[svlug] Who and What?

[Sarah Newman]

On 05/25/2015 12:12 PM, Scott DuBois wrote:
> On Mon, May 25, 2015 at 12:08:29PM -0600, Mark - Syminet wrote:
>> 2) I've noticed that many kids these days (e.g. high school graduates) appear 
>>     to be miserably un-prepared for a world full of computers.  It's sad because 
>>     I think we (by which I mean, OSS) must have failed them?  
>>
>> Amazingly, these kids do not even know what a C:\ drive even is.  Copy/Paste?  
>> Forget it.  Remember, people born in 1995 are 20 years old now.  Are we 
>> reaching a place where your grandkids call grandpa to fix your computer?  
> 
> Good points.
> 
> These days, mobile is dominant. To this generation "root" means hacking your
> mobile device so it can run apps not approved by the manufacturer or carrier.
> 
> These people have grown up in the GUI generation, most never bother with C:\ or
> ~$, they simply install another app that lets them do things. Many never learn
> DOS commands or shell commands and they really don't care. As long as the
> applications continue to work, that's as far as they need to go.
> 
> Even reading and writing are not really important anymore because they have
> point/touch and click/drag. The application spell check handles errors so
> spelling isn't important either. Go a little farther into voice recognition and
> now there is almost no need. Most of these tools were devloped to help the
> disadvantaged be productive but what has happened is they get used as a crutch
> to actual learning.
> 
> What needs to be emphasized is that reading and writing are actually fun and the
> command line can do really neat things, really fast, that can be time consuming
> or difficult from point and click activity. 
> 
> Games are the dominant market on mobile by far. Make learning the command line a
> fun game and more will become interested in leaving the shiny GUI behind or at
> least learning how to play with words and commands in lieu of point and click. 
>

Yeah, kids these days not knowing about incredibly archaic technologies like DOS. I guess I should have learned how to use punch cards when I was in
school.

You might see the GUI as "shiny," but most people probably don't know that anything else exists.

Talking about how to get young people more involved in OSS is a great conversation to have. I would not start by discounting their experiences.