FLOSSophobia

These are changing times.  The impact of the ever-changing technological landscape has forced individuals to adapt to a society that is constantly consuming technological devices and services in ways never seen before.

Some people, especially in the education sector, see this revolution as a promise land where every gadget is a potentiator  for the teaching-learning process (shouldn't it be processes?).  In this idyllic view, people who are consumers of technologies tend to promote what is trendy, from iPads to Facebook, as the snake oil that solves all education-related problems.  Rarely is it that they stop and analyze limitations that sometimes become show-stoppers, such as the tech-divide, terms of service that contradict student privacy policies, or technological discrimination.

Interestingly, in my country, educators tend to be the least flexible concerning new technologies.  Most of them, for example, cannot distinguish the difference between an .odt and a .PNG file.  Driven by either recalcitrance or inertia, they have not been able to embrace the migration from MS Office to LibreOffice, a process that started in 2010.  And now that MS Office was removed, they are crying in desperation.

This phenomenon is not new; many users believe that productivity is equal to procedural automation.  Such idea rests, however, on the false assumption that software is unchanging.  They forgot that Microsoft actually changed the Office interface in 2007 and they had to adapt.  Now that they have to use LibreOffice, they claim that adaptation to an interface that they used before 2007 is way too difficult.

I suspect that the problem has never been the interface, nor is the productivity assumption.  The problem at the core is the rejection of FLOSS because of fear or hatred, a phenomenon that I call FLOSSophobia.

While some people will sneer and dismiss my thought as a hyperbole, there is plenty of evidence to categorize this recalcitrance as the product of a hegemony with political an economic power to propagate both fear (FUD) and sheer hatred toward FLOSS.  They resort to ridicule, insulting remarks, and unproven claims to slow down the adoption of free/open source software.

I have seen it many times. "Linux is a cancer".  "Open sauce".  "Linuxtard". I even remember the teacher who did not bring a laptop for her presentation and, when I offered her my Linux netbook, she rejected it as if I had presented her something illegal.  She tried to use an old Windows computer instead but, when the computer failed, she ended up displaying her presentation with my Linux netbook.

Clearly, this teacher's position was not based on ignorance or lack of expertise because she knew Linux existed and all she had to do was to display slides.  Her refusal was due to indoctrination: she had learned that Linux and non-Microsoft office suites had to be rejected.

The case of my colleagues is similar.  They think they are computer literate because they use MS Office (despite knowing nothing about file formats).  With LibreOffice, their inconsistencies manifest and they feel self-conscious, exposed, and incompetent.  They both hate and fear feeling this way, so they cling to that which makes them feel validated and, in so doing, they assume a rejection discourse on FLOSS.

No doubt; FLOSSophobia is a new reality that the information era has brought about.  From the social standpoint, there is virtually no difference in the mechanics of FLOSSophobia and, say, xenophobia or homophobia.  The only difference rests on the fact that society is still oblivious to the adverse consequences of FLOSSophobia.  However, a day will come in which this phenomenon will be subject of analysis, like Cyber-bullying, sexting, and other realities that ICTs have put onto the table.

Some Random Thoughts on Windows 8

I had to go to this meeting yesterday in which University representatives came to deliver a workshop and show an application that was supposedly fundamental for the good functioning of the administrative layer of the different University units. However, when I asked the speakers how I could get the application, something funny happened. The younger speaker, a man who gave me a patronizing look, said that the application was real friendly. Then he tried to impress me with "computer jargon": he said that all I had to do was "install it to the root in C: and...."

And that's where I interrupted him to say that my computer doesn't run Windows, so I asked if the valuable application could run in Linux. He was dumbfounded and proceeded with the stupidest answer you can give a potential user: "Well, we can install an OS where the application can run for you and..."

I had to cut him short saying: "Wait, listen: I don't want to discard my OS and all my perfectly functional applications only because this program was not developed to work on different platforms. The program must be changed, not my OS".

That's one lesson several University authorities are yet to learn: academic and administrative units invest time, effort and budget to develop applications that, later on, are lost when Microsoft arbitrarily determines that certain features are not going to be supported by their newest OS version. I wonder if this "fundamental program" will run next year, when Windows 8 will be released. Maybe the program will trigger the redesigned Blue Screen of Death which I, jokingly, had anticipated here.

At least the University Libraries did not plummet into the same abyss. They improved all their systems to be OS-friendly, so I can do scholarly work using my Linux netbook and MAC users are also covered. Some units are also offering documents for download both as .odt and .doc (not .docx!)

But the administrative layer is the one that, for its most part, has no idea of what "compatibility mode for documents" is (let alone what a file extension is!). Those are the individuals who think of themselves as computer experts because they survived the adaptation to the Ribbon interface of Office 2007. However, in a notorious oxymoron, they claim that Linux/Open Office/Libre Office is too difficult because the UI is different. Yet, they simply bore and grinned when Windows 7 introduced new UI features. When a program that worked in XP ceases to work in 7, they meekly accept that as natural, cry over the dead program, and go on as cyber-zombies controlled by a Puppet Master. In short, they are the Spider Monkeys to whom Bill Gates referred and that made him grossly rich.

I must confess that I second what sinaisix mentioned as the first consequence of using Linux here. I like to have control of my computer. I want to be able to work with whatever system I have available, not one that will leave me hanging because the company that sells it decided to drop support. That happened already in the section where I work: the program that controls all the student registration processes is not supported in Windows 7. It was not my mistake, but I did not conform; my first action as the boss was to have it replaced by one that can be run in multiple OSs. It runs in Linux now. Hence, if Windows 8 decides not to run it, we will have a compelling reason not to spend money on a useless OS, right?

I wonder how the Spider Monkeys will react once they are hit by the new UI of Windows 8. Will they be able to pretend that they never said anything about a "pronounced learning curve"? Most probably, people are going to congratulate Microsoft for the brilliant innovation and say, paradoxically, that "Linux is falling behind" despite the fact that such cell phone-like UI was introduced in Linux before. Oh, and that troll who, after seeing Unity in Ubuntu and the ROSA panel in Mandriva, said that he was going back to Windows because "Microsoft knew their desktop" must be eating his shorts right now.

In any case, I hope this troop of Spider Monkeys starts backing up their info, just in case ;-)