Jerry Houston wrote:
James Knott wrote:
Why is it that people have to learn Windows or Microsoft Office, instead of how to use a computer or an office suite? Do you teach your kids how to drive a Ford? Or how to drive a car? We should be teaching skills, not products.
I love my kids too much to teach them to drive a Ford. <g>
Seriously, I don't think it's a valid comparison. Cars are designed to be nearly universal, and those differences that exist (headlight, cruise, heater controls, etc.) can be figured out in minutes. Operating systems and the applications that run on them have much steeper learning curves.
Bull****. My cousin is a mechanical designer. He says the most frustrating thing are these ads requiring experience with Catia version X.Y or SDRC IDEAS version Z or UniGraphics whatever... It's all the same freaking thing Draw lines Mark angles and distances extrude sections Pick drawing sub-components and manipulate them Switching from one to the other is the same as going from a Plymouth to a Lincoln....itty bitty details differ, but the same basic principles apply. The only re-learning needed is to find out WHERE the headlight switch is, and how it operates, not an entire re-learning of the concept of headlights. The same goes for software which solves a similar task. The only problem with using Windows as the primary learning platform is that the whole MS training point of view is that of "how to use release X of MS software product Y" or "how to MS XP works"... instead of teaching general computing principles. No university-level CAD teacher worth listening to is going to speak about how to do things on one specific vendor's product without also discussing how the same principle applies on different products (community college "get your XXX accreditation" courses excluded). A long time ago, someone wrote the following: Learn Windows, and you know how to do things until Microsoft releases the next version; learn Unix, and you learn how to use all computers, forever.
I'm not suggesting that kids should't be exposed to Linux. Or that it shouldn't be their OS of choice (if it really is their choice). But preventing them from learning anything about Windows and Microsoft applications isn't doing them a favor.
You think they're not going to be exposed to Windows and all of the associated crap just from attending school, and visiting other peoples's houses? Where are you that there's this incredible dearth of Windows machines... I want to move there!
You and I might prefer an open source world, but that's not the world most of us live in, and have to earn a living in.
So basically, you're saying that, if you don't serve your kids Coca-Cola in your own home, how will the poor dearies ever experience what it tastes like? Jerry, you worry too much. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org