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[rant] apropos the DTP/Scribus threadI am a member of quite a lot of Linux forums and the recent influx of Windows users reveals a uncomfortable fact. Windows users coming to Linux seem incapable of thinking beyond what is in front of their noses. I've lost count of the number of times I've seen a bald statement something like "I put the disk in and it don't work" and expecting someone to tell them how to rectify the situation. Often the solution is right in front of them and all that's required is for them to simply stop and think for a moment. Experimenting seems to be completely beyond them as is the ability to provide even the meagre information required to solve their problem. Even worse it's amazing to discover their inability to conduct an effective Google search. What ever do they navigate the Internet?
OK moving to another platform ain't easy but if they can't be bothered to try things and attempt to understand the new platform then what do they think they are doing?
To me what lies behind their attitude is the arrogance that lies behind "the world owes me a living". i.e. If I want something and it doesn't appear immediately then the world is at fault. It seems the dictum acquired by countless generations that "nothing worth having is easily acquired" is almost completely forgotten.
It's increasing becoming the norm that nobody will work at anything. From the easy fame ethos behind shows like "Britain's got Talent", the philosophy that everything you do must be "fun", the unthinking every day acceptance of oppression and loss of freedom to unrecognised brainwashing statements like "Mars is the planet that fascinates us all".
Slowly the finer things in life are forgotten and our world is filling with the shallowness of mediocrity. Libraries empty of great literature, instead filled with books pitched at the "fill in the time on the plane" reader. A world devoid of music which doesn't have a repetitive beat and limited dynamic range. A mind numbing media provided by the half educated for sponges and where news reports are more fantasy than reality. (e.g a sound bite and one journalist interviewing another journalist is not news.)
Without trying to understand things then our vision will never be more than it is now and each one of us no more than it's static reflection. A future without horizons to strive for is no future at all but a stagnant never ending now and to my mind is as good a definition of decadence as anything an anthropologist/philosopher could provide.
[/rant]Apologies to all. It's late, I'm sat here on my own with little to do, so it seemed to me to be as good a time as any to have a rant.;-)
Keith -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq