[aklug] Re: Basic Linux information

Quoting Arthur Corliss <acorliss@nevaeh-linux.org>:

> On Wed, 16 Sep 2009, larry collier wrote:

<snip>
>
> And this is where I differ with Marc. He thinks we just need to put Linux
> into the hands of kids. If we really want these kids to learn *technology=
*,
> and not little applications, then we put a Heath Kit CPM computer in front
> of them -- in the original parts baggies -- and make them solder it togeth=
er
> from scratch. If we gave the kids Ubuntu instead, we'd just have the same
> class of Windows users that we have now, only with an anti-MS slant.
>

This one point rings a personal bell for me. As a kid in highschool, =20
they were able to buy an apple II. Now at the time, that was like =20
giving someone that used a mainframe an easier way to do things.

We had a ton of kids in our class and they were all interested, =20
however, at some point there was a set of about 5 that got attention =20
from the teacher. It started something like this:

Teacher: OK, for those of you that are interested in finding out how =20
the thing works, you can jump into basic and write your own =20
software....then from there, if you want to get down to the nitty =20
gritty, you can write your own assembler.

Kids: Lots of groans, but just a few....coool...let's do that...so the 5 di=
d.

My point in all this is that having the user base means that there =20
will be some kids that we can interest the innards...those are the =20
ones that we'd likely spend time with.

Would we ignore the others? No. That's just silly.
Will we spend time explaining how it all works inside? No, they =20
wouldn't really care.

We're looking for the few, the proud, the hackers.....had to do it... :)

> There's a reason why I keep my old Et3400 microcomputer breadboard trainer
> around. If any of my offspring show any interest in computing as a career=
,
> they're going to learn the old way, from the bottom up.

And even if it isn't your own kid, it is entirely possible one of the =20
people going through AKLUG may stop and look at the breadboard and say =20
' Hey, what's that thing do?' Now your off to the races....

It's clear that some folks won't choose to spend time with 'users'. =20
That's an ongoing choice each of us has to make.

I support Damien's attitude about trying to come up with ways for =20
folks to get interested....so let's brain storm on that.

Mike B.

----------------------------------------------------------------
This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program.

---------
To unsubscribe, send email to <aklug-request@aklug.org>
with 'unsubscribe' in the message body.
Received on Wed Sep 16 15:59:37 2009