TechConnectify@mas.to - Oh my gosh I just figured it out.
Okay, all you open source evangelist people: your knee-jerk reaction to come at people who are talking about a problem with whatever commercial software they use and suggest Your Favorite Alternatives™ is exactly like saying “why don’t you just buy a house?” to someone complaining about their landlord.
TechConnectify@mas.to - Actually, to borrow from @DoubleA, it’s worse than that.
It’s like talking to someone who is in a crappy apartment as though they have the agency and skills to stake out a plot of land and build their own home.
You have to be at peace with the fact that some people just want to exist and not worry about so many things. And they still have a right to complain about their situation.
Link to thread: https://mas.to/@TechConnectify/111539959265152243
What an idiotic comparison.
Buying a house costs so much money and time that most people cannot afford to, and those who can generally must go into debt for most of their remaining lives in order to do so. Suggesting FOSS to replace “whatever commercial software they use” is the polar opposite, in that it’s literally free (usually in both senses of the word). It’s more like suggesting that someone consider a new route to commute from home to work.
Also, this opening…
…is incredibly reductive and combative. The world needs less of that, not more.
Suggesting people ‘just’ buy a house is unhelpful, because it assumes they have enough money to do so.
Suggesting people ‘just’ use FOSS is often unhelpful, because it assumes they have sufficient computer abilities and/or have the time to learn how.
Some kid who’s just started writing his thesis and enjoys fiddling with stuff? Sure, recommend LaTex.
Some overstretched parent of two, who gets home at 8 and just needs to edit a powerpoint for a presentation at the end of the week? No, suggesting they install a piece of software, something they’ve never done before, and learn to use this piece of software they’ve never used, to finish something that needs to be done by the end of the night, and that they’re almost certainly going to be using in an office (ie. windows/office) environment? Not helpful.
some people don’t know about FOSS alternatives, i dob’t think i need a PHD in computer science to idk try kdenlive intead of sony vegas
The difference here is mountains vs. molehills.
And in most cases, they obviously do have sufficient ability to learn how, because they were able to learn the commercial software they’re currently using.
As for time, yes, learning always takes time. (Thus my comparison to learning a new commute.) But suggesting that someone learn something new is not stupid or unreasonable, especially if the thing they currently use is not serving them well.
I don’t know why you would think that cherry-picked and extremely specific scenario is somehow representative of the general subject we’re discussing. Of course situations exist where learning alternative software isn’t the best answer. That doesn’t make it wrong for people to suggest the alternatives. Quite often, they’re perfectly viable, and it’s perfectly reasonable to try to help by making someone aware of them.
You should just learn Chinese.
You have a sufficient ability to learn Chinese, you learnt how to speak the language you’re currently using.
Learning takes time, but me suggesting you ‘just’ learn Chinese isn’t stupid or unreasonable, especially as your inability to speak Chinese is limiting your audience and career opportunities, and not serving you well.
That’s disingenuous. I wasn’t complaining about English not serving me well, now was I?
Also, once again, mountains vs. molehills.
English isn’t serving you well. You should learn Chinese.
Are you having a problem learning Chinese? You chose Cantonese? Wrong dialect. Should be learning Mandarin, that will solve your issue.
@Hyperreality
“Suggesting people ‘just’ use FOSS is often unhelpful, because it assumes they have sufficient computer abilities and/or have the time to learn how.”
I mean, it took my parents in law 10 minutes to learn and they’re almost 80. Realistically, if you’re using a computer, you have sufficient computer abilities and time to learn Linux.
If they are almost 80, they have plenty of time on their hands.
Thank you for proving their point.
And no, it didn’t took them 10 minutes to learn a whole new OS, that is just dishonest.
.
Be the change, homie.
In any case, do recall that many of us are in enterprise environments where we’re not the only decision makers. Plus, FOSS without reliable support contracts isn’t workable for many use cases. If something in FOSS goes tits up none of my customers will be satisfied with the great discussion I had with the devs about it and how they’ll totally get to it after Furrycon.
You might not be paying for software in money but you’re going to pay for it, one way or another.
When someone claims two obviously different things are exactly the same, pointing out that the comparison is idiotic is not combative, homie.
Edit: More to the point, defending one’s community by pointing out the idiocy of an attack is not combative.
Indeed. As I hinted in my comment, and stated more clearly in another one.
Cool, I’ma go tell my wife something we disagree on is idiotic and we’ll see how it goes. Should be fine, right? It’s not combative!
Did your wife go on social media to pick a fight by stereotyping and publicly scolding a large community of people, and justify it with an obviously false claim? I hope not, but if so, then I wish you the best of luck working through that together.
The cost isn’t the software, it’s the time, energy and risk involved in using it.
The combativeness was deployed to fight off combativeness.