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.<br>
<br>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!<br>
<br>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.<br>
<br>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.<br>
<br>Dave<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Feb 7, 2009 at 8:40 AM, Peter Kuykendall <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:peterkuykendall@hotmail.com">peterkuykendall@hotmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
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<div><a title="http://www.webmonkey.com/blog/Richard_Stallman_Slams_OLPC_for_Switching_to_Windows
CTRL + Click to follow link" href="http://www.webmonkey.com/blog/Richard_Stallman_Slams_OLPC_for_Switching_to_Windows" target="_blank">http://www.webmonkey.com/blog/Richard_Stallman_Slams_OLPC_for_Switching_to_Windows</a></div>
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<div><font size="2" face="Arial">Excerpt:</font></div>
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<div><font size="2" face="Arial">"<font size="3" face="Times New Roman">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. "</font></font></div>
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