Chapter 2 — Why this document

The author, an enthusiastic personal computer user, often meets people who approach this tool with an extreme attitude: the computer must either be loved or hated, with no middle ground.

The aim of the document is not to convert those who despise new technologies, but to offer considerations that can lead to a different approach to computing, one that has reached a new level of maturity thanks to the Internet and free software.

Many people have had to adapt their working lives to a society that has introduced an ever-growing number of electronic tools. Today it is hard to find an activity in which the computer does not help.

Many people who are forced to use a PC learn a few commands and repeat them, hoping never to see the feared error screen. They live with these machines as a necessary evil.

Those who refuse to try at all have often made a first attempt and felt the humiliation and helplessness that most people feel at the keyboard at some point. That discomfort is frequently hidden behind a snobbish attitude, which protects self-esteem from the feeling of being inadequate in a changing world.

No one can argue that you can live perfectly well without a computer. But the author does not think it is wise to give up a new experience only out of fear that it will not fit the mental patterns we are used to.

This mini-HOWTO introduces ethical informatics. It is written in the style GNU/Linux users adopted to share their experiences.

After twenty years of computing practice, the author believes it is useful to learn from one’s mistakes and, where possible, avoid repeating them, by drawing on the experience of those who walked the same path first.

The document does not try to cover every problem a beginner may meet. It outlines a starting point and a few well-defined stages, which the author uses when, at work or as a hobby, he helps someone become computer-literate.