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Making Linux Look Harder Than It Is

Posted by chrisd on from the complicated-makes-us-look-31337 dept.

drkich writes: "According to an article on The Register (by our very own roblimo). Many 'gurus' teaching new users about Linux make it look harder than it needs to be, and apparently fail to explain that yes, you can make PowerPoint-style presentations in Linux, you can view Web Pages that use Flash animation and other "glitz" features, and that you can manage all your files though simple "point, click, drag and drop" visual interfaces. Could the biggest problem with Linux usability be that most of the people teaching newbies to use Linux are too smart and know too much?"

4 of 764 comments (clear)

  1. i'm new by mabus · · Score: 4, Funny

    I just installed red hat 7.2 and i'm having difficulty learning linux. I have read lots of stuff but maybe I'm not reading the right things. My samba says "unknown error... hmm..." when i try to access my windows machines, and I have no idea how to install programs.... I think the HOWTO's that i read are too complicated. They always mention things that I have no idea how to do. I barely know DOS so I don't know many commands for the shell. LINUX is difficult.

    --
    "Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read." -Groucho Marx
  2. the core of the problem is... by Sanity · · Score: 4, Funny
    ...that the skills required to be a "guru" in Linux or anything else, are not nescessary the skills required to explain that knowledge to others, and unfortunately, they are often mutually exclusive.

    I know many people who are very smart, yet I cringe when I hear them try to explain things to non-experts in the field. It is not that they aren't trying, just that they lack the ability to put themselves in the shoes of someone who doesn't have their level of knowledge.

  3. Re:Too smart? by Tachys · · Score: 5, Funny

    It might not be too smart as much as too arrogant...

    What!! a Linux user arrogant?!? No way

  4. Re:If I could throw my two cents in.... by tempfile · · Score: 4, Funny

    The menu layout in Windows is incredibly confusing. I don't want to memorize the vendor of each application, because that's how the program menu folder is called. And how is anybody supposed to remember that Excel is a spreadsheet or that Explorer is a web browser, file manager, bad ftp client and responsible for some GUI elements? The naming of Windows programs is very hard to understand, and while these names might work in the Linux world as "brand names", new users facing hundreds of unfamiliar programs deserve something more helpful. While we're doing the "keep the text and switch words" game, there's a lot of discussion going on in the Gnome project to remedy this situation in Gnome 2 (beta out in a couple of weeks), and last time I checked the solution of having the app menu split in topics (graphics, internet, etc.) and the entries themselves saying things to the like of "GIMP, image manipulator" was quite popular.