Date: Sat, 8 Dec 2001 04:56:46 +0100 From: "Anthony Atkielski" <anthony@freebie.atkielski.com> To: "Konstantinos Konstantinidis" <kkonstan@duth.gr>, <chat@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: A breath of fresh air.. Message-ID: <009401c17f9c$5bad3bf0$0a00000a@atkielski.com> References: <0112071641320B.01380@stinky.akitanet.co.uk><000b01c17f42$c23ab140$0a00000a@atkielski.com><3C110351.4748B559@duth.gr><005001c17f6c$e60c0ef0$0a00000a@atkielski.com> <15377.17350.796336.801464@guru.mired.org> <006901c17f70$19a2f820$0a00000a@atkielski.com> <3C11560B.A035DEF3@duth.gr>
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Konstantinos writes: > Nope, it is the rational choise for *those* > customers, not all. Yes, that's what "most" means. > Speaking from my consulting experience, most > customers are morons and if something dominates > the market it is more due to their stupidity, > effective marketing and network effects rather > than rational choices based on well defined > requirements. That is often the case--Linux is a good example. But Windows is not; neither is the Mac. > Apparently, "most" is a subset of "all" customers, > so there exists a non-empty set of customers > that can rationally, based on their requirements, > choose something other than Windows, even for the > desktop. Yes. But since most customers are best served by Windows, it doesn't make sense to make a general recommendation of anything other than Windows, no matter how much other solutions might suit a minority. > Why does this bother you? Because the geeks on mailing lists like this are often asked for advice about what computer system to buy, and people who are uninformed in IT may not recognize the extent to which the recommendations they receive are a consequence of the emotional investments that some geeks have in their chosen belief systems. I can predict what type of system a geek will recommend much more accurately by knowing his religious preference than by looking at the requirements of the application. Some geeks will recommend a Mac for _everything_, because it is the Best--they'll find a way to force it to work for any environment, no matter how ill suited to that platform. Similarly, other geeks will recommend Linux for _everything_. Still others still recommend OS/2 for _everything_. I even know geeks who have changed faiths with the shifting tides of fashion. One of them was convinced that OS/2 was the best OS ever invented, and would wash away the infidels in time. As the fortunates of OS/2 waned, however, and as the star of Linux hype cleared the horizon, this impressionable geek shifted allegiance, and now pledges his soul to Linux, which is the best OS ever invented in his eyes. He becomes upset if he is reminded of his former love for OS/2. During all this time, his recommendation for a desktop OS has rigorously followed his fashion tastes; when he was a devotee of OS/2, OS/2 was the best desktop, and when Linux drove OS/2 from his heart, Linux became the best desktop. He would claim that his recommendations are based on technical merit, but if so, there is no reason why they would change with his sentiments. In fact, the merits of each OS remain the same, but his religion changes. Unfortunately, geeks like that influence a lot of non-geeks in buying decisions, and I've seen the very unhappy results of such influence time and again. Repairing the damage done by these fanatics is extremely time-consuming and difficult. > Are other peoples choices with no direct or > indirect effect on you affecting your happiness? Only if it affects theirs, and if someone recommends a white elephant to them, they are likely to be unhappy. > Does that mean that *I* should immediately cease > to use FreeBSD and buy Windows XP? No, but it strongly implies that you should acknowledge the suitability of Windows to the desktop for the average user--however heretical this may seem--and keep that fact in mind when you are asked to recommend a system for the desktop of an average user. > What bloody rule? The rule that Windows remains the dominant OS, largely because of its suitability to the desktop, and that, in any case, the mere market share of Windows alone makes it more suitable for the desktop. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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