Deprogramming the members of the Redmond cult

Filed Under Tech

Read some half-assed test of the latest version of Ubuntu this weekend. The writer has put his computer-illiterate girlfriend behind a fresh Ubuntu install, and gave her some tasks to accomplish. I stopped reading after she attempted to install ‘utorrent.exe’, and skipped to the predictable conclusion.

The fundamental problem here, as with most of these ‘experiments’, is that the subject in question is not merely ‘computer-illiterate’. Her entire experience of interacting with computers has been dictated by Windows. She has been thoroughly indoctrinated by the cult of Redmond worshippers, and like most cult members, she needs to be ‘deprogrammed’ before she can handle a different view of reality. Typically, Redmond cultists usually consider themselves ‘normal’ because they use Windows, and regularly accuse others (i.e. Linux and Mac users) of being cultists simply for being different, and having the audacity to defend their individual choice as a ‘better’ alternative.

Sure, us Mac and Linux users have often been vocal about their choice, but we had to be out of self-defense. If we hadn’t, we wouldn’t have access to most official documents, government services and commercial services like online banking. In fact, if things had gone Microsoft’s way, half the internet would have been inaccessible for non-Windows users. And this fight for equal treatment is still going on.

The rapid growth of Apple in the mainstream computer market space may actually be changing all that. Most of those who switch to Macs have been using Windows PC’s for years. Even for the younger generations, who are mistakingly being seen as computer-literate because they grew up with computers, this is a major step forward. Up to now, what was considered computer-literacy has been a matter of knowing how to use Microsoft products by clicking the right icons, and only using a fraction of what the internet has to offer.

Switching to Apple means having to learn a new way of operating a computer, and more importantly, slowly learning to recognize the differences between computers, operating systems and application software. Switchers are not only able to use both OSX and Windows, they also become better equipped to make their own choices as to what software to use, and how to use it.

This will eventually result in a more mature kind of computer-literacy, one in which people actually know how to use computers regardless of the software and OS. One in which people can, and will inevitably want to make their own choices, just like they make their own choices in everything else in life. That’s the kind of computer-literacy Linux was made for. Linux appeals to users who want total control and total freedom. It will probably always be a minority, but at least it stands a chance of being accepted as a ‘normal’ minority in a diverse information-society, where it is perfectly acceptable to make personal choices about which OS, browser of wordprocesser to use, without being ridiculed or discriminated against.

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