Rickford Grant Interview

An anonymous reader writes "An interview was recently conducted with Rickford Grant, the author of "Linux for Non-Geeks" and the new "Linux Made Easy". Grant is outspoken in his opinions and offers a number of unique views on topics as diverse as Windows Vista, desktop Linux, GNOME vs. KDE, and lots more. Part of the interview is spent talking about his new book but the bulk of the interview is a discussion of his views on pertinent topics and news. The author is a strong supporter of desktop Linux and has been getting quite a bit of attention for his views on the subject."

Comments

Yin and Yang

[ackthpt]

As for whether or not there is a place for Windows in the computing world... well, I would definitely say yes. I don't like Windows, and, from what I've heard and read, I don't particularly like Mr. Bill [Gates], but you have to give credit where credit is due. If it weren't for the Gates gang, I really doubt the personal computer world would be where it is today.

This is also is a strong reason why Linux, MacOS, etc, get better. Without Microsoft's machinations there wouldn't be much motivation for innovation. Imagine a world where the PC actually died out due to the superior interface and usability of the Mac, yet the Mac remained expensive and advanced slowly, painstakingly.

[On the arrive of Vista/IE7]Also, the fact that Vista will reportedly only work on machines with accelerated graphics might also cause some folks lacking in that department to take a second look at the Linux option.

Or in our case stagnate at XP for years to come.

The author is a strong supporter of desktop Linux and has been getting quite a bit of attention for his views on the subject." "Steve, hire him and put him in the office next to ESR."

"If I had never used a computer before..."

[Anonymous Coward]

A friend of mine bought his first PC just a few months ago. Guess who supports it? He had it a week before I had to reload XP, as viruses and spyware had it completely unuseable.

I reloaded XP from the Ghost disks, installed Zone Alarm, Firefox, and a couple of anti-spyware apps, removed the IE icons (I wish I could remove IE itself), and gave him a few pointers on safe computing.

It lasted three weeks before it needed Ghosting again. Seems he let his girlfriend's click-happy kid loose on it.

This time after installing the ghost image and safety apps, I also installed Mandrake, set up so it logged into a default user by itself on boot. No logging into "the computer," no running a proprietary DSL app to get on the internet; just turn on the computer and it works.

Three weeks later it was hosed again - seems he "needed" Yahoo! IM, which was a Windows app. I couldn't get the Linux version working. Damn.

Finally I remembered getting my daughter on AIM with Gaim - and lo and behold, it works on Yahoo, too.

What sold him on Linux? "You can click on anything," I told him. I mean, between him, his porn-happy nephew and girl friend's kid, somebody was going to click on "anything" anyway.

The next week the KDE desktop was littered with downloaded Flash installs, which the kid couldn't install. Heh, even if she'd got the Linux versions rather than the Windows version it still wouldn't install, as I'm the only one who knows the root password.

It's been a few weeks since I've had to reinstall anything.

The moral of the story? New users should not be trusted with Windows, or with a Linux root password. And unless you're into games (and new users aren't) there is really no valid need for Windows at home.