I know it looks like I have computers on my brain this week, and, well, I do. But this lil post also hints at some broader societal issues. If you play guitar, you may be familiar with the name Sterling Ball. He’s CEO of Ernie Ball, which arguably makes some of the best guitar strings out there. Well, in a (sorta) recent interview–OK, 2003–on CNet News, he emphasizes something I’ve been saying for some time (yeh, yeh: I’m not alone; a lot of folks have been saying things like this):
I think it’s great for me to be a technology influence. It shows how ridiculous it is that I can get press because I switched to OpenOffice. And the reason why is because the myth has been built so big that you can’t survive without Microsoft, so that somebody who does get by without Microsoft is a story.
It’s just software. You have to figure out what you need to do within your organization and then get the right stuff for that. And we’re not a backwards organization. We’re progressive; we’ve won communications and design awards…The fact that I’m not sending my e-mail through Outlook doesn’t hinder us. It’s just kind of funny. I’m speaking to a standing-room-only audience at a major technology show because I use a different piece of software–that’s hysterical.
It’s about choice. It’s about appropriate technology. Finding and using what you need instead of what some domputer maker or software publisher wants you to buy. I touched on one aspect of this earlier in *Whew!* The faster I go, the behinder I get…, although there I concentrated on appropriate level hardware and using things that “just work” to get tasks done.
Unfortunately, we seem to be a society that has largely lost sight of the idea of approproate technology to get done what we need to do and have become a society that needs lots of bells and whistles and snap and sizzle… even if we don’t need ’em, rarely (if ever) use ’em and all the extras just bog us down and make things harder to do…
I get calls all the time that reflect another statement by Ball,
If you put a bunch of stuff on people’s desktops they don’t need to do their job, chances are they’re going to use it. I don’t have that problem. If all you need is word processing, that’s all you’re going to have on your desktop, a word processor. It’s not going to have Paint or PowerPoint. I tell you what, our hits to eBay went down greatly when not everybody had a Web browser. For somebody whose job is filling out forms all day, invoicing and exporting, why do they need a Web browser? The idea that if you have 2,000 terminals they all have to have a Web browser, that’s crazy. It just creates distractions.
And problems. Think of all the lost productivity from workers cruising the web when they have, you know, WORK to do. And the sites they visit can in some cases cause company liability, too. Not good.
What Ball did was step back and look at what his company needed, not what some computer manufacturer or software publisher wanted to sell him. Makes sense.
And it makes sense for home computer users, too. Figure out what you want to do with your computer. Look fr a hardware/OS/software combo that will allow you to do it and have some flexibility built in to grow. Buy that, not what some guy in a metaphorical polyester leisure suit from some hardware or software company wants you to buy, no matter how slick and “pretty” it looks.
With great power comes great responsibility. The checkbook’s in your hands. Use it wisely.
Noted at The Trouble With Angels weekly linkfest, where Diane has gone over to The Dark Side… but that’s her choice, and I respect it. 🙂