By Graeme Wearden, 12 February 2004 09:05
NEWS A local council in Germany may have found the secret to overcoming user reluctance to Linux handing out stuffed penguins and showing users that even a woman can find her way around open source software.
The small southern Germany city of Schwäbisch Hall ditched Microsoft's software in favour of open source back in late 2002. On Wednesday, Horst Bräuner, the civil servant responsible for implementing the migration, revealed the tactics used to get the council workers of Schwäbisch Hall onside.
Undoubtedly the most controversial move on Bräuner's part was the use of a woman to demo the software.
"We put the chairwoman of our workers' council on stage in front of all the municipal workers, and showed her using the new system. After that, we found that no man would say that he couldn't use his PC now that everyone knew a woman could do it."
Speaking at the Open Source for Local Government conference in London, Bräuner explained that some users were afraid that the deployment of Linux was part of a secret plan to read everyone's email, record all their keystrokes and monitor their surfing habits.
"I became the most hated person in the municipality, but hey, that's usual," said Bräuner. "So, to people who didn't like it I gave away Linux T-shirts and stuffed penguins."
Other users were upset that they could no longer run the front cover CD-ROMs from their favourite computer magazines at work, or keep their old screensavers. These feelings were assuaged, Bräuner says, once it became clear that games did run on Linux and that people could still use their work PC for private use.
Schwäbisch Hall was the first German city to abandon Windows in favour of open source. It was soon followed by Munich, and yesterday the German Federal Finance Office signed up with Linux - a deal thought to be one the largest Linux-based mainframe deployments in Europe.
Bräuner believes Linux's security is a massive benefit to system administrators.
"Private screensavers and computer magazine CDs might not work in Linux, but on the other hand the MyDoom virus doesn't either," Bräuner told the conference.
Graeme Wearden writes for ZDNet UK
Comments
There are 47 comments. Join the discussion
1. Monica Basso
"... that even a woman can find her way around open source software. "
EVEN A WOMAN???? I can't believe that in 2004 there is still this prejudice around women unable to use computers... But of course, when most investing decisions are still made by a pool of bloody dull men, than one must speak the same language right? ... I guess the idea to have a woman on stage putting their hands on Linux was generated by a cool woman knowing well the brain limits of male decision makers...
Gosh! Masculinist culture is still around, when will we get rid of it?
2. Gary Smith
Monica, you are missing the point here. He is essentially deriding the men involved by saying that they were unwilling to admit defeat when a woman was shown using the software. Its a neat psychological trick that admittedly shouldn't still work in todays society, but apparantly (and unfortunately) does.
3. Sarah Mercure
Gary, while that may be true, or could be perceived as being true, the headline of, "Linux: 'So easy even a woman could use it'" hardly reflects your theory does it?
4. Elaine
I think the use of a woman demonstrating the Linux platform is inspired. It is a very clear demonstration that men are aware they can be easily manipulated by having their ego and their belief of themselves as 'Masters of the Universe' challenged. The fact that a man used his own weakness against his fellow men is, from a woman's point of view, very enlightening.
Men you are aware of your Achilles heel yet you do not protect it!
5. Jane
To be entirely honest I believe that the comments made in this thread are fair, that awareness of men's stubbornness and misogyny can be a good thing. But, dear silicon.com, please rethink your headline before I stop reading your website because it's all too difficult for my poor female brain to understand. There are many women involved in Linux (both usage and development) and your headline knocks all those achievements on their head. Ridiculous.
(Ed note. Come on Jane - you're not seriously suggesting that the headline reflects our opinion are you? You should be able to work that much out. We are merely paraphrasing what the demonstration 'set out to the prove'. The strapline after the headline should have made it clear that we were mocking the rather un-PC sentiment and not women.)
6. Russ
Also, the quotes in the story have been translated from German with all the potential for minor errors or alterations.
(Ed note. No he wasn't. Where did you get that idea from Russ? He was speaking English to English reporters, but carry on...)
Don't forget, the headline of the story has been written by the News Organization. They are the ones that have put their own slant on it to get you to click the link and read the story. Looks like it worked for Monica.
7. anonymous
I understand what Elaine is saying here but as the head of a start up technology company, I have to do battle with men who do not believe that women are "technologically minded". These initiatives that use women to make a point just make life that bit harder for women in my position.
Generally, the attitude within my industry is pretty good but it is often when you sell outside it that problems arise.
I know the Linux thing could be seen as a bit of a laugh but I don't think it is exactly empowering for women in technology.
8. Iain
Typical Woman! :-)
Monica states "Gosh! Masculinist culture is still around, when will we get rid of it?". Fair enough. But didn't we just read her comments:
"But of course, when most investing decisions are still made by a pool of bloody dull men"
"knowing well the brain limits of male decision makers..."
Oh dear, oh dear! More sexism.
You gotta love 'em ;-)
9. K Meidl - Software Hausfrau Extraordinaire
I dont understand what all the fuss is about. Why are we still disputing the as yet unchallenged belief (by men) that they are bigger/better/stronger than us? The suffragettes started and look what they got us - votes, underpaid jobs, and no let-up on childcare, domestic responsibility, or birth pain for that matter.
More power to the unaware - oh, and vorsprung durch technik, I say!
Have to go now - all this concentration's making me a bit dizzy.
10. Anna Ellis
We have a clever tabloid title to draw the readers in. We have a nice little story that pokes fun at the stereotypical assumptions of the average German male.
Do we pay attention to the real theme - Linux v. Microsoft and the drift towards a more secure operating system? Of course not. We get on our soapboxes and pontificate about stereotypes.
Good call.
11. Karen Challinor
Tact - so simple it may one day be taught to germans.
or how to get half the computing community to use Linux by alienating the other half
and no I'm not missing the point I recognise the irony but I still find it insulting
12. anonymous
Monica, Sarah, Elaine,
Ok, whose ego is being rubbed the wrong way here? Men? I think not. The article is "calling women out" in general. Not about their "brain power." It's addressing a real issue. And that is that women, in general, don't like complex ergonomics within computing. We're not talking about women that are mathematicians, physicists, or computer scientist. We're talking about women, in general, that are not computer savvy. Women, of a non-IT career type, do not like complex computing. They just "want it to work (I can't tell you how many times I've heard that!)"
Now, that being said, if Linux is easy enough for a novice (non-computer savvy women to use it) then anyone can use it. And yes, that goes for computer illiterate men too. But that's less an issue in the real world.
Non-computer savvy women are "computer illiterate" for a reason: Generally, they don't like complex computers. And when someone has a tendency to NOT like something, they will probably not be very good at it generally; or avoid it all together (unless it's intuitive).
The article's point is that Linux is not as complex as the perception might have been from women. And, they are finding it rather easy to use; contrary to past beliefs about operating systems.
Ask yourself this...how many women do you know that have an aptitude to like computing?
Id's say it's more a "tolerance" than an "aptitude."
And this has nothing to do with "brain power" or "ability" but rather a desire/interest (or lack thereof) in something.
David -
13. Jane
David-
It's generalisations like yours that are the root of the problem. I deal with non-savvy men and women on a daily basis and find that the women's questions are far more clued up than the men's. Also, the proportion of technical to non-technical women I know is higher than the same proportion of men. It entirely depends on which circles one moves in, and for every example given of a savvy woman, or non-savvy man, someone else will have a counterexample.
Generalisations like yours aren't going to help. Let's focus on the real issue here of Linux usability, eh, and remove this element of speculative gender generalisation that's leaving a nasty taste in my mouth.
14. Sylvie Noel
David, what is wrong with wanting a tool to work?
For most people, not just women, the computer is not the end task, it is a tool used to accomplish other things, like writing a document, calculating a budget, or reading articles found on the Internet.
If your hammer required you to press a sequence of buttons to start it up, then enter a password, then press another sequence of buttons to put it in "hammering mode", then required that you download the latest version of "hammer 2004" before you could start hitting nails, do you really think this would be an improvement?
15. Doug Richardson
Oh how I agree with Anna Ellis. Never has the point of a story been missed so monumentally!! What is the matter with you all? You sound like a bunch of schoolkids.
16. Russ
Ah, my apologies!
Guess that'll teach me to open my mouth without checking my facts :)
17. anonymous
"...so simple it may one day be taught to germans..." I think it weakens your argument to attack sexism by the use of racial stereotyping. Neither is acceptable !
18. Vic Tabram
There are more important things in life! You can vote and you can do any job that you want. Get over it please.
Mans perception of the oposite sex is not going to change by stoping this from happening and it's certainly not going to change by whinging that you're not treated as equal. Men and Women are hugely different (it's genetic) - but....still EQUAL. Praise your OWN strengths.
P.S. No one had a gun to the womans head when she did this demonstration!
19. George
I have used Linux (SuSE) at home for about 6 mos now. I have used it at my office for about 2 years and in the last year used exclusively Linux. My wife manages apartment complexes from our home as well as runs a household with 2 boys, one on the way, and me :-). She uses a computer because she has to for her business, and because she wants to for Ebay shopping, email and chatting with friends, plus an occasional trip into TUX Racer. She is much more interested in discussing our children, or apartment leasing, the state of my business, or soccer for the boys, Valentines Day, or Christmas, literally anything other than computer operating systems. She does not care if the label of the OS is Linux, Windows, OS-X or BSD, each of which she has used. As the article points out, somewhat poorly, I might add, She doesn,t have to understand computers to use Linux. Not because she CANNOT understand it, but because she has absolutely no want need or desire to understand why a computer does what it does, or why linux is more secure than windows. She knows that since putting the Linux on her computer, she has not had a crash while in the middle of a Word doc, (coming from W98) she has not had a virus, worm, or any other malicious code that caused her to not be productive doing what she needed to do. I don't know of many moms that have loads of extra time to fiddle with things on a computer that prevent them from getting their objectives accomplished. After 6 mos if you ask my wife today (I did for this reply), she will tell you, as the author points out, it just works. She will not go so far as to say better, she will just say the other did not work all the time, and this does.
20. Linda
Graeme your heading is outrageous and out of order not to talk of sexist and you are also full of yourself
(Ed note. Few things here. Graeme didn't write the headline, but we certainly stand by it. It's not outrageous and it is most certainly not sexist. I would recommend you read the story carefully before leaping to the wrong conclusion about who is making what statement.)
21. Thomas OZENNE
hmm machism?
22. anonymous
Thanks for all the fun, folks, I've had, in reading all the earnest responses to an article, of fairly undisguised ironic tone, with the delicious extra irony that most (not all) had nowt whatsoever to do with Linux vs Microsoft.
Ta.
23. Pete
Come on folks -- sense of humour! Stuffed penguins and a woman demoing Linux. Great. And they way it was done is Very German. For those who feel offended, get over it. Lets just treat everyone as equal but different, and have a laugh about the generalisations.
Reminds me--
'How many feminists does it take to change a light bulb?'
'ONE! and is not a joke'
24. anonymous
Blatant sexism, and I hope the German feminists will sue them.
25. Admiral Canaris
Perhaps a picture of woman 'using' a box may persuade some people... but not me !
I don't believe that woman are any good at all with computers.
Data entry, perhaps.
G
26. KKK
It always intrigues me how those who are less capable are always the most vocal. We are not talking about anecdotal scenarios here, accept the fact there are bio-emotive differences between the sexes. There isn't enough room in this forum to enumerate them but research has shown that females are less inclined to relate to physical challenges in the world (operating machines, navigation, technology in general) while males have a tendency to be less emotive. This has allowed the species to propogate because of this specialisation. Swap the roles around and you invite disaster. This is not sexism, this is realism. But since you chicks have got us blokes 'roused up, then get back into the kitchen and try and figure out how the washing machine works before dinner is ready!
27. chris flock
The thing is that although this is a common "achille's heel", any men who actually recognize the flaw are ones who aren't sexist, and so aren't affected by it. Any man who actually thinks women are intellectually inferior is, himself, mentally limited enough that he would never be able to comprehend his own imperfections
28. Female
You could of called this article "The Art of Selling Linux" or even "Selling Linux to the Reluctant" But to imply in your title That women are stupid but still can use Linux. Doesn't help what you are trying to say here. It just proves that the "male ego" is just as ignorant as ever in some places, and the world is still full of male chauvinistic pigs, and you allow this type of behavor at silicon.com.
29. BuggsyBoo
I wasn’t really interested in this story until I read the comments. It is not sexist nor is it saying women in general are not technologically minded. This is playing to egos, pure and simple; we see this kind of thing in advertising all the time.
The world tries to hard to be P.C that everyone fears to say anything at all.
30. anonymous
This is a superb thread, highly entertaining! More of those please!
I believe the article has delivered the goods: people are reading passionately, well in Silicon.com!
31. Zuzana Krifka Dobes
Well somebody needs to get educated about proper public manners. What happened to using "oma und opa" as the stereotype technophobic. I, a woman, have used Linux systems on and off since its infancy. And I even liked it when it wasnt so user friendly. Please dont prejudge women as a non-technical. I spent thousands of late hours hacking and sweating my way to my Computer Science Masters Degree and I dont know some marketing dummy to make judgements about my gender.
32. Pete Killelea
I'd just like to say how refreshing it is to see that the "Burn Your Bra Brigade" are still out there! I'd thought the days of endless fun; where I could wind-up these feminist-man-haters by uttering the word "women" under my breathe and shaking my head had long since disappeared. How wrong I was.
Of course women can use Linux, only don't mention drivers!
33. nigel perry
Absolutely brilliant! A superb example of politics at its best: just one sentence; everybody was interested; everybody interpreted it from their own viewpoint; everyone debated the subject. Is this what was really meant by "speaking in tongues?".
Regards,
Nigel the Terrible.
34. Diane Wicks
Sorry, I don't see the double bluff or accept that this was just an attempt to stroke mens egos. It is blatant sexism. The message is - so easy EVEN a woman can do it (a bit like the old addage - so easy even a CHILD can do it). It is impyling that if a mere woman can do it then it should be a doddle for the superior man. I would like to add a sexist comment of my own here, I find the women I know are far more pc savvy than the men. In fact most of the men I know don't even know hoiw to read an email, nevermind send it. Women have been working in offices since forever and most secretaries are STILL of the female variety. let's stop the patronising of women in the workplace right now. This German needs to think again.
35. Diane Wicks
Zuzana from Berlin illustrates my point perfectly. She is spot on in her observations and if I were her I would feel quite annoyed about the implication that women are dummy's when it comes to IT
Shame on all you men who think there is no harm in it, it just shows how out of touch you are.
36. Mike Hart
It's is sexist, but it's not new. For some time now IT reference manuals, (whose authors have a vested interest in convincing readers that technical content can indeed be absorbed easily) have applied the cheap trick of using the pronoun "her" instead of "him".
The original sense of "him" carried the dual meaning of adult human and adult male. Due to over sensitive PC sensors (and censors!), its meaning has come to be closely identified with the adult male, so the generic use of "him" is oft-touted by PC wannabees as now excluding the female gender, and should be regarded as offensive. This is being used as an excuse to pasteurise the english language.
My solution - take the man (sic) who first looked at inclusive pronouns as a way of stirring up divisiveness, blindfold them and offer them a last cigarette, place them against a wall...
Our guest exectioner today is Natalie, who finds no difficulty at all in handling a complicated weapon!
"Are you ready?", asks Natalie.
"Yes"
"..and Br?er, are you ready?"
Heh heh
37. David Sparkes
The headline of this article is misleading. What Brauner is saying is not that he believes that "Linux is easy enough for a woman to use"; merely that the men in the audience reacted as if they believed it.
Anyone complaining about a violation of women's rights either hasn't read the statement or hasn't understood it. Of course, it hasn't helped that the article has been pitched as if this is the case; perhaps the author hasn't grasped the distinction either.
No woman has been harmed during the making of this article, but perhaps German men should be up in arms about being stereotypically portrayed as being sexist.
38. Salvor
"Linux: 'So easy even a woman could use it'"... this is insulting.... to 50% of the people on earth
39. anonymous
Is David Sparkes saying that a woman did not deomonstrate Linux to show that EVEN a woman can use it?
Perhaps he would like to enlighten us as to exactly what did go on? As for German men being portrayed as being sexist, who said the germans had exclusivity on this, have we not got one or two fine specimens here in the UK?
40. She Ra
No surprise a man would comment like that.
41. Thomas OZENNE
So easy to use you don't even know you use it :), what looks like a good one :) I'm thinking about embedded linux , I read the technical paper about my next DSL Modem/PhoneStation/DSL TV BOX whouah :), ISP's are serving us using Linux Boxes you don't even know you use, I am still think thinking about those I once read about Tux Driven watches made in those I.X.M Labs :) , well that's not the place to wonder about that , but since everyone lotus,sun,ms are going desktop do you think one will try and say this is Women Desktop however this could be fun to try and analyse differences between usage for the same tasks to wether women are more likely to be happy with a KDE or Gnome desktop or a Linux desktop , who knows.......
42. Karen Meidl
To all those - male or female - who think that too much is being made of nothing and that only female egos are at play here, well guess what - YES THEY ARE! And a lot less violent, aggressive and physical are most women compared to men with hurt egos.
No one's bothered to ask WHY women are so quick to go up in arms at sexist actions/comments that are biased against them. Could it be, perhaps, the bullying and humiliation we suffer at the hands of the opposite sex all too often - even now.
Look at stats for:
1. Single parent families - predominantly women!
2. Number of split families where the father refuses to pay towards maintenance of his children.
3. Disparity in men's and women's pays.
And the list goes on.
We may not be able to stop gender bias by protesting the use of language to promote it - but it's a start. Language, as a means of communication, conveys ideas promoted by social and cultural influence (amongst other things). We protest against ideas that are obvious generalisations, whether sexist/racist/ageist etc., so that we can change 'bad habits' in our thinking and, eventually, in the way we bring up future generations - with respect for everyone based on the fact that they are human.
And as for the woman who finds it so refreshing that the burn-the-bra-brigade is still out there, ask men to wear jock straps throughout the day and see how they feel (tongue-in-cheek comment, albeit).
Not all men are sexist, nor all women IT illiterate/IT 'tolerant'. But let's call a spade a spade - this article was NOT about Linux vs. Microsoft - it was about a bias.
To deny that keeps us in the dark ages. We may progress technologically - but are really behind on our maturity.
43. Bronwen
Reading an article like this makes me realise why the number of women in IT is decreasing. This kind of blatent chauvinism makes me feel very sad for the human race as a whole. Some men should get out of their cave.
44. Oliver Neukum
What would you sue him for?
He used the head of the representation council for a demonstration - that is part of her job description
That demonstration triggered a sexist response. That he observed. You cannot sue someone for a truthful observation.
45. Anonymous
Did anyone stop to think during this rant, which springs from an article merely seeking to show a novel way of using male ego to bring about positive technical change, that this fervor over the means used to get this article read (and Linux used) is part of the reason why some women are viewed as representative of the majority of women? I see a group that, for the most part, want to cry foul over human nature. If I were to wish to hire one of the ranting women for a technical position, there is little here that proves they can tackle the tech stuff. I do know most can debate rather well. Is that useful to us here?
I have known some pretty IT-illiterate people of both sexes. Some of the smartest people I know are women (and only one is my mother, who is a bit computer challenged, but pretty darn sharp in many other ways). One comment noted that we _are_ biologically different, and thus have different ways of expression and different interests. All of these are good points.
I deal with people on an individual basis. There are some generalities that can be applied to a vast number of different "like" groupings of people, like gender or race. It is important to remember these are generalities, and should not overshadow that we all are different from each other, period.
Now can we actually discuss Linux vs. Microsoft?!?
46. Michael
OK, so what I see in this article that I think most women in this thread, excepting a couple, have missed is:
1) Some Germans wanted to get a MS-to-Linux switch going;
2) They used a woman to demo it;
3) Whether by design or by-product, male egos came into play and they switched.
Now what I think is really being overlooked is:
4) These men will now discover by using Linux, because they don't want to be outdone by the woman (generally irrelevant to the outcome), is that _she_ was the smartest of them all by using it in the first place!
Will they admit it? Maybe not this generation, but the seed is planted nonetheless. Using sexism to combat sexism while helping advance us all technologically seems to be a "fighting fire with fire" approach. It's worked before, hasn't it?
47. John Hauxwell
My GF uses a Mac OSX(BSD with a GUI).
So women using linux huh? wow. Women have been using OSX for a while and I havent heard any such nonsense as this about the Mac OS. Maybe the people at Apple have sorted out their PC Problems..it would appear that Linux havent quite got the hang of the PC thing