007 17:21:08 -0700
> From: Paul Hummer <paul at eventuallyanyway.com>
> Subject: Re: [NCLUG] OSS a Hard Sell to Consumers
> To: Northern Colorado Linux Users Group <nclug at nclug.org>
> Message-ID: <4734F974.3030307 at eventuallyanyway.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> Brian Wood wrote:
>   
>> Sean Reifschneider wrote:
>>   
>>     
>>> On Thu, Nov 08, 2007 at 02:00:31PM -0700, Brian Wood wrote:
>>>     
>>>       
>>>> It was mentioned here that consumers often hesitate to use free
>>>> software. Too true.
>>>>       
>>>>         
>>> But yet it seems that many consumers will pirate rather than purchase the
>>> commercial software.  Oh the irony...
>>>     
>>>       
>> That's it! Advertise OSS software on the net for thousands of dollars,
>> then post "hints" to "pirate" sites.
>>
>> It should be in use by the entire world in mere weeks.
>>     
> This worked really well for me. *shrug*
>
> When I was considering Linux, I found a product called Win4Lin (not sure 
> if it's still around) that allowed you to run Linux inside Windows (so I 
> could learn the system).  It was not free, and I spent HOURS trying to 
> download it, to no avail (I now realize it must have simply been a VM 
> type setup).  Finally, a friend's boyfriend managed to download all 7 
> Red Hat cds and he burned them for me in exchange for spare system parts 
> I had laying around that I intended on building a system with.
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Fri, 09 Nov 2007 17:28:17 -0700
> From: Paul Hummer <paul at eventuallyanyway.com>
> Subject: [NCLUG] There will never be one OS to rule them all
> To: Northern Colorado Linux Users Group <nclug at nclug.org>
> Message-ID: <4734FB21.50607 at eventuallyanyway.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> I've been doing quite a lot of research on the topics we've been 
> bouncing around on the list.  The recurring theme I see is that linux 
> users like choices.  I stumbled upon this TED video today:
>
> http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/20
>
> I'm not sure if any of you have read an Malcolm Gladwell books, but he's 
> very insightful.  We're not looking for the right OS, we're looking for 
> the right OSes.  :)
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Sat, 10 Nov 2007 03:49:14 -0700
> From: Sean Reifschneider <jafo at tummy.com>
> Subject: Re: [NCLUG] Re: Thoughts on Linux Users
> To: Northern Colorado Linux Users Group <nclug at nclug.org>
> Message-ID: <20071110104913.GA21843 at tummy.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
> On Fri, Nov 09, 2007 at 05:14:22PM -0700, Paul Hummer wrote:
>   
>>>   2. You've probably had a "not-too-good" experience using Windows.
>>>       
>> Only as many as my "not-too-good" linux experiences.  However, using 
>>     
>
> I've had way more "not-too-good" experiences with Linux than with Windows.
> Of course, I've used Linux a few billion times more than Windows in the
> past decade.  I've probably directly used a Windows machine less in the
> last decade than I use a Linux machine in a day...  I'm fairly sure that
> over half the Windows seat-time I've had in the last decade is just
> applying updates and rebooting...
>
>   
>> I think many of us are picky.  I don't know how many times I've written 
>> or modified a tool or utility that was already available, merely because 
>> I wanted it to do it my way.
>>     
>
> Yeah.  That reminds me of one of my first experiences as I was switching
> over to using Linux.  At the time I was doing HP-UX system admin for my day
> job.  The ksh there used Esc+Esc to do what we now call tab completion.  I
> had a small HP-UX workstation at home, but it was aging.  So I bought a PC
> to run Linux on.
>
> Now, at work these were production systems dealing with millions of dollars
> worth of financial data...  I couldn't just go around installing bash to
> get tab completion.  And Linux didn't have ksh at the time.  But switching
> from Esc+Esc to Tab was really binging me over, man.
>
> I played around with trying to set up readline or whatever it was at the
> time to switch Tab completion to use Esc+Esc, but it worked very poorly.
> So I grabbed the source and hacked it until it worked.
>
> I remember distinctly the feeling of power I had, being able to get rid of
> this one significant pain-point.
>
> Another similar situation, which people have brought up without knowing I
> worked on it since then, was when I was ripping my CD collection the first
> time.  This was probably back in 1997.  I was using grip, and had around
> 600 CDs to rip.  I started thinking about the workflow of ripping these CDs
> and realized my efficiency could go way up if:
>
>    At the end of ripping a disc, the tray would eject to give me a cue that
>    the CD was done ripping.  I didn't want a pop-up on my screen, because
>    that's more annoying than just ejecting the tray, plus if the tray is
>    open I can just pull the disc instead of having to wait for it to eject.
>
>    When a new disc is loaded, detect it and if there is CDDB data for it go
>    ahead and select all the tracks and start ripping.
>
> So, I went from having to fart around with the GUI interface to something
> that under the normal circumstances just required feeding new discs in and
> it would take care of everything else for me.  A huge time savings.
>
> Since submitting that patch back to the grip project, I have had several
> people say "Did you know that grip has this autorip mode?"  :-)
>
>   
>>>   7. And you simply "hate" the idea that jack-booted software police
>>>      can enter your business and steal you machines off your desktops,
>>>       
>
> This is not 'Nam, we have rules.  Whether they're the Copyleft or your
> Windows licensing agreement doesn't matter.  If you don't pay the
> appropriate licensing fees, and get caught, you pay higher fees...  Doesn't
> really impact me, so I don't worry about it too much, but if you're going
> to use the software, pay the price.  Or pay the other price.
>
> Sean
        Though "this is not 'Nam." and I do not condone breaking the 
law, a disgruntled employee turned the ball company in to the software 
police.  Ernie Ball had hired Microsoft certified consultants expressly 
to manage license issues and got caught up by having active licenses in 
use on several active machines, and, also, on inactive machines that had 
been taken out service in the storage room at the back of the 
manufacturing plant.  I do not condone misuse of licenses.  And Ball 
doesn't either.  The management had made a good faith effort and it 
still cost them because they had fallen short.  80% compliance simply 
isn't good enough.  They paid the fine and legal fees for Microsoft 
lawyers and court costs, removed all traces of Microsoft from their 
business and regained their right to deny access to the software police. 
        Now Ernie Ball Manufacturing is among the strongest of business 
supporters of Linux, Open Office and all other  business applications 
they need that operate in Linux. 
This is not a story about the big bad monopoly.  It is about regaining 
responsible control of the business environment by proper use of Linux.  
I take this message seriously.  I doesn't make care for Microsoft 
more...  than the plague.
       Google Ernie Ball...  I respect him and his company for dealing 
with adversity and persevering.
        I wish we had more business use of Linux.  I commend NCLUG for 
you leadership and voice in the community.  You are not alone in the 
community in promoting more use of Linux.  It is the responsible thing 
to do.
       Regarding the use of Linux in government, the City Manager is a 
person I would start with in seeking support of reduced license costs of 
computing...  and stretching the lives of aging equipment.  The idea of 
limiting all governmental documentation to non-proprietary formats is 
not only a good idea, but is essential for open government.  I'd work to 
promote this idea through NCLUG and FRPCUG.
       Jim Bragonier, FRPCUG Secy. and Webmaster.