TechConnectify@mas.to - Oh my gosh I just figured it out.
Okay, all you open source evangelist people: your knee-jerk reaction to come at people who are talking about a problem with whatever commercial software they use and suggest Your Favorite Alternatives™ is exactly like saying "why don't you just buy a house?" to someone complaining about their landlord.
TechConnectify@mas.to - Actually, to borrow from @DoubleA, it's worse than that.
It's like talking to someone who is in a crappy apartment as though they have the agency and skills to stake out a plot of land and build their own home.
You have to be at peace with the fact that some people just want to exist and not worry about so many things. And they still have a right to complain about their situation.
Link to thread: https://mas.to/@TechConnectify/111539959265152243
If that's what he was trying to say, he's doing a bad job.
The only thing you need to buy a house is money. You don't need literally any money to use FOSS.
Well, it's mastodon. You've got a little over 400 characters to say what you're going to say in the most shocking, attention-getting way possible. Yes, it's not a perfect analogy, but no metaphor is perfect or else it wouldn't really be a metaphor, would it?
Anyway, it's a time and convenience cost that becomes extremely significant as your IT proficiency decreases, and you've got another think coming if you think those costs don't matter to people.
It's not an "imperfect" metaphor, just a bad one.
Okay, I guess. This isn't really a hill I'm prepared to die on. The point is that it's still a cost that's real to the user, even if it's not a direct financial one.
"Help, I can't afford rent!" -> "Buy a house, stupid."
"Help, this software is buggy and unintuitive!" -> "Try using buggier and more unintuitive software, stupid."
Seems like a solid metaphor to me.
Kind of off topic, but you can change how many characters your mastodon instance allows. Mine allows 1337 (for some reason) and I know many have it unlimited. I don't know about TC's instance.
Probably because it's leet.
Good to know, thanks!