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Five Reasons Not to Use Linux
UltimaGuy writes "Linux-watch has a humorous article about the top 5 reasons for not using Linux. It does provoke some thought aside from bringing a smile to our lips :)"
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Sure, Windows is easier to use than Linux. But eventually you just get so frustrated that you have to take an angle-grinder to your computer, and it really takes a long time to get all the little bits of metal out of the carpet.
Reason number one: Linux is too complicated
.conf file on Linux crash your system? Maybe, maybe not, depends on what you're doing. But the likelihood that someone would have to do that editing is higher on Linux.
:) Maybe they have the sense of humor! :)
Linux *is* too complicated for a good many people but it doesn't have anything to do w/the system design or how it works. It's too complicated because it's different from what they use every day at work and at home.
Yes, it doesn't take that long to learn how to move around in the UI and find the alternative software that Linux runs. It's just different. People don't have enough time to eat, sleep, pay attention to their kids, or take their garbage cans in... They aren't going to have the time to install, adapt, and change the habits they learned using Windows for the past 15-20 years.
Compare that with Windows where, it's possible -- not likely, but possible -- that you'll need to use a command line now and again, or edit the Windows registry, where, as they like to tell you, one wrong move could destroy your system forever.
You know, I consider myself knowledgeable with computers. I run multiple OSs at home and have run many more over the course of my life. You know how many times I've edited the system registry since its inception? Less than 5. I really doubt that anyone *needs* to edit their registry ever.
You know how many times I've had to edit a configuration file on Linux? I just did it 12 times yesterday alone for two different programs. Will editing a
I love Linux. I use it on my servers, I use it on my desktops, and I use it on my entertainment center, where it powers my HDTV TiVo and my D-Link DSM-320 media player, which turns my network into a media library with terabytes of storage. Heck, I even run Linux on my Linksys WRT54G Wi-Fi access points, which hook the whole shebang together.
When was the last time you had to edit a configuration file with a text editor on your Tivo? I never have. When was the last time you had to fire up your WRT54G and wonder what all the fsck messages were? Never. Just because Linux is being used to power the device does not mean it wasn't designed to be user friendly. Most people don't surf the web and write research papers with a remote control or by hitting a recessed hard-reset button.
I realize that this was a tongue-in-cheek article and I realize that it was mildly humorous but I just really felt that it was just as bad as Microsoft claiming that Linux costs more. This bullshit where Linux users fault non-Linux users for not switching because of the lack of difficulty is just bullshit.
Linux isn't easy and it does have a learning curve. Most people just don't care to take the time to learn it.
I wonder if Microsoft just releases their "research" to give us stuff to make fun of
It's a pity we can't moderate stories as flamebait
The article was mildly amusing, but on the whole it seemed like a bit of a sarcastic rant. Not that I don't like those, but I expect more out of a Slashdot headline story.
Ignore Alien Orders
A reason not to use Linux: Choice.
Many distro's of Linux to choose from, so many applications to choose from...
Man, choosing is almost like thinking, it's hard!
Then how come OSX is so freakin' easy for everyone to use? It only takes a few minutes.
Actually, I find OS X the most difficult to use at times probably because it's the most "different" for me.
Games.
1. OpenServer 6 Costs Less
2. SCO Has a Superior Kernel
3. OpenServer Has Better Security
4. SCO Has a Customer-Driven Roadmap
5. OpenServer 6 is Backward Compatible
6. SCO Allows You to Focus on Your Core Competency
7. SCO Owns and Warrantees its Products
8. SCO is Unifying its Code Base
9. SCO UNIX: Legendary Reliability
10. SCO Has an Award-Winning Support Team
Read TFL for buzzwordy drivel and meaningless tripe from Darryl himself. Didn't know he'd registered a website in his name to spout his n0nsense.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
Also, when trying to discuss the benefits of alternative operating systems, it does not help the argument if you (by this, I mean the writer of the article) come off as being sarcastic and condescending.
My $.02 anyway.
"Teleporting Rodents with D-Cell Battery Displacement" theory -- IgnoramusMaximus (692000)
Ive tried several different linux distros on computers including my homebuilt Asus A7N8x-e deluxe AMD system and pentium 4 dell's at my lab. Ati 9600 level graphics on them.
None of them boot DSL properly. Mandrake Move no. Gentoo liveCD works, can install gentoo, but massive pains in getting the bootloader to work with drive due to the existance of SATA.
Your mileage will vary, until Linux gets better simpler support for hardware, especially with regards to X, ive yet to get X to run without having to abuse myself relearning conf files, don't even compare them to windows.
Seeing as the linked article is grinding to a crawl, here's the mirrordote 7ca3f011299d755/index.html
http://www.mirrordot.org/stories/384802a7fdfeda4a
You already have MacOS X :D
And there it is... I know it was an attempt at sarcasm, but until you can give me BF2, SWG, WoW, and HL2 without sacrificing a crap ton of performance (cedega I'm talking about you), I'll stick with Windows. Linux can power my webserver like no other, but I have no use for a linux desktop.
One thing the article steps around is the fact that many people like to use their computer for games. In that respect, the availability of Windows titles DOES dwarf Linux availability. So this, a sarcastic and biased rant about Linux being better than Windows, is headline news, whereas a story involving Opera turning 10 years old today and giving away its desktop browser licenses (happening NOW) is rejected by the /. mods.
Something Witty Goes Here
Procrastination -- because good things come to those who wait.
A Few Linux Administrators
...we use these words in a lifetime spent defeating software rivals. You use 'em as a punch line. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a user who surfs and emails on the Internet that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I'd prefer you just said thank you and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you format your C:\ drive and load Windows 3.11. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you're entitled to.
with apologies to Jack Nicholson (as Bill Gates, on trial for releasing his Code Red "update" and destroying the Open Source Software movement)
You can't handle the truth!
Son, we live in a world that has data. And that data has to be guarded by men with servers. Who's gonna do it? You? Linus?
I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Open Source and you curse Microsoft. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: That Linux's death, while tragic, probably saves data. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves the Internet. You don't want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don't talk about at board meetings, you want me in that Server Farm. You need me in that NOC. We use words like Start, Update, Explorer
Did you release the code red?
I released the update your servers were begging for.
Did you release the code red!?
You're goddamn right I did!
Uva Uvam Vivendo Varia Fit
It's bad for the economy!! Imagine buying a computer system and having it still usable for modern applications nearly a decade later. The various Linux distros allow for this. That cuts into profits for desktop and server sales. That's why Windows is the better choice. It pushes the hardware requirements up so quickly that you need to get new hardware every two to three years. This is good for the economy. Therefore Linux is UnAmerican.
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
That's a difficult question. After 10 years of being a viable, usable operating system, one would have thought that Linux would have made more inroads and become more mainstream. I think that Microsoft's blackmailing of computer vendors has something to do with it, but there's no single factor.
Where I work, for example, we are forced to use XP on the desktop despite the fact that the main tools that most of the core team use are available for Linux (Java, Eclipse). Ok, some of the tools that the core team uses are unavailable on Linux, like Photoshop, Lightwave, 3DStudio Max, etc. But a lot of people could be switched over tomorrow. Why, then, are the free *nixes relegated to the server-side? There are also issues with lockout on the server side, though, with some properietry packages such as our VPN software only running on Windows, yet Linux has still managed to gain a significant portion of the server market despite these factors. So why not the desktop?I think a lot of it has to do with the mindset of the managers at companies - for the most part they are not willing to give new technologies the go-ahead, even if it makes sense financially. The only way to solve this is to either get more technically competent management into companies (yeah, right), or to find a way to break Microsoft's strangehold of OEM and desktop markets.
Liberal Ontarians and French Quebecers are draining Western Canada's wealth. Stop them now! Support Western separatism.
Hellllooo.... notepad.exe
I have never been a Mac person. I just don't get it. Then OS X came out, and all I heard was how awesome it was. More unixy? Sounds good. I went into an Apple store in a mall where they had all the cool, shiny goodness. I played with it for a while. Hated it. Frustrating. It didn't make any sense to me. A couple of years later, and I acquired a Mac at work as a test machine. My machine was down for a day for some new hardware, so I used the Mac. Horrible, unproductive day. To me, that intuitive interface is like trying to pound nails with a carrot. A bright, shiny, pretty carrot, but just a carrot.
I am not bashing it, I am just saying it isn't for me. And I hope that I am not the only one out there.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Familiarity is by far the largest factor in ease of use.
Anything can start to feel comfortable given enough exposure. Why is popular music popular? Because they play it over and over and over. (People often confuse cause and effect in this one: it's usually popular because of the repetition, not the other way around.)
Use nothing but OS X for a year and everything else will seem awkward. Same goes for any other OS.
OSX is polished and has a singular top-down vision from Jobs and his unholy cult. There's no scattershot design by committee of blind idiots which is but ONE of the things hobbling Linux.
The biggest obstacle to Linux is that it is ruled, dominated, infested and infected with a "difficult is beautiful and better than easy or correct" mindset. There is active resistance to any sort of architectural framework promulgation beyond the kernel and even that is challenged by people second-guessing Linus. Never mind that easy to use GUI design is eschewed by Linux writers who seem to be inherently unable to grasp that what is easy for a techie geek is NOT the thing that the common end-users need or want.
The arrogany egocentric attitude of introvert geeks still rules: it should work the way I say and not the way those n00b lusers say. Microsoft doesn't work that way and look where they are today. Look where Linux is by comparison. EASE, not FREE or OPEN should be the buzzword of Linux.
If my grammar and spelling are off, I am [distracted/tired/careless] (take your pick)
We were promised a humorous article.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
-- Thou hast strayed far from the path of the Avatar.
Liberty you never use is liberty you lose.
With friends like these...
Oooohhh - did you notice how strongly biased the article is against Windows? It's even outright lying:
"And, Microsoft also has Microsoft Office, which -- oh wait, you don't get that with the operating system, do you? You also don't get a Web page editor either, do you?"
Windows comes with full office and web editing capabilities for free: wordpad
Do you know how your car runs ? Do you care? When you switch cars, do you switch to a manual transmission just for shits and giggles even though you don't know jackshit about shifting gears (supposing you use an automatic)? I would think you would look for a car that's as simple as the previous one, but faster, cheaper - better! People view their computers as their do their cars - goods beyond their comprehension that they can USE.
I never spellcheck and I freely admit it. Save your karma for more worthwhile "lol erorrs" replies
where's the Maya/3DS/LW/Softimage alternative? It doesn't exist (dont be a bone head and suggest Blender here, its like comaring a 79' VW to a Ferrai).
Are you nuts? Maya, Softimage and Lightwave are all available for Linux and the major studios are using mostly Linux clients and render farms.
What you simply don't get is that with Linux most people write the software to use it themselves. Those people advocating Linux for Joe Sixpack are not the people writing the software. Those just write the software exactly the way they like it and that is good. If any change is necessary than it is the advocates who have to stop pretending Linux was written with the "normal" user in mind.
Linux is not Windows
5) still have to meddle with .conf files. not good enough for normal users
4) slow. it used to be that one argument for linux and against windows is that linux is faster, but not anymore, it seems. on my old pc, winxp is clearly faster than linux (with kde/gnome) of any distro. response in graphical linux is not snappy enough.
3) fonts. either it's fat and anti-aliased or skinny and aliased. in other words, it's plain ugly compared to windows.
2) desktops (kde & gnome) and menus are still crude. as much as i hate windows, i find the xp interface is nicer than kde and gnome. their windows, toolbars and buttons are proportionately sized by default. you don't get dialog boxes shooting beyond the bottom of screen. and normal users tend not to know where to find what in the menus.
1) no equivalent _and_ compatible applications. especially outlook. i can overlook this outlook thingy, but many many people cannot.
What you simply don't get is that with Linux most people write the software to use it themselves.
He gets it.
He also gets that that is one of the reasons Linux seems to have "scattershot design by committee of blind idiots"...
``Take a look at Apache. A server widely acclaimed for its up-time, and yet you can't even change a single setting without restarting the server!'' /etc/init.d/apache reload
Reloads the configuration without taking the server down. Many Unix daemons do this when you send them a SIGHUP.
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
The fact that support for ACLs isn't as universally implemented in Linux as it is in Windows is flat out embarrasing.
Not if you compare them to the defaults they misconfigured in windows. Writeable \Windows\system ? Come-on! Those default ACLs are a complete utter fuck-up.
"The more prohibitions there are, The poorer the people will be" -- Lao Tse
Just to pick one out-and-out lie from the general confusion of your posting:
Well, lets see, Apache was based on NCSA httpd, which was a rewrite of the original www consortium httpd, which was written originally by Tim Berners-Lee. (all of which were open source). Now lets look at the original HTTP protocol standard -- what do you know, the authors are Tim Berners-Lee, and R. Fielding, from UC Uvine. And look at the Apache core team -- Roy Fielding!So, in fact, the open source folks who wrote Apache and its predecesors are the folks who wrote the standards.
So as I posted on your site, the above statment is downright slanderous, and you should retract it.
- "History shows again and again how nature points out the folly of men" -- Blue Oyster Cult, 'Godzilla'
These "articles" aren't helping linux - they aren't funny, they aren't informative, and they aren't going to sway any windows users to linux. It looks pathetic, and desperate. I am a linux user, but have a lot of family members and friends who use windows. You can be quite sure that they have never had to enter in to the registry to make system changes.
The fact is that anyone with a bit of knowledge can probably bring down their windows system, or their linux system. Its quite easy to delete or change important system files by thinking you know more than you do. An old systems guru, when I was just starting out in the world of IT but it to me this this: "It is ok to have no knowledge, and ti is ok to have a lot of knowledge. You can walk on either side of that road and be safe. If you walk down the middle of the road though, you will probably be hit by a truck." Is very true. Newbies generally won't destroy systems.. linux/windows/whatever... they just can't figure out how.
I'm not sure why CmdrTaco says that the article provokes some thought, as the article is shouting the same thing some of the lesser informed linux zealots have been for years.
"The only intuitive interface is the nipple. Everything else is learned".
I forgot who said that, but it was some UI designer a few people have heard of.
1. Linux is too complicated
/. about a million times, but as you don't seem to be aware of it:
/.
"Suppose I install Gnome as default and want to install KDE and use that as the default. How easy is that? Well, every time I try, I have to search through several configuration files with 100s of lines to find the one that specifies the default GUI, and then it often doesn't even work."
Ehm, install it and choose KDE as the default session the next time you see a login screen. Not really hard.
2. Linux is too complicated
"How many patches must you apply to SuSE right after install for all the security fixes? Dozens. Windows? Dozens. Hmmm... Seems about even there. To be safe, you ought to be behind a firewall in either case. I've never found a recent Linux distro that didn't have patches ready to install as soon as I finished installing to OS."
Jesus...
For starters having to download security updates doesn't really have that much to do with what the guy you are answering wrote and with ease of setting an OS up.
Second, this has been discussed right here on
Comparing Suse, which comes with thousands of programs with Windows, which comes with barely anything and then pointing out that you also have to download updates for Suse is pretty dumb, as you compare Apples and Oranges here.
3. Linux doesn't have enough applications
"Let's compare apples to apples here. Windows is an OS, not a set of applications."
Why now and not before?
"You Linux fanatics get on Microsoft for bundling apps with their OS"
Small correction, most of the time it's not us Linux fantics, whoever this may be, but law enforcement agencies that get on MS for abusing their monopoly.
"Windows as an OS isn't inferior just because your open source app doesn't run on it. If you are so big on choices and freedom, why don't you write your app to run on both? "
Well, everyone is free to choose to take the source code and port it to windows and as you pointed out yourself, many people port or devlop open source software for Windows. So what exactly is your point here?
"Finally, the price you pay for Microsoft Office is worth the money, if your time is worth anything."
Ouch, sounds like the latest MS marketing blurb and no, though my time is worth a lot, MS Office certainly isn't worth the money for me, sorry kiddo.
4. Linux isn't secure
"And frankly, applying patches in Windows is easier than in Linux. Linux is pretty easy, but Windows is still ahead, I'd say. Argue all you want. But a properly configured Windows box will successfully apply patches to itself better than a Linux one will. At least for me. And if you disagree, just know that most users don't know how to configure Linux like you do, and so your opinion doesn't matter to 98% of the computer users out there."
Jesus...
Press on the little update notification on your panel and have _all_ your apps updated. Now that's incredibly hard, you are right.
About your other drivel. You are aware of sudo and acls, aren't you?
And you are aware that you can share folders on modern linux distros by simply clicking, just like you described for windows?
5. Linux is more expensive
"For the common user who just wants to be productive, and just wants their computer to work the way they want, Windows is faster, and faster means cheaper!"
Please show me the study that a) supports your conclusion b) finally shows me who this common user is
To sum it up, your blog entry is probably one of the dumbest things I read recently. Not one good point, only senseless drivel.
But the worst thing is that a tongue in cheek article, that sets out to debunk some myths about linux let you into a francy that drove you to write your stupid blog post and the proudly anounce it on
Relax kid, nobody's going to take your Windows away from you, even if some prefer an other OS.
Not difficult - just ridiculously unintuitive. Kind of like putting your front door lock on one of the side windows would be. What's wrong with the eject button being next to the thing it ejects, like on all other things in the entire world like DVD players, videos, toasters, ejector seats etc etc etc.
1) Inconsistant copy/paste behavior between apps.
Self explanitory really.
2) Horrible audio support
(Every card I've used on windows has done multi-open fine, but none do it on linux. at best I can get two DSP interfaces on one card which means hard configuring apps. Don't get me started on surround sound.)
3) Major lack of applications/stuck with bad ports or buggy emulation
(Port of AIM completely lacks features, and no third party client supports direct ims with the same content types as the official client. eg, no animated gifs, bitmaps, or just inserting a file-- No official yahoo client, stuck with third party clients that dont do webcams. No IDE comparible to visual studio, or debuggers/disassemblers that can compare to whats common on windows (IDA, w32dsm, olly, softice), etc.
4) More of an extension on #3, but lack of games.
I don't care how many different toolkits you can put on tetris, its never going to compare to a game like HL or WOW
5) No reason TO switch
Really, this is the reason why I started dual booting and ended up never bothering to boot out of windows. Theres nothing I can do in linux that can't be done in windows. Task wise, all I do is chat, game, browse the web, program, listen to music/watch movies, aquire them, and general remote administrative stuff.
On linux: firefox, mplayer, openssh, gaim
On windows: firefox, mplayer, putty, winaim.
That point goes even further-- Anything worth running is worth someone porting to windows, off the top of my head: The entire cygwin project (which includes about as much stuff as your standard distro), firefox, mplayer, gaim, nmap, netcat, ettercap, etherreal, vim, and im probably missing a few.
--Sorry for the bad formatting, HTML inside a tiny slashdot comment box is a pain to write.
Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx
When I bought a mini 6 months or so ago I found that there were some things that I couldn't do straight off the bat - and it took some trips to Help or Google to figure it out. Strange, I thought, after having spent years with Windows and Linux (using/developing/admin).
It turns out that all my problems stemmed from the fact that I have got into the habbit of doing things in a convoluted fashion (be it due to horrible GUI design, conf files or whatever). The easiest, most obvious way often eludes me as I assume (subconsciously I guess) that it wont work.
I have had to retrain myself to try the most instictive way (or, at least, what my mum would try) first - and more often that not it works.
Couple this, with BSD underneath and its no suprise why so many people love it.
Just my 2p worth.
'Internet! Is that thing still around?' - Homer Simpson
One point you make that is dead wrong in my experience is when you say, "And frankly, applying patches in Windows is easier than in Linux." Now this may be true if you're actually manually applying kernel patches and recompiling the kernel or something, but actually if you're just talking about normal (binary) system updates, one of the big reliefs for me about switching to Linux was that updates are so much less painful.
If you have a system that uses the apt package manager, then updating your system is as simple as typing 'apt-get update; apt-get upgrade;' at the command line. Or if you don't like that, you can use several of the graphical tools (like synaptic) where it's just a matter of two or three clicks. On the distro I use, Ubuntu, there's actually an applet that periodically checks for updates and allows you to install them with a few clicks. In short, it's quite similar to Windows. Certainly, it's no more difficult.
Where the advantage comes in is that every damn update in Windows comes with its own EULA. Sure, you could randomly accept legal obligations without trying to figure out what you're agreeing to (though you still have to sit around and click "I agree"), but if you're actually trying to be responsible, it's a real pain. In Linux, updates to the OS, and most of the applications, are covered by the same license, the GPL, and you aren't confronted with a new EULA to accept every time you want to do an update. What a relief! In addition, the updates in Windows would often request a reboot, which never happens in Linux. Even if I update the kernel, I know I can keep using the system (with the old kernel) until I feel like rebooting.
If you're using a modern package management system, then updating in Linux is no more difficult than in Windows. In addition, there are a lot of things about the updates in Windows that may actually make the Linux process a lot easier.
"You call it a new way of thinking; I call it regression to ignorance!" -- Operation Ivy
I teach a class at work (Data Structures and Algorthyms or how to code). The other day, I put one of my students on my Linux box. He put in a USB drive and then spent 2 minutes getting upset. The drive was on the desktop marked in clear letters "SanDisk USB Drive" with only 4 icons on the entire desktop. Yet, it never dawned on him to click on it.
It amazed me that some things are very difficult for people due to it being ingrained.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Was SuSe, I had only been using Windows for less than a year and had "heard of this linux alternative", I wanted to see what the hubbub was about. Coming from stricktly Windows, when I installed Linux I was surprised at how much easier it was to get on there than a normal 98SE install. Mine did most things for me, from configuring the drive to formatting and partitioning without having to guess. My first few 98Se installs were nightmares. Still give me cold sweats to this day.
I decided to go with KDE, though I had no idea what it was other than "some gui". Had I known then what I know now KDE would have gotten das boot. What a resource whore.
Well sometime passed and I have reinstalled the distro on the machine once since the initial install. And that was from user error. I had purchased a new larger harddrive and was very inexperienced and couldn't figure out how to install a new piece of hardware without a total reinstall. Sure taught me to RTFM. So for me, gaming aside, Windows 98SE installs in the early days --- 3 per month, my first linux distro installs to this day --- 2.
My personal experience with both os's and derivatives leave me with one conclusion, both OS's have their uses, Windows mainly for those who would rather be controlled by their computer, and those who would rather control their computer.
I still use Windows for stuff, gaming, video editing, audio mixing, but for tough stuff, security, networking I use linux.
Thank you to anyone who reads this that has worked on any OSS project, and especially the Kernel itself. It's nice to have more than 2 OS choices.
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
I fail to see what OSX has to do with a discussion on Linux.
OS X is a good role model for good user interface designs. Every now and then you'll notice that many linux desktops will use aspects of OS X. I think Linux should strive for OS X ease of use and stability and security.
Linux has the security down pretty much. A little too good though... I had downloaded the Unreal Tournament 2k4 to my desktop and not only did Ubuntu warn me about running it, but would not let me run it until I actually set the properties of the file to execute. Rarw!
On OS X, it would warn me and maybe ask me for my password to install as admin, but on Ubuntu I'm lucky if I open an executable script and it doesn't open a text editor (I fixed that, but it wasn't like that out of box).
Secondly, I found that to get UT2k4 to run I had to run root console and then install.
And to install Flash on an out of the box Ubuntu install on Firefox? It wasn't a problem for me since it only took 10 minutes of looking on Ubuntu's forums (which I will say are pretty extensive in getting information on how to do this), but I couldn't just open Firefox and install missing plugin like on OS X or Winxp. I had to actually edit my repository list and then run "sudo apt-get install flashplayer-mozilla" from command line...
I can do that without any problem, but I don't really want to have to research 10-20 minutes on how to get something to run every time I need to install an app.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
I whole heartedly agree, apart from on the laptops, where it is kinda right next to the drive itself.
...because Steve Jobs says so!
My girlfriend bought a Mac yesterday and to be honest the ejecting system completely stumped her.
GF: How do I eject the CD?!?!? There is no button?!?!?!
Me: Press the eject button on the keyboard?!?!?!
GF: Huh? Thats stupid...
a few minutes later
GF: Why does it complain everytime I unplug my iPod?
Me: You have to eject it first.
GF: Why?
Me (thinks): Shall I explain write behind caching or just tell her id...
Me: You have to do it in windows too... on a Mac you can drag it to the trash, or right click it and select eject, or highlight it and press Apple-e etc...
GF: Why can't I just press the button on the keyboard?
Me (thinks): Thats a good question that doesn't really have a none technical answer...
Me:
The way I see it, Apple sat a lot of very clever people down to figure out the most intuitive way of doing something completely unintuitive - unmounting media. None of them had a really good idea, so uncharactoristically for Apple they did all of them and gave you choice. People like choice about as much as they like taxes. They except them as a symbol of freedom whilst secretly hating them for the effort they force them to excert.
Unless you understand the caching mechanisms and the benefits they produce, its impossible to understand why you need them at all. I blame the floppy disk and DOS. Floppy disks were slow, but if you clicked on save, the minute you heard the clicking and whirring stop you knew the data was 'safe' and you knew where it was. People expect that from USB keys, CD-RW and firewire disks, and its very hard to explain why the new technology is harder to use, even if it is faster, stores more and improves system stability to someone who isn't technical.
Scared of flying, pointy things snce 1979!
So what, exactly, is "easy to use" about Windows or other Microsoft products? Before you answer that question, tell me how many "n00b users" you know that use features in Microsoft products like mail filters in Outlook or change tracking in Word or can install programs in Windows by themselves.
Many can't. Maybe even most.
The perception that Windows is easy is ludicrious. I have no idea where it comes from -- anyone else know?
My blog
Easy compared to what? In my experience teaching across both KDE/Linux and OSX I see University students taking around a day to become very comfortable with KDE yet after a week teaching students new to OSX I am still getting fundamental useability questions, especially surrounding mouse/selection useage and the 'Finder'.
Currently I try and avoid teaching on OSX machines; student adaptation simply takes far too much class time. Once they do adapt however, they generally enjoy themselves, though there are always many that simply don't seem to grokk OSX at all.
Admittedly most of these users come from Windows.. which is
KDE appears to understand this very well.
More and more I'm of the opinion that OSX isn't an ephiphany or beacon of Useasbility, in the general sense, so much as a relatively successful marketing campaign telling us it is.
As one student asked, "I've lost my program, is this what the Finder is for"?
Where's the CAD/CAM software?
Well, aside from the 43 CAD packages (some free, some open source, some commercial) trivially accessible through freshmeat.net, there is also BRL-CAD, the recently open-sourced CAD software used by the Army Research Laboratory to model and upgrade the Abrams battletank, and other systems.
There is also CAM software available, CNCsr being one example, used for control of CNC (Computer Numeric Control) devices (lathes, mills, routers, plasma cutters, etc).
There are other, highly valid criticisms of this author's thesis, but the lack of engineering tools isn't one of them. The main source of Linux's strength, IMO, is that it is used by professionals (mainly engineers) to get real work done, and this use drives the direction of its development, and the development of the software running on the platform. In many cases, it is the same engineers using the software that develop the software. This naturally results in software which is highly suited to practical everyday (albeit specialized) use.
-- TTK
Whoa there tiger... no need to over do it!
All I ever needed was the edit command from the command prompt. Quite possibly the first multi-tabbed text editor around. (I say "quite possibly" because I really have no idea)
That was the best text editor I've ever used before I started working with TextPad.
Hmmm witty sig or funny sig? Maybe elitest techy sig!
I could not find a download site on the 'Net for it, so I went to a local shop to get a copy, which actually cost you money. When I stuck in the CDROM and whatever I clicked on, nothing happened. Well, as it turned out, you actually have to make some weird sorta room for it on the harddisk, since it cannot be installed from an ordinary RPM.
After an hour I managed to install it, but first of all, it was all so different from RedHat, and secondly there where hardly any software for it. All it had was a simple pixeldrawing program, a webbrowser and very plain text editor.
I may be stupid, but I just stick with what I know. I know that there may be smarter choices, but my computer came with the system and that is all I need.
:-) = I am happy
:^) = I am happy with my big nose
C:\> = I am happy with my OS
Typical UI designer speak, they obviously failed to QA half the population.
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
No fair, you stole my joke! But I was going to say Notepad, which everone knows would be much funnier.
Seriously though, they did leave out two very important points in Windows favor.
1. Games. Yes, PC gamers much prefer the selection of Windows games over the selection of Linux games. It's not that Linux doesn't have a few gems, just that I had to use the word 'few' in this sentence.
2. With Windows, you get to have the exact same warts as all of your friends and family. a) misery loves company and b) there's a much better chance your brother in law is going to be able to help you with a Windows issue than a Linux issue. Market share alone will fix this problem just as market share alone caused it, but until then the social networking of Windows users helping other Windows users with should not be underestimated.
TW
P.S. I know there's this whole internet thing with lots of friendly people just waiting to help you with your Linux issues. Grandma will not use it. She will ask her husband, then her son, then every other family member until someone can help. If none of those people use Linux, she'll be out of luck. If some of those people use Mac or Windows, they'll try to convert her to a "better" OS.
How exactly is that a "problem of Linux"?
Am I (or is any Linux developer) supposed to give a crap whether you have a hard time with an OS they've built for their own use and pleasure? And no, I don't care if "attitudes like that are why Linux will never take over the desktop" -- I have no interest in what OS you or other people choose to run on your computers.
Please do enlighten us, though, as to what the "problems of Linux" are. I'm sure we'll find it amusing.
Fuck it
Familiarity is by far the largest factor in ease of use
:P
Thankfully, WMs like KDE are softening the blow for windows users. I just set up a long-time windows using grandmother with a dual boot XP/Fedora box. She seems to find KDE just as easy to use as XP (and thinks that it's prettier, especially the screensavers that come with it)y . She's never going to reconfigure anything in *either* operating system. However, if she wants new software in Linux, all she has to do is open up the nice synaptic icon on her desktop (which I've labelled "Add/Remove Programs") and click on what she wants. I doubt she could manage a new installation of most products in Windows, and she'd probably have to pay for them to boot.
I still need to get her off AOL, though, before she can take advantage of that. Penggy doesn't work for any of her local access numbers
In Windows, she has almost nothing, because she doesn't have the money to pay for it and because of the time it would take to download and install everything (I took the time to install Mozilla, OpenOffice, Grisoft antivirus, AOL, and Gimp, as well as to set her up an email account on my mail server accessed through outlook). In Linux, she has tons of things. As an example, she has about thirty to fourty games of the types that she likes, because all it took for me to install them for her was searching for "games" in synaptic and clicking to add that many times.
I had more trouble with the Linux setup than the Windows setup, but that's because I gave Linux the scraps (much smaller root partition) and had to make it work with Windows (Windows is ignorant of Linux's existence). Thus, my time was spent on things like NTFS configuration (it took captive NTFS), grub configuration, et al, plus my successful but long configuration of intel winmodem drivers and failed attempt at AOL connectivity)
Rock Us, Dukakis.
And if the mother has trouble with the coaxing, there are consultants who will help. Yes, breastfeeding consultants. My co-worker's wife's health plan explicitly provides coverage for that.
I wonder how someone gets into that line of work...
If you need someone to demonstrate to your newborn the nipple interface, you can always call on me. I've got your back!
Live forever, or die trying.
You know, there's a lot of truth in that. The Mac, and the entire Apple experience, is intuitive for a certain kind of person. Artists, fashion mavens, leftists, and other creative personalities can sit in front of a PowerBook and just "get it," but accountants and everyday pencil-pushers don't have a prayer. Squares should stick to Linux and Windows. Macs are for different thinkers.
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Evidence?
http://img371.imageshack.us/img371/7792/img08079i
http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/3600/img10156rv.
http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/2539/soho0uj.j
http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/5614/img66606p
http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/6756/img64271jj.
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/5082/bleeder0w
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/1672/img85083c
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/7234/img82642a
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/787/img60047ow
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/4819/img58719t
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/9681/img46882w
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/8519/img45081g
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/3102/img39464t
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/7783/img07414p
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/5816/img07328r
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/5096/img07309m
Versus:
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/3118/ms1by.jpg
http://img270.imageshack.us/img270/7789/linuxnylu
Linux itself is a reaction to draconian software pricing.
Anyway, Western society tells people they must experience rather than think. We've become an entertainment culture rather than a productive one.
MS has been coddling windows users for 20 years, and doing it in such a way that the user simply can't be insulted by it: they're too busy being intimidated. Apple users generally aren't clueless, and they're not treated that way. The people who use Linux are those who have sought it out (frustration), been exposed to it for practical means, or think of and use a computer as a tool. The key words there are think, use, and tool: the basis of human civilization.
We wouldn't be where we are now if our ancestors had just sat around laughing at the other jungle animals and staring up at the stars. We'd still be doing that now.
Oh shit, we are. Except that our big, unused brains that give us the skill of language allow us to refer to these activities as "reality TV" and "Dukes of Hazzard on the silver screen".
When people re-learn how to think for themselves, Linux usage will rise. That's just one change for the better.