[CS-FSLUG] The Moral Foundation of Free Software

[Fred A. Miller]

On Mon January 3 2005 12:27 pm, Tim Young wrote:
> I agree with both Fred and Aaron...
>
> On one side, users do not need two weeks to learn a new OS.  But then, I
> have run into users who quit their jobs instead of facing the upgrade from
> Win95 to Win98.  I had one panic attack phone call when someone clicked on
> an icon on their computer, and as the software was loading it flashed up
> the registration page.  It had her supervisor's name on it instead of hers.
>  She thought her supervisor had taken control of her computer and so she
> could not work on it. And she would not.  I ended up driving 2 hours,
> opening up regedit and putting her name in the registration, and then she
> could get back to work.
>
> The short of it?  Never underestimate the non-technical side of the
> switchover.

That is true......there can be an occasional problem. I recently converted an 
office of 12 to SUSE 9.2 from MickySoft. The office manager is a client and 
has been using SUSE since 8.0 at home. She warned me that there were 2 
possible "problem" people, and I was to deal with it anyway I wished. NO 
problem!

Both of these had mumbled all week about the impending change, even though  
those who'd I "converted" were "getting happy." I finished both of these last 
2 on a Sat., and was there Monday to check on everyone.

The officed manager was the "hand holder" so I didn't have much teaching to 
do. ONLY 1 of the 2 "problem" people gave me grief.....the 1 was VERY excited 
about her new desktop, and got right into learning OpenOffice. The "problem" 
woman had more objections than Carter has pills. Finally I said, "It's a 
whole lot better than unemployment, isn't it?" She looked at me, and I said, 
"I'm serious. Your office manager will tell you to like it or else." After a 
few seconds she asked for a different background picture and could I spend a 
little time with her. I did both, and she's still there..............and NOT 
complaining, but LIKES her new software. Sometimes you have to get someone's 
attention the "hard way."

Fred

-- 
"As Internet technology itself vaults into new areas, so too does the
Microsoft monopoly and its tried-and-true bag of tricks."
-US Senator Orrin Hatch, (R) Utah