Home
| Calendar
| Mail Lists
| List Archives
| Desktop SIG
| Hardware Hacking SIG
Wiki | Flickr | PicasaWeb | Video | Maps & Directions | Installfests | Keysignings Linux Cafe | Meeting Notes | Linux Links | Bling | About BLU |
I was at a funeral a couple of years ago. I got to talking to a couple of grandmothers (not mothers, grandmothers). They were exchanging tips about how to best configure their computers for use with the digital cameras they used to send pictures of their family around. They were lamenting the lack of IRQ's... Oh, I'm sure that technophobia is more the norm. But still, I was amused... --- For what it's worth, here are a couple of random thought I have about the future of Linux. The House just passed a bill legalizing the use of digital signatures. If such a bill becomes law, which I hope happens, contracts can be written electronically. I don't think that it is coincidental that *nix has fewer desktop so-called productivity applications than Windows / Mac / etc. Why? Because *nix networked years before PC's did. So? So you learn to communicate electronically. And you learn you don't NEED a bunch of fluffy formatting balony to give your message impact. Or at least you can easily get by without it. Maybe with higher bandwidth becoming the more the norm, the pressure to send fancy formatted emails etc. will increase. But I sure hope not. If you're not networked, well, then you better hook up the printer, and start wasting trees if you want people to think you're working. Because if you're not communicating with anybody, you might as well stay home in bed. Which means you'll need some paper. And you better make it look nice, because presentation, not content, will get you noticed. I think one of the biggest mistakes the Linux community could make would be to try to emulate Windows Office applications. They just don't fit anymore. They are paper office anachronisms. Also, by trying to emulate Office, Linux, by definition, is BEHIND. But that's dumb. Linux is NOT behind. It's just different. And it SHOULD be. I think the problem with Linux's newfound popularity is that people start seeing popularity as the objective. It's not the objective, it's a result. The objective is to help people solve problems. So pretty soon now, we'll be able to produce legally binding electronic correspondence. How can we make that process easy and secure? Just as an example, I think these are the kinds of problems that the Linux community should address. Not playing catch-up with an evolutionary dead end. But branching off into new more productive directions. Like maybe making secured networked communications transparent to the end-user. Or, I dunno, I use CADD a lot. Entity databases are really just that, a database. GIS applications generally store their data in relational database format. Why not other drafting applications? So multiple people could simultaneously work on the same data set. And define data sets on the fly. And relate graphical data to textual data. Etc. Just brainstorming a little. The ultimate point being that I hope the Linux community continues to use it's own imagination, rather than turning to Redmond for inspiration. Ron Peterson rpeterson at yellowbank.com - Subcription/unsubscription/info requests: send e-mail with "subscribe", "unsubscribe", or "info" on the first line of the message body to discuss-request at blu.org (Subject line is ignored).
BLU is a member of BostonUserGroups | |
We also thank MIT for the use of their facilities. |