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Mom Meets Linux - A Lindows 4.0 Review
JimLynch writes "We just put up the first review of Lindows 4.0, with a twist. I actually gave it to my Mom to see if she could use it. Find out if Lindows 4.0 passed the "Mom Test.""
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... has been using computers damm near 15 years. She still calls me occasionally for a reminder on how to get a console window in Win2k (can't call it a DOS window can I?) so she can copy files to her floppy drive from c:\docs
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
While I'm a mac user now (was windows, then linux, then OS X) I'd like to see a few more things done to round it out:
:P
Easy VPN setup (mentioned in the article already, but very important..PPTP and IPSec)
Start the user off as a user with sudo privelages, but not as root...touchy I know for user privs, and it starts off a whole load of but "it's not important" but "oh yes it is" all over the place. OSX manages it nicely, I see no reason why Linux can't do the same.
Bundle an office client. It's KDE...KOffice isn't there by default? ???
I think that's about it. Other than of course throwing in a dock and putty a happy mac face on it.
Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).
his patience is to be commended.
My mom, about a decade ago, took a class on Word Perfect. She learned what all those F-keys do, which is really useful since nobody seems to use Word Perfect anymore Alas, she brought home one piece of information that is useful for pretty much anything having to do with computers, and only one such piece of information:
"Read the whole screen".
I never realized how much stuff I just scan through when I do something on a computer. Like, when you're installing something, it may note "This action will consume 100 megabytes of space on your hard disk drive and will take a few minutes. Continue? [Back] [OK]": My mother will specifically read the entire thing. She'll ponder on that hundred megabytes. She'll consider whether or not a storm is likely to show up in a few minutes. And as you know, no dialog box ever has that little text in it.
I see "100 meg", "few minutes", instantly click [OK] and wander off for another Coke.
My mother reads EULAs.
I click [I Agree] while crossing my fingers with the other hand.
And as such, it drives one or the other of us bonkers if I ever have to show Mom how to do something on the computer. Either she's frustrated 'cause she's not sure what's going on, even though I try to slow down, or I'm about to pull my hair out wondering why she just doesn't click something, ANYTHING, DAMMIT!!
Ahem.
Anyhow, whether or not Linux is ready for Mom, I'm not ready to try to teach Mom Linux.
-JDF
Ah yes, the Linux elitist, making things hard for Linux users for no reason. Whether it's telling people to RTFM, referring to Microsoft with a $, or laughing at usability studies on GNOME done by Sun, the Linux elitist has all bases covered.
Your statement is even less shocking than it sounds and more on point than it looks.
:-)
A few years ago I was contemplating a new ISP, so I called several in the DC area (Erol's, ATT, etc.) and asked the "order takers" if their systems supported UNIX and/or Linux. ALL BUT ONE asked "What version of Windows are you running?", then they asked if I was running a Mac when I said "no, not Windows, UNIX". (no, I did not go into satire mode and say "X Windows" either
The one that understood right away? AOL and they would not "guarantee compatibility between their system and emulators or 'non-standard' methods".
Go figure.
Eve Fairbanks says I drive a hybrid!LOL
A friend just got back from an interview at NYU for grad school (MBA). For his job he reviews companies such as Red Hat. He told me when he ellaborated on what he writes about and mentioned Linux, the interview asked, "Isn't that the one with the cute little penguin?"
There's very little marketing of the penguin to the general public. (Red Hat has their, well, red hat... IBM has just their logo and targets corporate users, etc.) Yet this non-techie person at NYU knew something of the mascot. With that and other stories I've been hearing I think Linux is slowly gaining some mindshare, even will little marketing.
Developers: We can use your help.
Sputtering nonsense. Linux is powerful enough and flexible enough to handle desktop and server applications. What is lost by making desktop variants available for less elite users?
Or have I just been trolled?
Trouble making decisions? Just flip for it.
Shit, my mom doesn't pass the Windows XP mom test, she wouldn't stand a chance. Then again, I get confused on how to make programs run on a mac. Like that download to make them go thing is hard. Linux, you compile or unpack, easy enough. Windows you install. Apple, what.. this un-stuffing and copying around.... I don't understand how programs don't run with only one big file either. Come to think of it, when you screw up your configuration, how can you delete the .ini or .conf to start over and get the programming running.
I haven't posted in so long, my sig is out of date.
+2 Funny ?
I got there way before you did, and went from positive karma to "bad" in 2 minutes.
That said, I don't think I'll ever understand the slashdot moderation system.
Due to the Open Source nature of Linux, it's very simple to be dumbed down. You can have "Dumbass Distro" and "Poweruser Distro". All the normal computer people buy Dumbass Distro, and it probably comes pre-installed (Lindows Boxen). All the people who feel limited by it (Err..) can go ahead and install the Poweruser Distro. Hey, and if you can't do that, then yer not ready.
I thought companies couldn't charge for linux based software? Am I misunderstanding something or are they wrong charging $50 for a copy?
If "your momma" (sorry!) wanted to keep all her favourites, e-mail address and documents, there is no way that she'd be able to migrate between the two systems. It's relatively easy if you know how, but until Lindows can do this, they are only really viable as an OS for a new PC.
The next step for Lindows would be a disk that you put in a Windows PC that does some trickery to store your set up somewhere, install Lindows, then restore it.
but lindows is one of the last distros i'd set up for my parents. They charge to download software, that's not what i'm looking for in a nice learning package to give to my folks. My mom is able to operate Mandrake (after i had configed it) as easily as she can run windows (which i also configed). Lindows is still a very rude company in my mind, and I won't support them.
YOU SUCK BALLS!
I set them up on Knoppix 3.2 (HD based install) with Synaptic for "point and click installs". They love it. They can install what they want when they want. They paid....ZERO. Besides, Knoppix is a much better and more "robust" desktop platform in my opinion. I have tried to like Lindows...but I hate it. Just my $.02
I agree.
Last year, I converted our home pc to RedHat. I spent about 15 minutes showing my wife how to open Word documents with OpenOffice, and how to browse with Mozilla (which wasn't a big deal, since we'd been using it on Windows previously.)
For a while I got minor questions about things she couldn't sort out on her own; but within a month, she was totally independent. Almost a year later, I'm considering asking her to let me change distros for the hell of it.
She's not a power user by any means. And she's not very tech-saavy (once called me at work to ask how to shut off the fire alarm, which was blaring in the background. I told her "You don't. You call the Fire Department and they hose it down.") So I have a strong feeling that if she can do it anybody can.
The catch is getting past the idea that it has to function exactly the way it does now. The only way to exactly duplicate what you're doing today, is to do exactly what you're doing today.
Hot Damn! It's the Soggy Bottom Boys!
What would be far more useful is to give "mom" a set of tasks to perform (surf the web, write a document, diagnose a disconnected ethernet cable, etc) in Lindows, Mandrake, WinXP, etc. Saying "mom had no trouble" doesn't convince me, "mom had less trouble than X" does.
Also, does anyone else note that this article was posted on Extreme Tech? Not exactly what mom would read.
I believe Consumer Reports reviewed Lindows-based computers in their latest issue, surely a rag much more likely to be read by mom. (I seem to remember it panned Lindows for anything more than web surfing.)
I'm pretty quick most of the time, except when I rebooted the ATM.
The machine took my card and went BSOD, so I just whacked a lot of buttons at the same time. This apparently made the machine reboot and spit out my card.
The ATM (SEB, Sweden) was a 233MHz P2 with 256MB RAM running Windows NT 4.0 btw. It took a looooooooong time to boot, starting about 20 pieces of security/encryption software.
we come in peace / shoot to kill
Put an icon for OpenOffice on the desktop. Don't call it open-office, just call it Office.
...and other commonly used apps by home users
Sure, this will piss off 'lites, but so the fuck what? Elitists won't be using Lindows anyways: the person who's been using Macs and Windows all his/her life will, or who's never used an OS before.
On the desktop, put things like:
Office or Word Processor
Spreadsheet
Database
Slideshow Presentation Creator
E-Mail
Internet
Porn
Music Player
Movie Player
File Sharing
CD-Ripping/Burning
Or better yet, create a superior UI from the start. See some of my examples from my home page:
a model desktop
some explanation of the desktop model
social sciences can never use experience to verify their statemen
My mom doesn't talk about computers very frequently, but she brought something up a few days ago.
Mom: "I love that free office program that you put on my computer!"
Me: "OpenOffice?"
Mom: "Yeah. I was using it today. I can't believe that it's free."
Before that, she was using MS Works. She's not the kind of person that wants to spend a lot of money on new software, so I suggested OpenOffice. OpenOffice meets her needs very well, as far as I can tell. People just need a little coaching at times. You can convince them that there is more out there than Microsoft, but you need to take it one step at a time with people that aren't familiar with things beyond AOL and MS Office.
Little things like this can make a difference. A guy I work with is also now using OpenOffice (as of last week), and a few other people are fanatical of MozillaFirebird. They love the fact that it's lean, fast, not prone to trojan EXEs, and is pop-up proof.
Not everyone should make the switch to Linux. It doesn't suit everyone's needs... Yet. But there are tons of other great Open Source programs out there that normal joes (and moms) are discovering every day. That is what is getting the word out.
To scan windows machines (partitions) from a known, virus-free environment.
Most Linux zealots are happily toiling away making a Linux desktop that's friendly to a generation of users trained on Microsoft Windows. Meanwhile, Microsoft is creating an entirely new operating environment and training the next generation of users to live in that environment: Microsoft Office.
Office is the franchise, not Windows. Microsoft Windows maintains its dominance on the desktop primarily because it runs Microsoft Office. The underlying OS doesn't matter. Mom doesn't care what the OS is. She cares that it runs Microsoft Office.
MS is slowly replacing Windows as the dominant platform with Office as the dominant platform. When the next generation of Office comes out, you'll see more and more applications written to run within Office. More and more applications will be Office plugins that run using Office APIs. Microsoft is changing the rules of the game. Go ahead, build a better OS. It won't matter because the world will have moved one step up to Microsoft Office.
In order to compete on the desktop, the Open Source world needs to devote the kind of energy to competing at the Office level as it does to competing at the OS level. Then maybe Linux will truely have a chance on the desktop.