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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
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.
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.
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.
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
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