I was reading the 50000th flamewar over why Linux should be just like Windows, and suddenly the light went off. It dawned on me that all of the complaints Windows users have about Linux sound familiar in the psychologic effect known as "prisoner mentality", when a person has been incarcerated so long that they can't function in normal society:
ex-con: "Now where do I live? There's too many places to go! I was always TOLD where to go! I think the outside should just be one big building where you get assigned a cell number!"
MS user: "What distro should I choose? There's too many to choose from! I always had just one operating system! I think Linux should be just like Windows where it's all one big system and I just type in my product serial number!"
ex-con: "How do I eat? Who does my laundry? Who tells me where to go and what to do? I didn't have to know anything in jail, I shouldn't have to learn anything outside!"
MS user: "How do I install anything? Who configures my system for me? Who gives me only one program for each function and tells me what to pay for them? I didn't have to know anything to use Windows, why should I learn anything to use Linux?"
ex-con: "What, I have to WORK now? That's stupid! Why should I have to work when jail gives me everything I need?"
MS user: "A command line? Compile a tarball? This is too hard! I just want everything handed to me without lifting a finger!"
I think I've finally nailed it. I think I'll call it the "Micro-prisoner mentality", acronym MPM.
That's also why systems like ReactOS and Xandros and Ubuntu make so much sense, now. Those are "half-way houses" to which we send Windows ex-cons so that they can be rehabilitated into society again.
See, it's called "Free Software" for a very good reason: It's about Freedom. And that's the problem with freedom, is you have to learn how to deal with it!
As millions of anti-Linux flamers have said:
"The more distros that come out the more people are going to not want to use Linux."I agree totally. The more stores they put into the shopping mall, the less I want to go there. The way I see it, there should be only one store, and at that, should only have one each of every product, and furthermore, all the products should be picked out and fastened together as one bundle without anybody asking me what I want.
Hey, come to think of it, they should just automatically take the money out of my account and send my bought goods to me. In fact, since I really don't need money any more, I'll just stay home and they can mail me the stuff. Hey, wait a minute, my house is too big and confusing! Look I have a whole closet full of clothes - how do I know which ones to wear! And I'm wandering around lost in here!
Give me something smaller. Like a cell. Yes, that's it! Aaaaaah, this is the life! Just the same prison outfit for me every day, thank you! No choices to make, a prison buddy to bang, my meals decided for me, and a toilet full of fermented punch to swill every now and then. I have no responsibility, I can forget everything I know! This is how it should be.
See, after all, all we can do is free your software. You have to free your own mind!
UPDATE: See part 2, where we take one of the commenters to this post and daisy-chain it into yet another post!
UPDATE #2:
Perfect timing! I just found this book, “The Easiest Linux Guide You’ll Ever Read - an introduction to Linux for Windows users” just written and published. Finally, maybe we can get started building bridges instead of walls.
Comments:
Comment from:
Sebastián Benítez [Visitor]
Nice analogy. Well done.
Comment from:
virens [Visitor]
· http://mydebianblog.blogspot.com/
Great! This analogy is very preciese and clearly describes the WIndowsLinux controversy. Thanks a lot, picking this article in my Favorites.
Comment from:
Nikkels [Visitor]
Nice upwrite.
Can I copy you next time I have an argument ?
Thanks
Can I copy you next time I have an argument ?
Thanks
Comment from:
scottm15 [Visitor]
I think you have just described me totaly I am a Microsoft ex-con but trying to re-join society. I've always been facinated with linux but just never knew where to start.
Comment from:
Leon Brooks [Visitor]
· http://www.cyberknights.com.au/
Not perfect, but a good working analogy. You get similar complaints when switching people between versions of 'Doze. Wait for the Vista cacophony, or even the automated IE7 update.
This is one reason that I tend to stick to one Linux distribution (Mandriva, showing KDE) despite most of my installs being servers-only. I know that there are lots of Linuces out there, many of them Debian or derivatives like Ubuntu, which are all different and I have few problems driving them all, but this way I typically give one set of instructions & only have to remember one set of update sites, etc.
Comment from:
Penguin Pete [Member]
· http://www.penguinpetes.com/
"Can I copy you next time I have an argument ?"
I don't see why not. It's a public blog...
I don't see why not. It's a public blog...
Comment from:
stoobie [Visitor]
I am all too familiar with this mentality of which you speak. I have referred to it myself as a user's "co-dependency on a fundamentally broken OS". One example of mine is a woman who has been unable to access the internet through her cable modem for several weeks due to the overwhelming ammount of malware she has on her computer. It took me all of 10 minutes to get her machine up and running with a Live Linux distro. Her response? "...But, that's not WINDOWS! I can't use that!". *Sigh*...Someone once said, "Fools revere the chains that bind them", and he was right.
Comment from:
Tom [Visitor]
I have to disagree with Ubuntu as a "half-way house".... this seems to imply that, somehow, Ubuntu is only good for linux "newbies", which i find rather insulting.... I have been using it for a year and a half, and 2 weeks ago wiped windows off my machine. I see no reason to try another distro, it is just as user-friendly and powerful as any other.
On the subject of the "prisoner mentality", the main reason for this is that most people have not SEEN OR USED FOR THEMSELVES a working desktop linux install, because NOBODY HAS SHOWN THEM. Obviously, if someone has not been shown linux working with their own eyes, they are unlikely to try it out... would you buy a car without seeing it in the flesh? Thought not... the reason i started using linux was because i was fed up with windows (like many), saw my friend Jon using Ubuntu on his desktop pc, had a little play, he showed me a few things, then i went away & installed it myself... now i am using it on servers and desktops.
Case in point, my younger sister is an indifferent computer user. She does not care how it works, just as loing as it does the basic things she wants to do (email, word processing, music, videos etc ). She was going on holiday, and wanted some audio cds made up. I sat her at my Ubuntu desktop, showed her what to do, and she was away! Within 2 minutes she was pointing and clicking around, and had worked out how to navigate the Gnome desktop. I offered to install and set up Ubuntu on her laptop, and she has had no problems doing all the stuff she used to do under windows.
With an increasing number of people able to physically show windows users an alternative, hopefully this "prisoner mentality" should be a thing of the past ;)
Comment from:
jhay [Visitor]
· http://jrocas.com.ph
Nice analogy indeed. Very funny and smart. Still, I love my Ubuntu Linux.
Comment from:
Penguin Pete [Member]
· http://www.penguinpetes.com/
"I have to disagree with Ubuntu as a 'half-way house'."
I had a feeling I'd be hearing from an Ubuntite. Because *everything* offends an Ubuntu user... OK, it wasn't a personal attack on Ubuntu... nevertheless, it IS effective as a temporary "halfway house" because it is made with simplicity in mind. So it's being pressed into service. I tried it myself and said "It makes a fair micro-distro" but didn't review it, nor shall I, because the Ubuntu phenomena has spread like wildfire and there is nothing I could honestly say about the distro that wouldn't tinkle on somebody's parade.
Look how easily somebody showed you Ubuntu, and it's like the door to your Windows prison had finally sprung open! And now you're dashing around freeing the others! How could I possibly argue with that? Ubuntu makes a VERY GOOD halfway house, which isn't a negative thing at all, it's something we desperately need.
Let me put it this way: Other FOSS encompasses distros like Slackware Linux, grml Linux, or FreeBSD. These are to whiskey as Ubuntu is to beer. If beer is to your taste (and there's nothing wrong with that!) stick with beer.
I had a feeling I'd be hearing from an Ubuntite. Because *everything* offends an Ubuntu user... OK, it wasn't a personal attack on Ubuntu... nevertheless, it IS effective as a temporary "halfway house" because it is made with simplicity in mind. So it's being pressed into service. I tried it myself and said "It makes a fair micro-distro" but didn't review it, nor shall I, because the Ubuntu phenomena has spread like wildfire and there is nothing I could honestly say about the distro that wouldn't tinkle on somebody's parade.
Look how easily somebody showed you Ubuntu, and it's like the door to your Windows prison had finally sprung open! And now you're dashing around freeing the others! How could I possibly argue with that? Ubuntu makes a VERY GOOD halfway house, which isn't a negative thing at all, it's something we desperately need.
Let me put it this way: Other FOSS encompasses distros like Slackware Linux, grml Linux, or FreeBSD. These are to whiskey as Ubuntu is to beer. If beer is to your taste (and there's nothing wrong with that!) stick with beer.
Comment from:
Winston Smith [Visitor]
Very good insight. The analogy I like to use is of a cat which has been kept inside al of its life. When allowed outside, where there are no walls or ceilings, it freaks out.
Chhers
Chhers
Comment from:
Federico Kereki [Visitor]
The analogy is a very good one, and it has real life examples: freeing zoo animals is usually a bad idea, unless they have been "trained" for living in the wild.
Comment from:
Angel BerriosDavila [Visitor]
· http://www.redboricua.com
Brilliant analogy! I have a new perspective to look at when somebody repeat those trivial arguments. On the Ubuntu issue, I will need to pinpoint that like in Plato's Cavern myth we must find a way as a community to flood the world of "half-way" houses if we want bring them out of their shadows reality........
Comment from:
Jim Lee [Visitor]
Hmmm.... sounds like something we used to call the "Stockholm Syndrome" (that describes a situation in which a hostage, over time, starts to empathize with his captors). I guess the younger set would be more open to making a switch, if for no other reason than being more likely to be open-minded about such things. In my business I've personally found that the older the customer, the more "set in his/her ways" that customer is likely to be; a lot of them will not so much as even take a test drive, no matter how much you hype the advantages of *Nix/*BSD or the GNU/GPL. Not to mention the fact that the command line alone would scare the hell out of most of them - after all, we're talking about folks who've probably never even seen a DOS window or run box in Windows, let alone used one.
Other than this distinction, I think your analogy is spot-on. It describes the very same attitudes and reactions I often see from co-workers and others when they see my Debian desktop (or, for that matter, whenever they see that my browser is Opera 9 versus Internet Explorer 6).
Other than this distinction, I think your analogy is spot-on. It describes the very same attitudes and reactions I often see from co-workers and others when they see my Debian desktop (or, for that matter, whenever they see that my browser is Opera 9 versus Internet Explorer 6).
Comment from:
PetMark [Visitor]
Going through the questions.
MS user: What distro should I choose?
My Question: What distro will work?
Before you can add applications, change the appearance, and make it your own, you need to have a base to build upon. This base must also be useable without any appearance or functionality changes being made to it.
At DistroWatch.com I see 372 being tracked. And there are websites like http://desktoplinuxathome.com/distro.html that will narrow the search down for you. But what I don't have yet is a barebones system that then allows me to build upon it's foundation.
The problem is not too many choices, but how to narrow it down to a decision of just one. Give me 372 choices. If I know which one I want, I'll choose it. If not, ask me questions to help me narrow down to find the one that I want.
Windows gives you a foundation. You then customize it. You can choose to change theme, background, use single or double click. With additional apps you have multiple desktops, and even use a different shell.
Windows Advantage: You have the same base on every system. You can get right to work.
MS User: How do I install anything?
Before you can use the application, you must install it. With linux things install to different places depending on the distro, even depending on the version. Then you don't know if it installed, and if so, where it is, or what do you use to run it.
To install on Windows it's just a double-click on Setup.exe. With Linux it can be half a dozen different ways, if not more. If there are instructions it can help, but many times you don't even have any documentation.
Windows Advantage: You have Program Files. You get a Desktop Icon, a Quick Launch Icon, and a Start Menu Folder. One second after install, you can launch it.
MS User: A command line?
I don't understand the linux die hard approach to the command line. To create an archive, why not just select the files, right click, add to archive? Sure to those inclined it could be easier, faster to work the command line, but why not have a gui way? If you don't use X, use the command line. If you use X, have a gui way to do everything that you can over the command line. That's not much to ask.
Advantage Windows: Example: System Configuration Utility.
MS user: What distro should I choose?
My Question: What distro will work?
Before you can add applications, change the appearance, and make it your own, you need to have a base to build upon. This base must also be useable without any appearance or functionality changes being made to it.
At DistroWatch.com I see 372 being tracked. And there are websites like http://desktoplinuxathome.com/distro.html that will narrow the search down for you. But what I don't have yet is a barebones system that then allows me to build upon it's foundation.
The problem is not too many choices, but how to narrow it down to a decision of just one. Give me 372 choices. If I know which one I want, I'll choose it. If not, ask me questions to help me narrow down to find the one that I want.
Windows gives you a foundation. You then customize it. You can choose to change theme, background, use single or double click. With additional apps you have multiple desktops, and even use a different shell.
Windows Advantage: You have the same base on every system. You can get right to work.
MS User: How do I install anything?
Before you can use the application, you must install it. With linux things install to different places depending on the distro, even depending on the version. Then you don't know if it installed, and if so, where it is, or what do you use to run it.
To install on Windows it's just a double-click on Setup.exe. With Linux it can be half a dozen different ways, if not more. If there are instructions it can help, but many times you don't even have any documentation.
Windows Advantage: You have Program Files. You get a Desktop Icon, a Quick Launch Icon, and a Start Menu Folder. One second after install, you can launch it.
MS User: A command line?
I don't understand the linux die hard approach to the command line. To create an archive, why not just select the files, right click, add to archive? Sure to those inclined it could be easier, faster to work the command line, but why not have a gui way? If you don't use X, use the command line. If you use X, have a gui way to do everything that you can over the command line. That's not much to ask.
Advantage Windows: Example: System Configuration Utility.
Comment from:
Archon Magnus [Visitor]
· http://www.archonmagnus.com
AWESOME analogy! I never would have thought of explaining things like that. I get asked those questions quite a lot when suggesting Linux/FOSS to the disgrunted Microsofties. I try not to proselytize Linux--I also use OS X, XP, BeOS, and others--but when an OS has this much flexibility, it's hard not too.
Comment from:
Wryyy [Visitor]
· http://img360.imageshack.us/img360/4016/2211152826237061bi8.jpg
http://img360.imageshack.us/img360/4016/2211152826237061bi8.jpg
Comment from:
PetMark [Visitor]
What I mean is perhaps ask me questions or let me know if I try this distribution out if it will work on my system. I've tried a distro out, and it doesn't detect my network card. I try another and it doesn't detect my sound card. I try a third and it detects both on the live cd, so I try a HD install, it seems fine, then it doesn't boot. Almost every distro, top ten included, have a xorg, or missing driver, or install problem. It's not that I haven't tried sorting through the 372 packets, it's that I have tried enough to leave what doesn't work for what I have that does work, Windows.
Yes, I could buy new hardware, or the hardware makers could release linux drivers, but the fact is my system currently works as is. and I'm not saying web support isn't there. The wikis, forums, irc have helped solve some problems. But do I want to spend 3 hours to get my network card going, or two days to get an install to take when I don't have these problems elsewhere?
>You really do have the same base on every major system in Linux.
Drivers, even with the same kernel number, are different.
I'm not saying there isn't developer documentation everywhere, as there is. What I'm after is non-technical user documentation. Something you can open up, look at or search, find the answer, it gives step 1 2 3, then you can close it a minute later, and your done. I don't need to know what it's changing, what the problem is, the technical details of how it's being fixed. I have a problem, I want a solution. Perhaps later when it's not time critical I'll go back for the rest.
If I quit my job so that I had the time, and developed a desire to read technical documentation, than perhaps in one year I could have a linux desktop that would purr like my current windows desktop does. Thing is, I don't have a desire to do either.
Linux continues to improve, but it's still not at the point where I can move over.
Yes, I could buy new hardware, or the hardware makers could release linux drivers, but the fact is my system currently works as is. and I'm not saying web support isn't there. The wikis, forums, irc have helped solve some problems. But do I want to spend 3 hours to get my network card going, or two days to get an install to take when I don't have these problems elsewhere?
>You really do have the same base on every major system in Linux.
Drivers, even with the same kernel number, are different.
I'm not saying there isn't developer documentation everywhere, as there is. What I'm after is non-technical user documentation. Something you can open up, look at or search, find the answer, it gives step 1 2 3, then you can close it a minute later, and your done. I don't need to know what it's changing, what the problem is, the technical details of how it's being fixed. I have a problem, I want a solution. Perhaps later when it's not time critical I'll go back for the rest.
If I quit my job so that I had the time, and developed a desire to read technical documentation, than perhaps in one year I could have a linux desktop that would purr like my current windows desktop does. Thing is, I don't have a desire to do either.
Linux continues to improve, but it's still not at the point where I can move over.
Comment from:
drcolossus [Visitor]
· http://dataleak.corewatch.net/
Bad analogy really! You cannot compare an OS with a real-life situation like prisoners or free living people. Your analogy rather proves that something is wrong with Prisons!
Comment from:
logicman_alf [Visitor]
I came here for a read thanks to a posting on the micromart forums.
(Thank you Sparky)
Some brilliant analogies.
Prisoners, stockholm syndrome, animal lib and shadows in the cave.
What an erudite lot you all are. :)
I am 60, finally went to windows from dos when win 3.11 came out. Don't assume that we wrinklies have no familiarity with the command line. How do you think we all keep XP working, against all odds? (Not really offended.):)
Thanks for the insights.
(Thank you Sparky)
Some brilliant analogies.
Prisoners, stockholm syndrome, animal lib and shadows in the cave.
What an erudite lot you all are. :)
I am 60, finally went to windows from dos when win 3.11 came out. Don't assume that we wrinklies have no familiarity with the command line. How do you think we all keep XP working, against all odds? (Not really offended.):)
Thanks for the insights.
Comment from:
Penguin Pete [Member]
· http://www.penguinpetes.com/
"I am 60, finally went to windows from dos when win 3.11"
As did I!
Don't get me wrong at all, I used to run DOS 6.22 and hack QBasic all night long and thought it was pretty cool. I also used Windows some right up til 98, and kept it chugging along mostly with Red Hat on the flip side of the drive towards the end of my Windows years. (and only kept Windows around that long for the family to use until they were as comfortable with Linux.) No, my point isn't to criticise people at all.
The difference was, Microsoft was a brief stop for me. It helped to have run Commodores, MacIntoshes, and IBM DOS randoms (I remember XTreePro and XTreeGOLD!) before and OS/2 and MacIntosh at work during. As soon as I found Linux, I was able to transition overnight. I have since explored BSD, Open Solaris, plan9, ReactOS, and pure GNU/HURD. If I just had to, I could adapt to BSD, Solaris, or even - yes, plan9 from Bell Labs - without too much pain.
You can get busted for a beer ticket or speeding and spend a weekend in the slammer, too, and bounce out, never to return. But the mentality seems to take hold with experience; for me, Windows was a shock to my system. I never once felt like it was mine, like previous systems - even DOS - had. When I got out of Windows into free software, I immediately felt that pleasure center tickle again in my brain, the same one that tickled when I first discovered BASIC programming or the first time I investigated MacPaint and Hypercard (yes, even Apple felt good sometimes!). The computer was once again doing what I wanted it to do, and not preferring to obey some distant, unseen master.
In other words, it felt like the return to freedom after a gig in the pen...
As did I!
Don't get me wrong at all, I used to run DOS 6.22 and hack QBasic all night long and thought it was pretty cool. I also used Windows some right up til 98, and kept it chugging along mostly with Red Hat on the flip side of the drive towards the end of my Windows years. (and only kept Windows around that long for the family to use until they were as comfortable with Linux.) No, my point isn't to criticise people at all.
The difference was, Microsoft was a brief stop for me. It helped to have run Commodores, MacIntoshes, and IBM DOS randoms (I remember XTreePro and XTreeGOLD!) before and OS/2 and MacIntosh at work during. As soon as I found Linux, I was able to transition overnight. I have since explored BSD, Open Solaris, plan9, ReactOS, and pure GNU/HURD. If I just had to, I could adapt to BSD, Solaris, or even - yes, plan9 from Bell Labs - without too much pain.
You can get busted for a beer ticket or speeding and spend a weekend in the slammer, too, and bounce out, never to return. But the mentality seems to take hold with experience; for me, Windows was a shock to my system. I never once felt like it was mine, like previous systems - even DOS - had. When I got out of Windows into free software, I immediately felt that pleasure center tickle again in my brain, the same one that tickled when I first discovered BASIC programming or the first time I investigated MacPaint and Hypercard (yes, even Apple felt good sometimes!). The computer was once again doing what I wanted it to do, and not preferring to obey some distant, unseen master.
In other words, it felt like the return to freedom after a gig in the pen...
Comment from:
Chris [Visitor]
Brilliant! I was always looking for an analogy like this!
Microsoft has done one thing right. They've made it easier for the user to use a computer, which is like living in that jail cell. However, *nix users have clearly seen how that has been taken advantage of (WGA, spyware, etc.).
For the "midway" distros, they're really not as restrictive as most may think. Yes, there are good GUI tools in Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS, MEPIS, etc. but it's still Linux no matter what distro you run. In fact, you'd be rather surprised at how similar than different these distros are.
But hey, that's why there are 400 choices. I'd prefer that than just one.
Microsoft has done one thing right. They've made it easier for the user to use a computer, which is like living in that jail cell. However, *nix users have clearly seen how that has been taken advantage of (WGA, spyware, etc.).
For the "midway" distros, they're really not as restrictive as most may think. Yes, there are good GUI tools in Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS, MEPIS, etc. but it's still Linux no matter what distro you run. In fact, you'd be rather surprised at how similar than different these distros are.
But hey, that's why there are 400 choices. I'd prefer that than just one.
Comment from:
Muskrat [Visitor]
· http://www.muskratsweb.com
A good analoge, I'll bookmark this one!
I've often wondered why everybody is willing to by PC's of all shapes and sizes to do all sorts of different work, and install the same kernel in them all.
That's what microsoft windows does.
Nobody would by autos or trucks that way. They would decide frist what's it's purpose and then get the right engine and gears for that job.
As much alike as all 400 distros of linux is, most of them have differences in the kernel, one from the other. Yes some slight, others more so. But still different.
Every install of win98 uses the same kernel, every install of win98se uses the same kernel. So in reallity someone having a small resource PC doing basic typwriter work is running the same kernel as a body with a high end PC doing studio type vidio editing.
That would be like my grandma running to the store with a 500HP engine in her VW to buy a bottle of soda. And me hauling a 80,000 pound load of pipe in my semi, using a 500HP engine, to cross the great divide.
I've found that depending on my Box and it's use, different distros perform better than others.
I've often wondered why everybody is willing to by PC's of all shapes and sizes to do all sorts of different work, and install the same kernel in them all.
That's what microsoft windows does.
Nobody would by autos or trucks that way. They would decide frist what's it's purpose and then get the right engine and gears for that job.
As much alike as all 400 distros of linux is, most of them have differences in the kernel, one from the other. Yes some slight, others more so. But still different.
Every install of win98 uses the same kernel, every install of win98se uses the same kernel. So in reallity someone having a small resource PC doing basic typwriter work is running the same kernel as a body with a high end PC doing studio type vidio editing.
That would be like my grandma running to the store with a 500HP engine in her VW to buy a bottle of soda. And me hauling a 80,000 pound load of pipe in my semi, using a 500HP engine, to cross the great divide.
I've found that depending on my Box and it's use, different distros perform better than others.
