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What Can Mandriva Linux 2006 Mean for Home Users?
sitor writes "What can Mandriva Linux 2006 mean for home users? is an article giving an extensive explanation about the pro's and con's of using a linux distribution such as Mandriva Linux 2006. It was written with people in mind that are in doubt whether linux might be something for them or not. It aims to inform them in a neutral way, understandable to newbies. Next time you have someone asking you questions about Linux not knowing whether they should try, you can just direct them to this article."
Next time you have someone asking you questions about Linux not knowing whether they should try, you can just direct them to this article."
With all respect to Mandriva, I'd much rather just point them to ubuntu
(I feel I should make an OS X reference, but I just can't be bothered)
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
That article is rubbish. Ubuntu is obviously the choice for first-time switchers, and is the most polished and accessible distribution for newbies and gurus alike. The article doesn't seem to have much of a grasp of the concepts of Linux, or say who would switch and why, and what they'd encounter. And as for paying for mandriva so that you can play DVDs. What the hell? Who wrote this crap? Sorry, nice idea, but better articles have been written before. I think a windows->linux wiki written by past, present, and future switchers would be a much more interesting idea.
Linux Mandriva 2006 _is_ my home PC main operating system, i.e. the one that gets booted by default. That said, if this is one of the supposedly most "desktop friendly" distributions, i can't be very optimistic. For starters, 3D acceleration does not work. It's an ATI card, ok, but you can't dismiss what nearly half PCs use just by saying "buy supported hardware". You can blame ATI more than Mandriva, but it's a fact that the same hardware under SuSe worked with ATI drivers (other minor things didn't work, like booting reliably and not freezing). Then there's the myriad of little (and not so little) annoyances, like the KDE Control Center becoming suddenly empty. What would you say about Windows if the Control Panel icons randomly disappeared for no apparent reason? And how do you explain to your non-geek (but not illiterate) relatives that in order to download and install software it's not sufficient for the site to say "RPM - for Linux", but it must be pulled "automagically" from some repository holding just the right kind of RPM for the specific Mandriva release? IMHO, these are the kind of things that keep lots of people from using Linux on their home PCs, where things either "just work" or they are not worth fiddling in order to make them work.
Nuffsaid
________
Don't know about his cat, but Schroedinger is definitely dead.
I generally agree that Microsoft has the monopoly and consequently it is very hard for Linux to mean anything to the home user but...
Lose the Microsoft Office Applications off of the Windows platform and the home user suddenly has less and less reason to be sitting on a MS platform. The Opensource movement can make a serious impression on the Microsoft world by pushing hard the alternatives like OpenOffice.org that the home user can really make productive use of.
Make a couple of apparently insignificant 'baby steps' away from the Microsoft applications and all of a sudden, you begin to wonder why you need Windows. I made the move to OpenOffice back in November 05 and I am now beginning to see the light and the possibility that within the next few months I may not need Windows at all. Without MS Office, there is almost no need to have Windows!
There are only two things that need to be fixed in the Linux world in my view for even greater acceptance:
* Vendor support for Printer drivers (eg: Canon)
* Mainstream publisher support from all the top games vendors.
"If it's lost, it'll turn up. Things always do" "I love it when a plan comes together"
Ah, the joy of casual racial hatred. Since you're not allowed to say "nigger" anymore, its nice to see that White America has found a new outlet to pour their tradition of bigotry and ignorance onto.
Hurrah!
Why would an average PC user make the effort to change over to Linux?
Unfortunately, the average PC user running Windows Whatever doesn't even know what Linux is.
As user friendly as distros like Ubuntu and Mandriva are, I personally have not seen many people "making the switch". I am not the type who goes out and attempts to "convert the masses", but most people do know that I use Linux at home regularly.
The only person who has approached me for help with Linux is a fellow programmer who is learning web-based languages. He was looking for a way to host a website for free off of his home network, and said it was a good excuse to get exposure to other OSes. So, I hooked him up with one of my Ubuntu CDs (which I received for free in the mail), and showed him the goodness of LAMP.
Other than him, nobody I know really seems to give a crap. They know Windows is insecure by default, but don't want to have to jump through hoops to chat on AIM, or post on MySpace. I don't see any of these people spending the time to learn the basics of an entirely new OS to be completely honest.
While I can appreciate the ease-of-use that these distros have, I almost feel (from how they are advertized) as if they are trying to wage war against Microsoft. Instead of focusing on the unwashed masses, maybe these distros would be better marketed towards those who are fed up with Windows and looking to try something new?
Registered Linux user #421033
Exactly you don't need to "open a shell" to install Mandrake.
Well, go to a home banking website and witness what being in a fringe group means when they reject your not-so-IE browser (this is improving, admittedly)
Yes it is getting better. Here in Canada most home banking sites will work with Firefox on Linux. The Canadian Government is different, many of their sites are deliberately blocking Linux even though they are using Java technologies that should be cross platform (deliberate deprivation of civil rights).
Watch a CSS-encrypted DVD.
Imstall the software from PLF (as easy as installing Windows software) and you have no problem.
Open a Word document (without having to completely recreate the formatting)
Never had to reformat a Word document sent to me, when I open it in OpenOffice 2.0x
Install Skype
http://www.skype.com/download/skype/linux/ - Yes whats the problem ? There is a Mandrake RPM and it is included with the Mandrake 2006 distribution.
I can't blame just Mandriva, Wireless networking moved too fast for the Linux Distros and all of them seem to be "klunky" when it comes to Wi-Fi, but things are catching up.
Try downloading the latest Network Manager, which seems to be a lot better (I am gonna try this tonight)
Not only should you warn your friends:
Those games you love to play on Windows? GIve them up.
Im in quite lucky position since the game i most played in windows was Targetware, which as i noticed runs much better on linux (better fps, lot smoother) It made me really wish more games would be made for linux due to obivious benefits of better memory management (you need less physical memory for similar performance as windows tends to swap too easily). So i want to add in what you say. Very likely, but not necessarily.
But also:
Those mp3s and DVDs? Don't expect them to play out-of-the-box. I'm serious.
It doesn't take more than few minutes (or few seconds using a script) to get them working and it's not really that hard. Installing codecs is overall easier than installing additional audio/video codecs to play most DivX and Xvid content on windows platform.
Though it would be good idea for ubuntu devs to add the script on desktop of new ubuntu install so users could just click on "Add non-free software repositories & Install commercial codec support" icon and be done with it.
Right now, for a casual computer user there isn't any. For me, the difference between Windows and Linux is in the shape of the "effort vs. results" curve. If you aren't a heavy computer user, Windows will give you results at a lower effort. But if you really need or want to use computers more, on a daily basis, then it pays to learn Linux. It may be something you don't realize at first, but the time you spend now and then in Windows trying to download drivers, anti-viruses, messing with the registry, etc adds up in the end. After you spend some time learning the basics and a little bit more, using Linux is a *much* smoother experience.
It's intersting that where I work I adapted my desktop to use Linux almost exclusively; almost every day I see the people around me complaining about "the network", but for me the network runs fine. The difference is that applications in Linux are more robust and don't fail at every hiccup in the network.
Now, for the other points you raise, I feel it's much a question of degree:
1. Fear of an uncomfortable user experience because it is different to what I'm use to.
The difference between XP and KDE is about the same as between XP and win98, and certainly less than that between win3.1 and win95.
2. The value of software to a user is relative to the number of users. What value is there in becoming familiar with a niche product with out a specific need to?
With the internet that's fairly irrelevant. I never had a question I couldn't solve in a few minutes of Google. In some ways, a smaller and more focused group of users is better. Look for an installation or setup problem in Ubuntu, for instance, and you'll almost certainly get the answer you need in the first page of Google. Look for an equivalent problem in Windows and you'll probably have to navigate through page after page of sites trying to sell you utilities you don really need and lists of people with the same problem and no solution.
All software I've dealt with is never perfect. If they're both designed to do the same thing, why change from what you're familiar with?
But some software is less perfect than others. Overall, knowing both systems, I feel that using Linux is a much better experience. However, I agree with you that, without a compelling reason, you don't need to switch. That's why, after getting used to Linux, I haven't the least inclination to try any Windows software anymore. I have no reason to switch back to an inferior system.