Opengender

The question of FLOSS needing more tech support than MS Windows keeps being raised among people working to promote IT among NGOs. It's time to question this conventional saw.

Why is this a gender issue? Because an awful lot of PCs used by small organisations are administered by female 'accidental techies' with very little support, training, or access to technical 'community'. This needs to change. One of the ways to tackle this is for more women to participate in the more open communities around free/libre software. Women are being put off by misinformation about the options available.

Small orgs have been strongly influenced by the FUD (fear, uncertaintly and doubt) put out by Microsoft for the past decade — often reinforced and re-transmitted by consultants and organisations set up to advise them on IT strategy. They have been convinced that Microsoft is 'easy' and needs little or no tech support whilst Linux is 'DIY' — flakey and needing an army of expensive technicians. In the context of cultural assumptions that women are 'just not technical', this creates an effective gender-bias against FLOSS.

Whatever may or may not have been the case in the past, the contemporary reality is somewhat different. Ubuntu has come a long way, baby! But before we get into that, let's look at how small orgs actually use MS Windows . . .

So what's really going on with 'just works' Microsoft?

The reality of small orgs' use of Microsoft technologies is that most of them are running pirated software which has not been updated effectively for years, or OEM preinstalled 9x systems which are no longer supported. They're often 'broken' in all kinds of minor ways over the years, are crawling with viruses and spyware, frequently have no effective firewalls or anti-virus software (properly updated or even installed). Their printers are endlessly and bafflingly delinquent and many have peripherals which they've never even succeeded in installing properly.

Their software is either 'default' or whatever was recommended by the first person they asked and frequently not the best choice for purpose or for their OS version. Their file management might consist of 'doc01.doc' 'doc02.doc' etc filed on local drives and inaccessible to anyone else. Most think that the file-manager window and default location opened by MS applications is specific to that application and that the files can't be accessed (or organised) any other way.

I also frequently deal with PCs where an MS OS has been broken (often by malware) and reinstalled inexpertly. Unaware that there are such things as drivers, their long-suffering owners don't 'get' why their screen looks like lego-kit or their sound won't work or their printer has suddenly given up the ghost. They have absolutely no clue how to seek information or support. They can't ring MS cos (1) their software is illegal and (2) even if it were a legal copy, OEM versions don't come with free support.

I've also lost track of the number of times I've been asked to go and see what's wrong with someone's 'XP machine'. They tell me it's running painfully slowly and keeps crashing and freezing and doing all kinds of weird stuff. I ask them the machine's spec, they don't know, but they tell me it's 'an XP machine', it had XP when they bought it (second hand) or it was given to them.

The reality usually is that this is a P3 with 128 MB RAM designed to run Win 2K. But MS culture is such that people feel a strong need to be running whatever everyone else has and stuff is 'optimised' for. So recyclers, or mates who have a pirate copy, obligingly give it to them. Such is Microsoft culture that people often don't differentiate between hardware and OS/software. The machine has XP on it and so it's an XP machine by definition.

I have to break it to the unfortunate user that they can either have a pirated version of Win 2k (to replace the illegal copy of XP that is already on the machine) or a free and legal copy of Xubuntu if they want to solve the problems of slowness and instability. I point out how much longer Ubuntu will be supported than Win2k. I fire up live Xubuntu to show them — they love it, they find it more intuitive, faster, cuter, easier to use and understand. I show them the free Ubuntu help and support online, they're surprised by how friendly and clear it is.

Then they demand Win 2k. Why? Because it's as mainstream as a Ford car — familiar, 'safe' and 'predictable'. Like Heinz means Beanz . . . despite the fact that most Brits can't tell the difference between Heinz and any other brand of beans with their eyes closed.

This is not helped by the culture of Microsoft use which encourages ignorance of how things actually work and obedient conformity. Having encouraged this woeful state of dependency, MS offers no support whatsoever. The legendary insecurity of MS systems proceeds, to a large extent, from shipping with everything left open and turned on so you won't ever need to bug them about how to open it/turn it on.

Most small orgs have their IT (such as it is) managed by an 'accidental techie' — usually an administrator (often a woman) or a mate of someone. These accidental techies are often entirely usupported and have no access to effective training. When you feel underconfident, it's not easy to contemplate tackling a whole new operating system.

This chaos and a miserable sense of lacking any kind of control over their computers or their data is a major contributory factor to people's 'rage against the machine'. Added to that, 'men in bowler hats' keep telling them they have to 'do something' about IT to comply with (already unpopular) evaluation and reporting criteria. No wonder they hate IT.

How does this come to be seen as the best of all possible worlds for the Third Sector to the extent that people seem to feel the need to defend small orgs from at least trying free/libre optionst?

It's true that there's been some lamentable arrogance in the past from the open source community towards non-techies but this, also, is becoming a thing of the past. Popular distros such as Ubuntu are well aware that if they want more users, they have to play nice with non-techie newcomers.

Introducing new-improved and easy-shiny . . .

So, let's look at Ubuntu, my favourite distro for small orgs (and non-techie computer-users from all walks of life). For comparison, I'll use a single example of clean installation of Linux Ubuntu and MS XP desktop versions on a popular Dell machine:

A 6 yr old Dell Dimension Workstation (P4 1.4, 500 MB Ram) which came with MS XP Home OEM preinstalled. This has needed reinstalling several times due to its owner's habit of letting security software licenses expire so their databases aren't updated, unwittingly downloading destructive malware from the internet and voluntarily installing all manner of dubious downloaded software.

To default install Ubuntu 7.10 desktop:

1. Insert the Ubuntu live CD
2. Reboot
3. Hit f12 and select 'boot from CD'
4. Using a clear visual interface and a mouse, answer when it asks where I am, what language I use and automatically identifies my keyboard as UK standard
5. Watch it boot the live Ubuntu desktop
6. Click the 'install' icon on the desktop
7. Watch it install the desktop
8. Reboot once to be presented with a login screen then the desktop
9. Ubuntu has configured the screen correctly, automatically installed and configured a USB hub, USB printer, flatbed scanner, 500 gig USB HD, USB DVD-writer (all of which I've left connected throughout) and a NIC and connected me automatically to the network

All done! The desktop, printer, scanner, external HD are all ready to use and the computer connected to the network/internet.

Open Office software and Evolution PIM is already installed. A discreet red blob on the status bar tells you it needs updating. Click on it, give your password, and Ubuntu will update the system automatically. The machine is now secure and useable for office and internet functions (it'll need some tweaking for media, otherwise, it's SOHO-ready out-of-box). Open Office will open MS Office files (and save files in MS Office format to send to MS users) and Evolution will automatically import Outlook settings and mail.

Ubuntu needs no anti-virus software at present. It comes with a native firewall should you need it. Its permissions, sudo and package management approach will prevent the user (or anyone else) from installing anything that might wreck the system whilst making it easy and absolutely foolproof to find and install 'approved-safe' applications. Ubuntu works on the principle that it's easy to do necessary things but keeps the inexperienced away from risky tinkering. But if you're willing to find out how, it'll let you install, tweak, reconfigure or rebuild whatever you want.

USB devices (which have a Linux driver) will plug-n-play without fuss. It's desktop and applications are extremely intuitive and easy to configure. And it's really pretty! — it has cute buttons and icons and you can play with your wallpapers and themes, move your bars around, change your icons, and do all that good personalising stuff that techies often find frivolous but everyone else kinda loves . . . 'Application' and 'system' menus are maximum 3 layers deep. To get a file manager, you just have to click where it says 'places'.

To install XP on the same machine:

1. Unplug all USB devices (grrrr! much crawling around in confined spaces)
2. Insert the disk and reboot
3. Hit f12 and select 'boot from cd'
4. Answer questions using very clunky, multi-layered dialogue boxes requiring you to look out for stuff like XP installing a default US keyboard without you noticing etc so that non-techies will wonder why they're getting weird characters.
5. Reboot till you're weary
6. Finally, I find myself on a desktop with a bunch of annoying balloons wanting to show me how wonderful XP is blah blah that I have to figure out how to turn off
7. My screen looks like it's made from lego, I have no sound, I'm not connected to the network, my USB bus has a yellow exclamation point (meaning it doesn't work)
8. VGA doesn't actually need a driver, I just have to drill down through endless menus to find where I can reset the resolution (luckily, I know what it is, a non-techie will not be so lucky!). The screen then lurches and goes black in a scary way before resizing and then giving you a few seconds to accept it (when I do this for non-techies who're watching, they frequently actually shriek involuntarily at this point).
9. Install USB-2 bus driver, wait for XP's hardware installer to punt balloons at me for half a minute. Reboot. Check device manager (more drilling down) — USB OK
10. Reboot, reboot, and reboot again — then reboot . . .
11. Plug in external USB hub, wait again whilst balloons make faint popping sounds
12. Install flatbed scanner driver from manufacturer's CD (or download driver), reboot, plug in flatbed, wait whilst hardware installer balloons away
13. Install printer driver (from manufacturers' CD or download), reboot, plug in printer, wait for balloons etc.
14. Failure to do this tedious routine with every single USB device will result in your devices not working and possibly XP needing a(nother) re-install.
15. Install sound card driver from Dell CD (or log into Dell site and, if you don't know how to identify a driver file yourself and navigate to it, give an obscure number on the back of your tower somewhere, agree to having your puter scanned in order to gain access to the driver)
16. Reboot
17. Again, drilling through menus and knowing at least something about TCP/IP networking, create a network (again, there's gonna be some rebooting if you have to change workgroup names etc)
18. Install proprietary (and expensive) anti-virus and anti-spyware software (usually requiring another reboot)
19. Install Microsoft Office (dear God, another reboot or two)
20. Do some upgrades that aren't done automatically and some more rebooting
21. Hope the 2 major service packs since this XP disk was issued don't break the drivers/anti-virus software and, if they do, go hunt around the internet and probably pay for upgrades to software/drivers that no longer work

Finally, it's useable.

I haven't had the pleasure yet, personally, but I'm told that newer Dell machines have no XP disk and have to be reinstalled from a partition on the Hard Drive. Guessing that's going to be hours of fun for the non-techie!

Once installed, XP will run in root by default allowing the user (or anyone else) to install and tinker with god-knows-what at will. Peripherals will frequently need driver CDs and install routines (where a mistake can really mess things up). And you're target-practice for any passing 16-year-old cracker on the internet.

System functions and configuration options are usually buried behind anything up to half-a-dozen menu layers and the navigational logic is often just plain weird. It's really hard to figure out how to load the file manager if you don't know how already. It's got me beat why this is seen as an 'easy' system. Even when I was administering it every day, it would often take me a minute to remember where stuff was.

The endless carnage from malware has got to the stage where if friends want me to maintain their machines, I'll only do it if they use Ubuntu. I don't have time to mess with Windows' endless problems. This isn't ideological (I've given up proselytising my friends), it's purely a matter of my time resources. It surely makes no sense to advise people with no tech support to use Microsoft rather than Ubuntu desktop?

Comparing some downsides between MS Win and Ubuntu:

Many manufacturers don't provide Linux drivers or even provide Linux engineers with the information they need to write Linux drivers. Some even legally block Linux from making drivers available. If you have legacy peripherals with no Linux drivers and mean-spirited manufacturers, you may have to change peripherals. If you're really unlucky, you may have system devices which won't install. The range of hardware which Linux will drive is widening every day. The more users Linux has, the more manufacturers will make drivers available. The success of Firefox (now at 50% market penetration Europewide) has forced web producers to make their products Firefox-compatible.

In reality, when I moved to Ubuntu, I only had 2 devices that wouldn't work properly OOB: a Canon printer — which also hadn't worked properly on XP, I had USB 1 and it was designed for USB 2 but nothing in its marketing or packaging warned me of this. Its XP driver threw up error windows you couldn't close and was prone to freezing. Canon had not released a UBS-1 patch although the problem was known in tech forums. There was a proprietary Linux driver for the Canon, but I figured I might as well buy a Linux-friendly printer as shell out twenty quid for a driver for a flakey Canon. My son also has a very expensive Canon printer running on XP but frequently has to make use of my cheapo HP printer on Ubuntu cos his Canon isn't working AGAIN. The dirt-cheap HP has toddled along on Ubuntu for 2 years now without a glitch through 3 distro upgrades.

My iomega USB backup drive also wouldn't work properly on Linux (although LaCies, Freecoms or Western Digitals will — check for Mac compatibility, Mac OS after X are Unix-based so if it works on a Mac it'll usually work on Linux). My BenQ external DVD plugged-n-played though. By comparison, it should be noted that when I upgraded to XP from Win2k, several of my peripherals refused to work, including my optical mouse and, rather more disastrously, an eighty-quid USB modem. Several bits of proprietary software (costing anything up to £70) also didn't work on XP (and I gather that Vista is even worse in this respect). It was 3 months before XP drivers were released for my win2k modem — and even then I had to hunt all over the internet for them, the manufacturers' site didn't offer them. I finally got them on a crack of a BT Engineers' CD downloaded from usenet!!! Hardly something a non-techie is going to manage easily. It was the same when 9x went from 16-bit to 32-bit, lots of driver and software mess/expense. In short, it's often just part of the ongoing development of computing. As for going from DOS to graphical windows — well!!!

In short, whilst Ubuntu can throw up annoying hardware issues, this is hardly unknown on Microsoft OS where it can be just as frustrating and difficult to solve. Similarly, it's not unknown for an Ubuntu upgrade to break software — but it's well-known that Microsoft upgrades frequently break software — and with automatic upgrades shipping turned on, non-techies get upgrades willy nilly and may not even understand why something's stopped working. On Microsoft, it's certainly not unknown to have to buy new software or devices or wait months for upgrades.

Ubuntu needs some tricky tweaking to handle all proprietary multi-media formats effectively and if you want the latest glam multi-media gadgetry it's mostly not going to work well on Linux. Then again, how often do small orgs without tech support actually need the latest glam gadgets? There's usually a Linux alternative available for most functions likely to be seriously needed by small community/charity orgs. On the upside, however, there's no annoying and intrusive DRM and Linux applications are designed to play nicely with other applications and platforms. I certainly don't miss the frustration of trying to migrate data across incompatible systems or needing to run 5 different IM clients for 5 different networks etc.

It is true that even some of the more mainstream Ubuntu applications are still developing and may not be as feature-rich or a slick yet as their Windows counterparts. On the other hand, they're free (and legal) and may often offer functionality lacking in their proprietary Windows counterparts. They're almost always more intuitive for non-technical users. Development is moving fast and most of the everyday applications available to the Ubuntu desktop are now more than up to the job and improving every day (literally! because of the Linux development model).

Linux may still not be an ideal solution for mainstream gamers, for certain kinds of popular multimedia or for gadget freaks, but for SOHO users without tech support, I would've thought it presented a far more sensible and manageable solution than the MS alternatives.

On the question of free help and support:

Free Microsoft help and tutorials for the 'accidental techie' are getting very sparse on the internet these days. Ubuntu help and tutorials, on the contrary, are blossoming and Ubuntu helpers are increasingly sensitive to non-techie users' needs giving clear, step-by-step instructions. If you have to go onto a commandline, the exact line of code will be given. You won't be expected to figure anything out by yourself or follow arcane and insensitive instructions.

The difficulties around providing Linux training boil down to a lack of available Linux suites to train people on and a lack of Linux desktop users to share skills. Neither should be too hard to fix. It's also worth bearing in mind that small orgs make very little use of offered Microsoft training in reality (frequently, only 1 or 2 of 20 registered attendees actually turns up at Microsoft training workshops put on for small orgs. Often, the only way to ensure good attendance is to penalise people financially for not turning up!) There's no serious difficulty in providing Ubuntu desktop workshops, the difficulty is more likely to be in getting people to attend them.

'It takes two' to make a successful skillshare but there is absolutely no reason why learning to use Ubuntu would be any more difficult (and probably a great deal easier) than learning to use MS Windows/Office properly. There's a learning curve for intermediate/advanced ex-Windows users, but it's manageable with fairly minimal skills-sharing support. Most office workers can sit down in front of Ubuntu/Open Office and pick it up in half an hour without any training at all. Sys Admin is another story but we're not talking about that, we're talking about simple SOHO desktop and ad hoc networks.

FTA (failure to appear) at MS training schemes by Third-Sector organisations (NGOs) is rather legendary in the UK. I think one of the reasons (apart from generalised apathy) why so few turf out for MS Windows/Office training is that it's usually really vocationally-orientated and, frankly, dull as ditchwater! It's carried out on suites which are locked down so you have to follow a set course (whether it covers what you're interested in or not), or even in virtual environments. I think women, in particular, are far more likely to turn up to a lively skills-sharing workshop where they're offered total control over the machines and technologies they practising on and where they are given the opportunity to decide what they want to learn and an open skills-sharing approach to learning it. Where this kind of open hardware and software workshop is offered (by Genderchangers or at Eclectic Tech Carnival) in a social context (where there's also food, coffee, socialising, discussion, networking) women take to Ubuntu like ducks to water.

Is there really a good reason why small orgs with ad hoc networks and no tech support should not consider Ubuntu a viable alternative? Or is this 'received wisdom' well overdue for burial?