Saragib’s Weblog

After last week’s class, I thought about just how much I take design for granted when it comes to technology. The idea of tag clouds, letting you see visually what you have or have not put into words, is a great idea but I would never have thought to use it this way. When it comes to technology, I pretty much just accept what is in front of me and never really ask questions. I realize that I use software out of habit or availability and rarely, if ever, think about improving or contributing to it. I think this comes down, again, to my relative lack of knowledge about technology. Like my car, the computer is something that I use but don’t feel like I completely understand. If it turns on and gets me to where I want to go/does what I want it to do, then great; I am happy.

Looking at all the open source software options in the article was really interesting. It is amazing what is out there but it also sometimes feels like the equivalent of someone asking me to go in and upgrade the engine of my car myself. Yes, it would be nice if my car was faster or did this or that but I don’t feel capable of making those changes myself; even if I have a “how to” manual next to me.

I tried yesterday to look at and install GIMP (an open source equivalent of Photoshop) on my Mac and failed miserably. I read several websites with directions and tried different downloads but nothing seemed to work. I felt like I was reading a foreign language when they were describing the different steps, operating systems, etc. At the end of a couple of frustrating hours, the price tag for Adobe Photoshop didn’t seem so high. 

I will go back this week and check out more open source options and look at them in the context of the blog question. In all honesty, I don’t anticipate being someone who ever creates or improves software but I would like to have enough knowledge to, at least, use these open source options.