Sun 11 September 2011
By Ben Snider
In Tech .
tags: OLF2011 Linux Open Source
This talk was given by Cathy Malmrose of ZaReason and mostly consisted of her
relating how awesome it is to have an operating system that "just works", to
steal a phrase from the Steve. This enables her to focus on the hardware, making it as
robust, powerful, and cost effective as possible, without needing to focus too
much on the operating system.
She related several support conversations she has had with her customers, and
how they either love how well Linux works on the desktop (I believe they use
Ubuntu ) or how they need a computer that won't get viruses or won't come bloated
with software, and that won't waste their time. She lamented the fact that
developers often aren't in direct contact with the users of our products, and
that disconnect means we are never really directly appreciated. She, however,
has a dedicated client support line for her hardware business, so she gets to interact with
the client. She remarked how great it is that Linux has matured to the point that she is
getting calls like "how do I turn it on" rather than "my network card isn't
supported."
She also apparently is somewhat anti-corporation, which could be the proximity
of UC-Berkley rubbing off on her. She mentioned the documentary The
Corporation . However, I think she genuinely wants to provide an
excellent service to people, and the mindset of Linux fits very well within that
particular ideology.
During the talk she tangentially mentioned technology in education, and how we are
moving from rigid computer instructional software to more real-world types of
problem solving, navigational, and practical learning software. She gave the
example of Minecraft and how her son learned to navigate Paris from playing a
racing game. I don't really see how this relates to Linux, but whatever, it was interesting.
Overall it was a very broad talk encompassing several topics, but it was a
keynote, and it was a good overview of all the ways Linux is used, and how much
the developer community is appreciated. So, a good opener for the day.
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