Don't bore new Linux users with philosophy

This was a discussion on a local LUG mailing list...
That sounds like it would bore me to tears. If, as a newbie, I had thought it necessary to know the philosophy of an Operating System before **using** it, I'm sure I'd be plugging away on a Mac right now I think it's FAR more important for a newbie to have a good experience
with their first 'steps' with linux than it is for them to know why Linus Torvalds chose to write Linux instead of using one of the existing alternatives.
I agree very much with this point. I recently attended a presentation on open source software. For the first hour, the speaker described the philosophy of open source, including a detailed description of the GPL license. By the time he finished talking about these subjects, about a third of the audience had walked out.

To new users, open source should be about USING the software. It is not about the details of how it works, or why it is going to revolutionize the software industry. These users need to quickly find the application that meets their needs and then install it. This is possible with modern Linux operating systems. For example, in Ubuntu, with a few clicks they can Add/Remove applications based on the function that they need to perform.

I know it is sometimes hard for us uber-geeks to realize just how easy Linux has become. We are proud about compiling applications from source and similar feats. Once the new users become hooked on the goodness of open source, some of them will start analyzing it further, and some won't. Either way, they are using open source and telling others about it.

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