the problem with Linux?

[Jeremy Wakeman]

On Wed, Apr 07, 2004 at 03:26:33PM -0400, Lloyd Budd wrote:
> On 6-Apr-04, at 23:23, Jeremy Wakeman wrote:
> >I have heard dozens of people complain about how difficult Linux is to 
> >use
> >and configure.  In almost every case, the complaint was not actually 
> >about
> >the relative difficulty as compared to...

> This is a fantastic assertion, that is also very easy to be demonstrated
> to *still* be false (at least in the case where one is setting up the 
> operating
>  environment for home use).

Sorry, let me explain that better.  People tend to, in my experience,
complain more about the differences rather than the difficulty.
With that in mind, I agree that Linux is, in general, more difficult to
setup for the average home user as compared to Windows or MacOS - even if
that average user did *not* buy a computer with an OS already installed.

What I am saying is that even if Linux was easier, many people that I
know would not use it due to the fact that it is not familiar.  The way
I see it, there are several solutions to that problem.

1) make Linux more like Windows (ick).

2) make Linux more integrated, more intuitive, and more familiar so that
switching is easy (it seems that some applications are doing this fairly
well, including KDE and GNOME, though I don't use either on a regular
enough basis to vouch for that).  This is the situation where a good GUI
that doesn't take away the power of "edit the /etc/program.conf file"
approach would be good.

3) help teach newbies on lists, irc, one-on-one, etc (a good short-term
solution, and, I think, something the community in general and TLUG in
particular is quite good at).

4) teach new computer users about Linux (CLI and GUI) before Windows
becomes what's familiar (not an easy solution atm - only people whose
parents are geeks learn Linux as kids, at least in Windows-happy North
America).

> The problem here is choice.  Most computer users simply want it to
> work... this is case on MSWin for CD, DVD players, sound, printers,
> and even more so on Mac OS X , with it's greater application 
> integration.

Yeah, driver type stuff needs to be easier.

-Jeremy

--

Jeremy John Wakeman
cael-JTkAzvGkdyMrpQx6IzTi3laTQe2KTcn/@public.gmane.org
www.polarhome.com/~cael
linux registered user #125171
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