On Mon, Oct 29, 2007 12:49:34 PM -0700, Les (hlhowell@xxxxxxxxxxx) wrote: > On Mon, 2007-10-29 at 17:42 +0100, M. Fioretti wrote: > > > > Considering the audience you described, I'll also dare to suggest > > that, before going to the talk, you read my "Seven Things we're > > tired of hearing from software hackers" at > > http://digifreedom.net/node/56 : while it's not about Linux > > specifically, it may help you to not spend too much time > > presenting to your audience arguments that are really NO relevant > > for them. > > > > Hope this helps, > > Marco Fioretti > Only one comment, Marco, > Actually more people program than ever before. Strictly speaking, yes, but are they meaningful? Of course, more people "program" now than in the preindustrial era, it couldn't be different today. Going by your definition, every cell phone user is a programmer. But this doesn't mean that they see at all the underlying issues and care in the slightest about them. This is still a world and age where most VCRs clocks still blink at 12:00. Where people who have been using personal computers for many years still tell you "to save the file, click on that small TV picture up there" or, to see a landscape picture in portrait mode during a slideshow, turn their laptop sideways (yes, these are both real things that I or my wife witnessed personally). So the limits I mention still apply: the overwhelming majority of those "programmers" simply doesn't really understand what they are doing, no matter how cool and savy they may look, and they'll never sync in on the usual pro-FOSS arguments (the "seven things") that were enough to convert software users of the 80's. Actually, I also fear that this complacency that I've already noticed in many FOSS activists may be one of the biggest obstacles and dangers in making FOSS really mainstream: "hey, look at how many computers and other processors (clocks, TVs, cell phones) all the folks around me have and use daily: it's obvious that we're all geeks by now and that this makes triumph of FOSS unavoidable". Ciao, Marco -- Help *everybody* love Free Standards and Free Software! http://digifreedom.net
