Computer programming is not difficult. Unix is super duper not difficult. If you had a computer in the days of MSDOS then you will be able to understand Unix. If you can write Word macros then you will almost certainly be able to cope with Unix. Computer *programs* are often very difficult indeed, but it's an illusory complexity - for the most part, they're not difficult because they're difficult, they're difficult because they're big. There are bits and pieces of computer science that require a head for maths, but nothing like as much as you'd think.
I learned how to do computers a couple of years ago. I learned Python from a book, then I learned to do SQL because a mate of mine was having to learn it, then I learned how to do some Unix things before I got sick and tired of bloody Linux on my computer. I got a book about C programming too; I never actually did any but it didn't look any more difficult. I made a little game that controlled a space-hopper on my screen, and a program that downloaded stock data and made them into charts throughout the day, and a thing that made my wireless connection sort of work in Linux. It was horrible persnickety stuff, and I would guess that a real nerd would find these programs pretty crappy, but it confirmed me in my opinion that it was worth doing.
The reason I sat down and did it was because I had formed the opinion that these things were important, and I didn't like not understanding important things. It's just like economics - as you know, Doug, those who do not make the effort to learn about the Fed statistics are more or less doomed to have the wool pulled over their eyes by people who do. Or even better, statistics; if you don't understand what a linear regression is, it is highly likely that someone who does will pull a fast one on you sooner or later. Similarly with computers; if you don't have even a shallow or high-level of understanding of what's going on, you're very vulnerable to being bullshat by people who do.
I think this is something close to Dwayne's point; there is some genuine value to extending an interest in this sort of thing to the population in general. It's pretty difficult to follow a lot of the debates about software patents and closed standards and so on if you don't really have an idea of what the technical issues are, and they're important.
I'm not sure how much the "computing for all" thing is related to actual Free Software though. That really does look like a hobby; a pretty harmless and pro-social one, certainly, but not something that is going to replace any large part of the economy. The trouble is that computer programs are large complicated things, and any human problem involving the assembly of large complicated things is going to come up with basically the same problems of political economy that have been around since the pyramids.
best dd
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