[luau] Think Tech Hawaii and Linux

Thu Feb 20 20:30:00 PST 2003

Hi Don and all,

re: We are advocating the creation, nurturing and
growing of a successful tech community.

I moved here recently for family reasons after living
in Massachsetts and New Hampshire for many years where
I worked as a software engineer and manager for
companies like Wang, Avid Technology, and one of Ray
Kurweil's businesses to build voice recognition
shrink-wrapped software.

I am still getting over the shock of how poor the
salaries are here while the cost of living is as high
as Silicon Valley or New York city and the houses (on
Oahu) are ridiculously expensive.

So how does Hawaii expect to attract and keep high
quality technical talent and businesses when they can
do so much better elsewhere?  Frankly, I have yet to
hear any answer other than "lucky live Hawaii" when I
inquire about the salary situation.  Well, I
guess...maybe, but it's not a very satisfactory
answer.  And I don't see much hi-tech here even though
efforts like the Maui Technology Center, the
incubators in Manoa, etc. have been around for awhile.
 Is there a connection?  Don't know, perhaps some of
you do.

That's my rant, had to get it off my chest (and of
course, I have an agenda-I'd like to stay in Hawaii
but can't hack getting 30-50% less here with higher
cost of living than Boston or other places.)

On another note, I joined LUAU as a source of info and
help because I recently installed Linux on one of my
machines primarily to get some exposure to it.

For the record, I'm not passionate at all about Linux
or Open Office.  In fact, I barely know anything about
Open Office and was surprised to read in these emails
that it's even being discussed as a replacement for MS
Office.  (So, I guess I have some homework to do:-)

I have a few comments and forgive me if I sound a bit
preachy but I've been a little bothered by the
in-your-face email on this topic. So, FWIW:

1) IT'S NOT ABOUT TECHNOLOGY and never has been.  It's
about convincing people that a solution, which in our
case involves some type of technology, makes them more
productive, gives them an edge over the competition,
covers their butts and makes them look good to the
boss (an amazing number of business decisions involve
the last two).

2) So unless you can convince folks that Open Office
provides the above, you'll have a tough time getting
them to put their careers on the line by bucking a
"sure thing".  I haven't found that bashing them over
the head with your particular favorite technology
works very well.

3) On the other hand, if you focus your evangelism on
early adopter types with high credibility in their
respective businesses-and for them it IS about the
technology-you'll have a much higher success rate. 
But you still need to satisfy 1).

4) IT'S DEFINITELY NOT ABOUT THE BEST TECHNOLOGY and
never has been.  If that were the case, 90% of the
desktops in the world would be Macs and 10% Windows. 
Instead, it's the other way around.  Why? Because
Microsoft offered the best cost/benefit scenario and
it had a great sales/marketing machine (like it or
not).  It didn't matter if Macs had superior
usability.  They were more expensive and the cheaper,
buggier DOS/Windows applications were still better
than anything folks had at satisfying 1) above.

5) So even if Linux and Open software are proveably
"better", that in itself, doesn't matter.

6) Less you think I'm an advocate for Microsoft or
Windows, I'm not.  I'm pretty agnostic about OSs,
software and whatever.  I enjoy software but it's
primarily a job for me and have seen too many
excellent concepts go up in flames because
technologists forgot that it's about the technology
only to them.

Geez, two rants.  Sorry everyone.

Stan

--- maddog <maddog at heavymetalradio.net> wrote:
> Alvin,
> 
> I think you guys are misunderstanding the mission of
> ThinktechHawaii. We are
> not for or against any tech nor do we take a
> position on any for of
> technology over another. Thinktechhawaii is a group
> of businesspeople
> promoting the tech industry. We are evangelists for
> growing a tech industry
> in Hawaii. As for me personally, I could care less
> whether someone uses a
> computer with Linux on it or Windoze or Unix or the
> Operating system some
> high school kid built for the High Tech Quest
> Program. The fact that they
> are using a computer to further their knowlege and
> possibly develop
> something useful for the rest of the world is what I
> am interested in. I
> think some of you guys are so deeply invloved in
> promoting Linux to the
> world that you forget that what we (thinktechhawaii)
> are doing is trying to
> educate the public on the benefits of having a
> "tech" industry here to
> offset the bloodletting caused by a severe drop in
> the number of tourists
> coming here. If there are no jobs, no one will own a
> computer, if there are
> no computers who cares about Linux and Windows?
> 
> We are advocating the creation, nurturing and
> growing of a successful tech
> community of which LUAU and any other tech oriented
> group is a part of. That
> being said, you guys need to back off on the
> supposed attitude that you have
> encountered when dealing with us. Having
> confrontation or somone on the
> "inside" is not going to change the mission of
> ThinktechHawaii. Had you
> taken the timeout to come to the show last night you
> would have seen that
> the first person to stand up and ask a question of
> the Senator and
> Representative was none other than Ho'ala Greevy and
> it was an open source
> question.
> 
> Maybe I need to state this once again. I nor my
> fellow advisors endorse one
> OS over another
> 
>  Linux in my opinion is a solid OS and the more I
> learn about it the more I
> like it. It is important to be pationate about your
> beliefs and I think you
> are a way more pationate group than the Windows
> group I founded which lasted
> for 2 years. Your passion for Linux is the same
> passion I have for building
> a tech industry of which Linux is a part but not the
> end all.
> 
> Let me give you an example of what we do. Biotech is
> a fast growing industry
> here. We don't pick and choose products in the
> industry to showcase, we pick
> people to come and talk about the industry as a
> whole. We have had the CEO
> of Hawaii Biotech on the show, we have had the Dean
> of the Med School, w
> have had Dr. Yanagamachi (green mice) on the show
> and we have had Venture
> Capitalists from the mainland on all to talk about
> biotech..
> 
> We have yet to have someone from Microsoft on the
> show. So my point is that
> we do shows on the industry as a whole not on a
> portion of it. This is a
> major reason I would consider doing a show on HOSEF.
> HOSEF is taking donated
> computers and refurbishing them and giving them to
> schools. A secondary part
> of that show is the fact that they are installing
> Linux but it would not be
> the focus, the focus is what they are doing for the
> schools.
> 
> I hope all of this focuses better on what we are
> about and what our mission
> is. It is great you are all so passionate but Linux
> is too focussed of a
> subject to do a show on. There is no industry built
> around Linux here so the
> subject matter does not fit our focus. If we wanted
> to have as guests the
> CEO's of Red Hat and Caldera then we could make a
> show especially if they
> were going to pursue setting up a sales office here.
> 
> Thanks,
> Don
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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=====
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