[clue-talk] Richard Stallman Slams OLPC for Switching to Windows - Webmonkey

[David Maddox]

My personal experience bears Stallman´s comments out - of course, I´m also a
product of the bohemian MIT pre-internet community, so maybe it was
ingrained in me. When Windows first appeared I saw it as a joke that would
soon pass, arcane and uninteresting, and something for which you had to
´drink the Kool-Aid´ and spend time adjusting your thinking to the Microsoft
Way. Unix made sense to me, I could feel its structure and function, and I
still feel that way though I have made forays into .NET and had a VAX/VMS
background so the evolution of NT was somewhat familiar.

I also had the pleasure of teaching the uninitiated, mostly elderly, and saw
their frustration with Windows, the search for basic functionality and the
struggle to understand it through concepts, rather than memorization. It
seems like, as with the typewriter, it could be intentionally obscure or
simply foreign. I´m not sure which. Linux interfaces may not be much better,
but I have no illusions about Linux, it is a product of those who use it and
biased towards their experiences and expectations. Windows, it seems to me,
has ´tamed´ its users, and the usual rationalizations go with. That struggle
that new users experience is to me a direct parallel of the initial aversive
response to smoking (or beer) that has to be overcome to ´enjoy´ the
product. And then, of course, the heavy advertising that is needed to make
sure you remember that you are ´enjoying´ it!

But of course, I use Windows as well, and I will be glad to rationalize and
justify it, though I still have a funny reaction - ´a professional job? with
Windows?´ It´s clear prejudice and I don´t fully understand it, but it is
clear to me that while Windows features have evolved somewhat and there´s
plenty of money to be made using it, Windows is a hack from a
multi-billion-dollar company, and the scientist in me doesn´t understand why
they didn´t do better with so many resources. It isn´t even arguable - the
recent Vista fiasco exposed their development ´methodology´ to be just that.

That being said, sounds like more branded exploitation of those who don´t
have the defense of consumer cynicism, a suggestion that OLPC could learn
from the microfinance folks, who look more at the social impact of their
incursions into societies rather than being evangelists for our ´way of
life´ and all the strings attached.

Dave

On Sat, Feb 7, 2009 at 8:40 AM, Peter Kuykendall <
peterkuykendall at hotmail.com> wrote:

>
> http://www.webmonkey.com/blog/Richard_Stallman_Slams_OLPC_for_Switching_to_Windows
>
> Excerpt:
>
> "Teaching children to use Windows is like teaching them to smoke tobacco
> -— in a world where only one company sells tobacco. Like any addictive drug,
> it inculcates a harmful dependency. (Bill Gates made this comparison in a
> 1998 issue of Fortune Magazine.) No wonder Microsoft offers the first dose
> to children at a low price. Microsoft aims to teach poor children this
> dependency so they can smoke Windows for their whole lives. I don't think
> governments or schools should support that aim. "
>
>
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