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The Clueless Newbie's Linux Odyssey
overshoot writes "Just what we've always (said we) wanted: people who are fed up with Microsoft and are willing, even eager, to give Linux a real try. Well, she did. And did. And did some more. Not only that, she's a technical writer and she took notes. Not fun reading, but worth reading anyway."
It is so not!! the sophistication with which she is able to pinpoint the names of recent features and *cough* *features* *cough* of some operating systems says that this is obviously a much more sophisticated user, taking on the mantle of an imaginary "typical n00b" and then proceeding to post a wish list of one-touch solutions.
this is not to say that the advice is bad
Rather it is to say that if you cracked into the author's box, you'd find it didn't run Win95. The problem with an imagined "typical user" is that if any of the assumptions used to create this mental image are wrong, we might waste development effort on features that "nobody wants and can't delete" (without recompiling that is, and what typical n00b wants to do that?)
so as far as I can see her complaints about usability etc are pretty valid, but just take it with a pinch of salt...
better yet, hand out distros to ALL your friends (techie and non-techie) with their birthday cards. watch reaction, rinse and repeat.
Problem: "I think a computer is a tool rather than a hobby.
Solution: Get a Macintosh biznitch.
When I installed my HP722C a while back, I had to manually write a magicfilter print filter because no existing system supported it at the time. Unacceptable.
umm... just for the record i've been using an HP722C in linux and BSD for a really long time.
And the superdistro will be an easy to use gentoo. That sure seems like the best approach.
The point was to be fair to all the installations by giving them common ground. She's clearly a bit smarter than the average user, and yet still had problems with the various linux distros. That point seems to be completely lost on you.
No, the point you missed is that there is no reason to FAT 32 a partition before you install Linux. Since it is on a wholey seperate partition, it is senseless to format it FAT32, since it SHOULD be EXT3 when its installed. Its just a useless step. Once again, from a technical writer, I would expect more. Or less actually. Just drop the partition completely and let the install program do it, for instance.
THAT is the point YOU seem to have missed. It was unnecesarry and rediculous to do, formatting them to anything. And she should have know it.
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
I read the whole article and didnt see a single benchmark score! Where were all the charts showing the different FPS achieved on Quake III?
.ini files. The BS about linux being hard to install is imho due to the fact that none of these folks have tried to install Windows lately. Windows NT installation? Hahaha, man that will make you weep.
Seriously though, I'm a bit bored with the linux on the desktop discussion. My grandmother doesn't even have a computer. But I do, and I do things just fine on my Red Hat 8 box. Transgaming's WineX lets me run Warcraft III, Counter Strike, and Diablo II just as well as they run in windows, and I get all my development done without much trouble. I can understand how a non-technical user could run into snags, but saying your not interested in seeking help because your busy or griping about having to type is just lame.
How many of us remember the days of getting DOS to play nicely with a soundcard, lan card, and a modem? I certainly remember the textfile editing I had to do to get QEMM to eek out enough memory to get all those TSR's and drivers loaded. And I remember dealing with Windows
Enough bitching about having to type in a root password. I want some 3dMark scores, damnit!!
StrategyTalk.com, PC Game Forums
In response to this posting, countless Linux geeks will spend countless hours talking about how this stuff needs to be fixed. But absolutely no one will do anything to fix it. Ever.
Most Linux geeks are mostly talk. And the ones who aren't focus primarily on internal stuff that the user never sees.
From the Story:
"Note: Requirements 2 and 3 eliminate WindowsXP as an upgrade route. I would need to buy a new computer, probably new peripherals, and replace some eXPensive software to get the dubious benefits of product-activation codes and embedded functions I don't want and can't delete."
Clearly, the author is on crack, as I'm currently running Windows XP on a machine past it's prime, and am having no problems whatsoever; additionally, I can run Office 2000 without incident. If she's still using Office 97, then she really needs to come into the modern world just a wee bit.
Her statement on using only the available documentation (no man pages, no newsgroups, no other websites, etc.) is right on--you shouldn't have to rely on third-party information that is most likely out of date or configured completely incorrectly for your needs.
One common problem she was having was that she couldn't burn a CD with non-Root privelage. That "problem"--actually a security feature--exists on Windows XP as well. It's that way for a reason, yo.
Mandrake 8.1 (Linux for Windows): "Silly me! I expected that if the box says "Linux for Windows" and the CD says "Linux for Windows," they would contain an installation specifically and solely of Linux for Windows. I expected it would install from the CD-ROM like other Windows programs. I was quite mistaken."
You mean you didn't expect false information? What are you stupid? Damn near every manual you read has some wrong information or FUD in it of some type or other--it doesn't matter what manual it is, there are lies there. It's how it is.
Lycoris: "I inserted the CD with Windows active and discovered that it requires an installation of MSIE 4.0 or higher for the autorun installation to work. Although MSIE was installed on the system, Lycoris didn't find it and closed out with a fatal error."
That's a failure for sure...wonder why the Lycoris people never found that one--more testing for them I bet.
Oh, and the burn CD as root only thing is mentioned above, so I won't repeat myself.
Mandrake 8.0: "With the new graphics card, Mandrake installed more easily. To my surprise, the CD player worked as expected. I haven't a clue why a different graphics card would affect the CD player's access rights, but it did."
Conflict? Programming stupidity? Lack of proper driver? Dependencies?... FIIK (Fucked if I know).
SuSE 7.1 Professional = SoSO: Many problems she had = German shitware.
Mandrake 8.2 Beta 1 and 2: Apparently the Freanch make shitware as well (goes great with the German one! LOL)
"This brings out another frustrating aspect of Linux distributions: whom should I report the bug to? If you think the "it's the hardware, no, it's the software" tap-dance in the Windows world is annoying, wait until you see the "don't blame us we're only the distributor, you gotta talk to the dev team, no you gotta talk to the hardware maker, no it's the driver writers" boogie."
HA! Hahahahahahahahaha! What have I been preaching for the last 2 years? This! I could rub this in some more, but I wont.
Mandrake 9.0, Red Hat 8.0, & Knoppix: Getting warmer, but still shitty... Love those useless errors, don't we? Man Page? Lucky you didn't lose your sanity!
And finally..."As a whole, Linux is much closer to being an acceptable operating system than it was at the start, but it's still not perfect. Printing is still not a sure thing, sound-card support is degenerating instead of improving, and I have yet to successfully burn a CD. At the moment, I have Mandrake 9 installed but don't use it."
Yup, that's what I expected would happen. I must say she took hold of this and continued way beyond where most would have stopped. Medal of Valor type continuing above and beyond. Pity you never "won" this fight.