Linux has an image problem
Or rather the people who use it do. This picture was pasted in the #lugradio on freenode today. It's a parody and extension of the "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" Apple marketing campaign used heavily in the USA and now popularised in the UK with top comedy sell-outs Mitchell & Webb.
I'll admit, it's a funny photo. The PC (Windows) guy looks "normal", he's wearing a smart business suit, clean shoes and sporting an inoffensive haircut. The Mac guy is clearly more casual, more comfortable in a t-shirt & slacks,
The Linux guy is depicted as a Tron fan. Clearly a sci-fi geek, someone who doesn't know how to fit in with society perhaps. Someone who when put next to a Windows or Mac user, looks out of place. It's a clever picture whilst showing gross caricatures.
Is that how society sees us Linux users? Isn't that how much of society sees geeks in general. The funny thing is that computers are now so pervasive in the western world that everyone has the opportunity to become a geek. Windows, Mac and Linux computers exist in businesses and homes all over the world, performing much the same tasks wherever they are.
We have always been those people you needed to fix your computer, but you didn't want to be seen out in public with. For many years we geeks have been lower class citizens. Much like Ronnie Corbetts charcater in the Frost Report Sketch with John Cleese and Ronnie Barker, we "know our place". (Edit: For those too young or too foreign to know, a YouTube link)
There is a change though. The people who use computers, the average Joe and Jane, are becoming more geeky. They are learning about technologies like USB2, protocols like HTTPS, and crazy acronyms like HDMI, PCMCIA and WPA-PSK. They are becoming more like the caricature they ridicule with every upgrade. They used to look down on us, maybe even feeling sorry for our obsessive ways, possibly even jealous of our encyclopaedic knowledge of TLAs, but it's infectious, they're turning into "us".
So watch out Mac and PC, one day you might wake up and find yourself dressed as Ed Dillinger ...
...and realise we were right all along.
Linux users image
Linux extends itself to home system administrator more than Windows (or Mac). However does this make a Linux user a geek or just someone who loves technology. Its the desire to see the "man behind the curtin" is what drives a person to explore the relationship between the OS and the hardware. However this image is what keeps Linux in the realm of the enthustist-user, technical-user, not the users who are interested in only word processing. Its the diffence between those who drive cars and those who are just driven by them.
Is a mac really that easy to
Is a mac really that easy to use..... More casual and more comfortable??!?!?!
My opinion on the linux being geeky
Hi all, i use all 3 os's win xp, linux and OSX. (osx is best for me for what i do) . My opinion is this, linux will remain the Tron generation whilst there are so many Damn versions of it that have barely any differences apart from minor features and how they all install their software. To use a mac or windows doesnt require any knowledge of terminal commands or installation types. You just download and run. Im getting sick and tired of windows users who have never used Linux or Mac slagging them without any user knowledge, my opinion is that this makes them sound ignorant. As ive used all 3 i can safely say that i prefer OSX and in truth the only reason why i even bother with linux is because i hate windows and i cant get OSX working on my old PC. If i could, then i like many Linux users would probably go the OSX route as the software for the most part on apple is superior and the ability to customise the environment is far better than on windows, not to mention the security features blah blah. I dont want to get technical i just think linux people tend to be geeky and do bring it on themselves sometimes, i had a conversation with someone at work the other day and he said, i dont use windows i use Linux huh huh, with a geeky smile and laugh, i have to be honest, even though i have all 3 myself i still thought you Prat. He just looked like such a geek, and yes he did have a beard and wear glasses. One or maybe two versions with all the features need to be in the market place, Im still looking for something with Kiba dock and XGL already enabled from the first install. Im totally fed up with having to create my own OS with Linux. Bring on OSX, almost everything anyone would ever wish for. I get no fun from endlessly customising my desktop. I see my computer as a tool for doing a job, i see it as the following. If i spent an hour on my PC running win XP i would probably spend half of it clicking endless popups and getting frustrated, 15 mins spent fixing something and the other 15 mins actually doing what i went on to do. The same hour on Linux would be spent trying to work out how to get my wireless card to work properly and connect to my network so i could go on the internet. and on The mac (sorry guys) it just works! first time, every time and id be all finished doing what i budgeted an hour to do in about 20 mins as usual.
Um...I think that picture
Um...I think that picture does fit a Linux user. Especially the ones on IRC so totally disconnected from reality. They compete to see who has the most open terminals and who uses the most minimalist window managers.
It fits "a" user
The Tron Guy, but by no means everyone. I certainly don't look like that, and my wife (a linux user) thankfully doesn't either.
Do you really think he looks "normal"?
I mean the PC guy! Just look at how he's dress. On all Mac commercial, his suit just not fit him. On the picture here, you can see that his trousers are too long, the sleeves of his jacket are just a bit too short. :-)
I think the aim of Apple for this was that PC manufacturers are trying to have machine well designed nowadays, but that somehow it always fails and looks clumsy, certainly not as brilliant as a Mac...
NB: do not misunderstood me, I have only PCs :-( though we finally got our first Mac (after some many years longing), but my girlfriend grabbed it for her...
Yeah, normal enough
Not everyone has perfectly fitting clothes, bright white teeth and a "salon" haircut. :)
I know a man who does
I know a man who does and is a Linux user:
http://reverendted.wordpress.com/
:)
Oh come on!
I also have earings, wild hair, and a disturbing lack of social graces, TW! :-D
Linux guy is a Linux user
At least, he's a UNIX user - though rabidly anti-GPL, so possibly not Linux.
He's a slashdot reader too.
I'm sure he's a nice guy
It's the fact that the stereotype of the PC guy is about right for the most part - business people in suits at desks using Excel, and the Mac guy is about right (by my reckoning - I only know two Mac people and they both look like him), but come on, the Linux guy!?
I like Tron as much as the next guy, but making a spandex suit or any other cosplay whilst fun, *isn't* what the majority of Linux users do.
Tron dude
That guy is from the Jay Leno show. He has a few screws loose if you know what I mean. He actually lives his life like that a majority of the time. So that character is real unfortunately. Quite funny though! :)
He is just one guy though
And an extreme caricature at that. So yeah, he runs Linux on his own systems, works in computing and is somewhat eccentric. Do we all dress that way? I don't, but I know a man who does... :)
I've thought of that!
I've been meaning to write a parody of the Cleese-Barker-Corbett sketch for Linux etc. for some time now. Great minds, eh? Perhaps I'll get round to it some time soon!
And so I have
http://tonywhitmore.co.uk/blog/2007/02/10/i-know-my-place/ :)
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