Unfortunate Ubuntu media coverage
Peter
plpeter2006-/E1597aS9LQAvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org
Fri Jan 16 16:01:52 UTC 2009
Maureen Thornton <maureen at ...> writes:
> I am not a programmer nor a computer whizz or guru, I am an Executive
Assistant who normally has an IT dept. taking care of problems. This said, I
had Linux put on a machine and handed to me to try by a programmer (those of you
who know me will guess who!) I hated and loved it! Loved it for the idea of a
free system for all those who could not and should not have to pay the Microsoft
shit. Hated it 'cos you had to know too much about computers and realized where
Microsoft had jumped way ahead with their thinking.
I usually cringe when I read things like this. While I am not exactly an amateur
computer user and programmer I can't help but ask myself, have you or your
friends ever tried a Mac ? Because you and your friends seem to be after
plug-in-and-use-now systems. Macs are closer to that model than any Windows will
ever be and you do not 'need to take it to a computer savvy guy to have it
installed'. Also, comparing a standard Linux distribution with a plug-in-and-use
system is not fair. For that, a bootable CD Linux would likely be much closer,
assuming compatible hardware is selected in the first place. That is the closest
thing one has in Linux to the plug-in-and-use model. The next step is a
customized kiosk type installation that can be done for you by any Linux expert
with the necessary experience. Trying to install a 'standard' Linux distribution
that contains over 3000 programs and server software with a billion options,
with zero previous knowledge is usually bound to lead to doom (in the sense of
driver problems, unsupported devices and more - most of these can be traced to
non-existent owe well-hidden hardware vendor support for Linux and can be solved
by an expert). Again, if you want boot-and-play use a bootable CD Linux
distribution. This may actually get you up and running (on standard hardware)
much faster than any Windows install could.
Peter
(who is slightly biased by 12 continuous years of linux and *bsd use as desktop
and development platform)
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