Re: Million's of Linux Users, they can't all be experts.

I wrote a comment on David Thomas' blog a while ago. (If you happen to be my father, please do not be offended.)

I think that it's very difficult for "normal" (not technical minded) users to switch to Linux. Even if they were able to evaluate whether they could use Linux in a productive way, migrating personal data and installing an operating system are likely to be tasks that are out of reach for many users and that they are afraid to do. This fear is not necessarily a bad thing. It might shield them from a lot of frustration caused by missing hardware support (mobile phones, printers[1]) or in the worst case data loss. Many people I know wouldn't dream of reinstalling an OS.

Take my father as an example. He spends a lot of time at the computer and he knows his way around. He would reinstall his OS. But he still sends me links to Windows software though I told him a dozen times that I'm running Linux and that my OS is (generally) unable to execute .exe files. A while ago, I also had a difficult time trying to convince him to stop using the AOL software though it is unnecessary and doesn't allow to export e-mail. Software lock-in is a concept he doesn't want to think about. The same goes for most other abstract issues that made us happy Linux users. You don't need to care if you just want to create a birthday invitation in MS Word or something like that.

Of course, you can do that in OO Writer under Ubuntu, too. This is true for most tasks. So I guess we could install a Linux distribution on my father's PC without leaving him out in the cold. But I honestly doubt that it will be beneficial to him. Besides, I would feel obliged to help him find software and to explain everything that he doesn't understand (in case I do). As long as he’s using Windows, I don't have that responsibility. That's why I partially think it's the best arrangement for both of us.

Sorry, I don't have a real conclusion for this comment. This is just something that bothered me for the last few days.

[1] FUD disclaimer: This is not Linux' fault. I know that. But it’s an issue nevertheless. Ask my Nokia.

A possible conclusion might be: Do not install an operating system onto other people's computers just because you think it would be a good idea.

Nov 23 2008 • by Marc Ermshaus • type=post language=en comments linux davidthomas • 0 comments

Re: I don't like tags

Some weeks ago, I wrote a comment on the blog post "I don't like tags" by Stephan Waba.

I don't like tags either.

1. Tags tend to be ambiguous. ("paris" – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_(disambiguation))

2. Tags depend on a specific implementation, taxonomy and/or naming scheme (which not all editors might be aware of). That's especially true if you try to avoid point 1. ("france/paris", "paris, france", "paris" + "france", "location:fr/paris", ...)

3. Tags are very unintuitive to use if you have to guess them out of thin air. ("jfk", "john f. kennedy", "kennedy, john f.", "kennedy")

4. Tags are hard to use in a consistent manner. (Did I add a "sports" tag to all occurrences of the "baseball" tag?)

5. Tags are lost in translation. ("paris", "pariz", "parys", "parigi", ...)

6. I have the feeling that I don't understand tags at all.

I like to think of tags as a way to add an object to multiple (sub-)categories of a huge hierarchical meta data taxonomy. For instance, I (try to) sort all of my photos into three different taxonomies which are like three different "views" onto the data: location, set and (pictured) person. That makes it pretty easy to find all images of Guillaume (person) that were taken in Paris, France (location) during a "weekend trip" (set) in April 2006 (image meta data). The mass of all photos becomes some kind of 4-dimensional cluster (date, location, set, person) in which I can find specific objects by filtering one or more dimensions using a condition (location=Paris, France). Every object for that all applied conditions are fulfilled (the intersection), is part of the subset I wanted to expose.

But I doubt that this is the "correct" way to think about tags.

Besides that, I have no idea what to use instead of them.

Nov 9 2008 • by Marc Ermshaus • type=post language=en tagging stephanwaba comments • 0 comments