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."

Comments

this is so obviously a plant.

[nounderscores]

the author writes: "It's based on my impressions as a technical writer, Linux neophyte and curmudgeon"

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.