ubuntu-us-ohio team mailing list archive

[Scott Randby <srandby@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 04/30/2018 01:03 PM, Ryan Hoover wrote:
> I'd read an something recently about the recent Facebook kerfuffle that
> was asking a similar question in regard to control over one's data and
> privacy (rather than control over one's system).  
> 
> It was an interesting take, but the shortened conclusion is that taking
> control over these things also means taking *responsibility* for them.
> I think that a lot of people are just willing to sacrifice this control
> in exchange for a service, OS, or other software taking responsibility
> for it.  Not a philosophy to which I would subscribe (hence, my only
> using Windows when absolutely necessary...I've never owned an Apple
> product in my life), but I could understand why someone with less time
> and/or technical knowledge (or will to gain it) would.
> 

You make an excellent point. The ruckus over Facebook and other social media hasn't really changed much. I have many friends who are receptive when I talk about Ubuntu and how easy it is to use it, but they would rather stay with what they know. Convenience has been more important than control for my friends.

Most of my colleagues have handed their professional lives over to proprietary software and cloud-based services. Many use a product called Panopto to make videos of their classes. When I demonstrated how one can use two simple FFmpeg commands to do everything Panopto does when it is recording a session, some of my colleagues where astonished. But then I made a mistake when I told them that I don't use video anymore (I'm migrating to Jupyter).

I wish it was easier to get people to just take a look at Ubuntu.

Scott