Comment Being honest about costs (Score 1) 468
I am a law student and "nerd." My nerdy interests tend to include science-politics-philosophy-economics. I have never used Linux (and so am implicitly excluded from/ irrelevant to much of the discussion on Slashdot), but the idea fascinates me. To the point of the thread, though, what deters me from trying out or switching to Linux is not just the learning curve and the time, but the opportunity cost. By this I mean that time spent learning and doing real computing (as opposed to hobby stuff) on a Linux box is necessarily time that I can't spend doing my work on an OS/software that I know, if not exactly love.
I'm to the point where I'm fascinated by the idea of Linux and open source software (though not ideologically committed to it to the exclusion of proprietary software), but that's all it is for me, a fascination. I'd like to challenge open source advocates to show the masses (or maybe just people like me, mildly smart and willing to experiment, but conscious of my own ignorance and the opportunity costs involved) a cost effective way to switch over to or integrate Linux computing into their lives in a way that doesn't leave us dependent on the help of people like you in the same way that we're now dependent on Microsoft, Dell, etc. for the same thing, or sacrifice the ability to do the same things we can with mainstream desktop software. That, in my humble non-computer-geek thinking, is the biggest obstacle to be overcome in swaying average people (and their dollars, time, and commitment) to accept the neat things you do.
I'm to the point where I'm fascinated by the idea of Linux and open source software (though not ideologically committed to it to the exclusion of proprietary software), but that's all it is for me, a fascination. I'd like to challenge open source advocates to show the masses (or maybe just people like me, mildly smart and willing to experiment, but conscious of my own ignorance and the opportunity costs involved) a cost effective way to switch over to or integrate Linux computing into their lives in a way that doesn't leave us dependent on the help of people like you in the same way that we're now dependent on Microsoft, Dell, etc. for the same thing, or sacrifice the ability to do the same things we can with mainstream desktop software. That, in my humble non-computer-geek thinking, is the biggest obstacle to be overcome in swaying average people (and their dollars, time, and commitment) to accept the neat things you do.
