January 17, 2009
A Slashdot article from January 15, 2009, describes a young woman in Wisconsin who ordered a Dell laptop last fall, but mistakenly ordered it with Ubuntu vs. the variety of Windows OSes available (Linux is free in this case, so a cost decision was at play).
As things turn out, she wanted to take an online course at the Madison Area Technical College, but couldn't figure out how to connect her laptop to her ISP at home, and then decided to drop out of her online course. Now, as the news broadcasters need a "story" here is how it plays out:
Victim: young woman, stymied by Ubuntu Linux, has education and career aspirations dashed by evil computer vendor.
Villain: Dell Computer, for sending her an evil and oppressive operating system that she cannot use.
The real story: Her ISP (Verizon) wanted to send her a Windows driver for her internet connection (802.11). It probably would have worked without any drivers, but the ISP help desk was also looking like a deer in the headlights at a consumer with Linux.
The bottom line: Taking an online course requires you 'get online.' The use of Ubuntu, IMHO the easiest OS to use (yes, even for Mac users), didn't really cause the problem, the people who could/should have helped this user caused the problem. They only know the scripts.
The support mechanisms for Verizon, Dell, and even the college could have easily guided her to get herself going. What was lacking was some local help (e.g. ask your friends, family, or even a friendly member of the Geek Squad).
This would never happen to a Case student. You'll always have others around to ask, and they'd love to help.
Posted by Thomas Siu at 12:08 AM
