New article in the Economist criticizing Linux usability

[charles chris]

Well I am surprised by all the responses my post has generated.

Thanks for the insights!

My concern is mostly with unsophisticated users.  This is the great pool
from which Linux can draw new users!

These people just want to browse Internet for information or do things
online like banking or make purchases online.

I would say most people use the browser, send and read email, play,
download, edit, burn/copy multimedia and perform some basic word processing.
This represents almost 100% usage in the Windows world.

These people want a stable reliable system.  They don't want to bother with
the bleeding edge updates!

I would like to create a similar image of Linux for PowerPC Macs.  Ideally
the image will play YouTube videos!

I am seeking help with this.  By Thursday evening this week, I should have
a powerpc Linux image working on a G5, G4 and G3.
It must be light on resources and most internal hardware should be detected
and installed out of the box.
This is true of my X86 Linux Mint LXDE images.

I realize the Linux community has many talented individuals who contribute
code or test Linux distros voluntarily.
I would like to do my part by deploying images of Linux onto computers.

Perhaps the Linux community can organize regular deployment of Linux onto:

1.  All Pentium III PCs with limit of 512 RAM. Those below 800 MHz will not
stream video properly.
2.  All powerpc Macs from G3 to G5 (1999 - 2005)
3.  Minimum 16 GB flash drives so user can dual boot Windows/Linux by
merely removing/inserting the flash drive before boot.
     Widows and Linux will see the NTFS data partition on the flash drive.
No configuration of Windows is necessary here!
     After Windows has loaded simply insert flash drive to access NTFS data
partition on it.




On Mon, Apr 9, 2012 at 2:30 PM, Lennart Sorensen <
lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org> wrote:

> On Sat, Apr 07, 2012 at 10:10:07PM -0400, charles chris wrote:
> > Hey!  Linux is for people who live on Facebook and YouTube.  They
> download
> > videos, songs, copy and make DVD, burn audio CD, perform basic picture
> and
> > video editing, create resume, etc. Conduct research on the Internet
> >
> > They may need Skype to work with an internal webcam:  We need hacks here!
>
> Who cares about skype.  Please make it go away and die, evil bastards.
>
> > Linux is NOT for graphic artists/desktop publishers/printers, video
> editors
>
> Some of those do use it.
>
> > Linux is NOT for tax preparers, financial services people
>
> That might be lacking at the moment.
>
> > Linux is NOT for engineers who use Autocad
>
> That's OK, they use SolidWorks these days, although that too requires
> windows. :)
>
> > Linux is NOT for doctors and lawyers
>
> Actually that could be debated.  The first major users of unix were
> apparently lawyers.
>
> > Linux is NOT for the near blind who need ZoomText!
>
> I don't think zoom helps blind people.  brltty and such might, which
> linux does have.
>
> --
> Len Sorensen
> --
> The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
> TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
> How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists
>



-- 
http://drpcdr.ca
http://jobcircle.ca
416 398 3772 OR 647 453 3327
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://gtalug.org/pipermail/legacy/attachments/20120409/0259341a/attachment.html>