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> Rampant popularity?! Geez, Andrew, you've been hanging around the
> uber-geeks too long. Linux and FreeBSD are Very Good Things,
> worthwhile projects, and so on, but their market share is dwarfed
> by
> Microsoft's. (Flame-retardant disclaimer: I am not saying Windows
> is
> better. I'm saying far more people use it.)
Microsnooze has a big chunk of the workstation market. In the server
arena, where there is a lot more $$$. MS holds about 48% of the market
(according to the last study I saw). The UNIX variants all rammed
together would make up about 45% and Novell and some other weird ones eat
up about 7%.
> By your standards, MOST people are "clueless drips," as you put it.
> <g> Most people are not network administrators. They're people who
> haven't figured out yet that if you hold down the mouse button on
> the
> scrollbar, it keeps scrolling. This doesn't mean they're stupid; it
> means their area of expertise is different from ours. My job is to
> give them the information and help they need. Tech jargon only gets
> in
> the way.
Ready for this...I disagree. I think most people are smart - its just that
they revert to idiocy if they can. Most writers accept this as fact and
therefore treat their readers like morons. Thus, you treat them like
morons, they behave like morons.
My attitude has always been to educate my readers and give them more than
just "do this, do that, buy an upgrade" kind of instructions. Give them
the geek-speak and tell them what it all means. In the end - they learn
something and you actually communicate something.
> You and I are writing for different audiences. I do not write for
> geeks. I write for the other 90% of the population.
That 90% has to learn some time. Why not empower them with some words and
education that they can use. If you treat them like babies - they will
respond, like babies.
Andrew Plato
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