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Can Ordinary PC Users Ditch Windows for Linux?
Carl Bialik from WSJ writes "Mark Golden, a reporter for Dow Jones Newswires, tried to switch from Windows to Linux, and found it too complex for his liking. He writes: 'For me, though, using the Linux systems didn't make sense. I often send documents and spreadsheets between my home PC and the one at work, which uses Microsoft Office. And the files are sometimes complex. Meanwhile, for both personal and professional computer use, I want access to all multimedia functions. While solutions may exist to almost every problem I encountered, I was willing to invest only a limited amount of time as a system administrator. Claims by some Linux publishers that anybody can easily switch to Linux from Windows seem totally oversold.'"
> use a good deal of multimedia.
.wmv files.
Locked in multimedia is locked in, and making DVDs play ended up being an international incident.
If you have crippled media, too bad, bad choice, you lose.
Enjoy buying the Windows Licences to play your
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
The first question is, which Linux?
Second question is, OK, which version of that one is the one I want?
Sorry, but easy to install is not a Linux feature. Pre-installed it would be good for many people, provided they don't want to buy any off the shelf software. Also provided they know how to do beyond rudimentary pc usage.
I would never suggest to anyone I know who has a PC to switch to Linux. If they have a problem with Windows because of the virus scare then they can go try OS/X. The point is, if they aren't swift enough to use a virus scanner and not open attachments from people they don't know they aren't going to be swift enough to run Linux.
Bluntly, Linux is never going to be a mainstream desktop operating system. The only thing they agree on is they don't like Microsoft. Beyond that its an all out war just as fanatic in their differences as most religions.
As this guy noted, he doesn't have the time to spend. Hell I have the time but don't want to waste it when I could be doing more productive work. I have installed BEOS, OS/2, and even every DOS version in the world but the most hell I had was installing Linux. Hell OS/2 was easier to install and that was with 14+ diskettes!
As for the "apps are out there crowd". Yeah, sure. The average consumer is going to need something akin to a wizard to pick the right one, let alone some way of knowing what he is looking at will do what he wants. The difference here is that at least with Windows (and OS/X too) they can lay their hands on commercial software in pretty boxes that tells them what it does. Best yet there are known established brands they feel a little bit of trust for.
Linux is in a field of catch-22s.
There aren't enough commercial apps because not enough people use it and not enough people use it because there are not enough apps.
Same for drivers.
Then the big catch 22, Linux is easy to use and install, provided you know which one you want, which version you want, and which one you can get support on.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Why? So he can get a bad impression of the GUI aspect as well as the integration aspect?
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GP might be on to something. If he gets scared off by the crappy gnome interface he won't have time to bitch about anything else.
The Farewell Tour II
There are so many things wrong with these statement that you surely wrote them as sarcasm.
No, I'm dead serious. If you disagree with the statement then that's fine but you can at least explain *why* you disagree instead of just making a cheap "you're wrong" crack.
http://blog.nexusuk.org
Windowspops up a little thing asking you to install drivers and telling you which hardware isn't working.
.5% market share, and when I do support what are the chances the box I sit down at will be exactly the same, Linux really isn't that great yet...
If linux could even figure out what the hardware WAS it could go online and get drivers for you... if linux wasn't a bunch of junk that is.
Linux users do think their OS is brilliant because it does a few things quite well but it doesn't implement so many seemingly simple and important elements that users can't trust it.
The iPod isn't really easier than other mp3 players but people thinking it is means they take the time to learn about it, linux needs to fix the desktop problems so people can start to trust it.
Example: If I learn windows I learn windows, if I learn FC5 will that help with ubuntu, or enlightenment, or fluxbox or gentoo? Nope... way to go now I've learned something that's less than