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Is Linux Out of Touch With the Average User?
MrSmith writes "Is Linux's less than impressive market share an indication that the movement is out of touch with the average computer user? ZDNet examines five reasons that could explain why people are still willing to pay for (or pirate) an operating system when free alternatives exist. One of the reasons seems to be that despite what many Linux advocates claim, Windows users aren't on the whole dissatisfied with their OS: 'Despite what you read on websites and blogs, newspapers and magazines, people on the whole aren't all that dissatisfied with Windows. There are millions of users out there who just get on and use their PCs without any real difficulty.'"
rapI3,
No, they really are idiots. I'm not talking about people who can't compile source code or fix registry problems by themselves. I'm talking about people who really do think IE (or Google for that matter) is "the Internet"; people who can barely check their email; people who don't understand that turning off the monitor doesn't turn off "the computer". These are the same people who somehow manage to stumble through life and reproduce only because our society is built upon catering to the lowest common denominator all the time.
I like to think of online DRM as something akin to a college -- you pay for lessons until you learn something.
So what you're saying is that you like to nitpick on the difference between the linux kernel and an actual build of linux, without refuting what I said. Good argument form *golf clap*. But basically, to sumarize your horribly long, double linebreak argument, linux builds look the same as average windows, almost, but arn't quite as compatable, and the one person you know who does have it, has someone with technical competance as her repair-guy because theres not a snowball's chance in h___ that she can get it repaired at a normal computer shop.
So, umm, how do I install this Firefox update I downloaded? Running Ubuntu 6.06.
She didn't know Ubuntu had a default MP3 player because the icon for MP3 files is a greyish rectangle just like thousands of other files with extensions she doesn't know anything about. Unlike, say, Windows, where the icons are actually informative if you have an app installed that has informed Windows of what the file is.
The original point of the thread, if anyone has seen it lately, is that the repos are just full of delightful, easy to install software that could solve your every need or whim. The truth is that the repos are full of half finished forks of other forks which result is Linux users having access 49 different applications that all fail to adequately perform some simple task, the 50th one of course maybe works properly but good luck finding it. And good luck figuring out its lousy UI.
But of course that is what FOSS is good at: Choice! Because that is the way geeks are, they like to bog themselves down in minor details that, even if everyone could eventually agree, do nothing to further that actual aim of anything. If someone on the development team mailing list thinks Greedo could beat Han Solo in a fistfight and you think the opposite, fork the project.
And about Ogg Vorbis: No one cares.
No, it's easy.
Upgrade to a new Ubuntu, get a new Firefox.
You're just still. Too. Dumb. Don't worry, you have the rest of your life to get used to that.
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
I'd like my dick in your mouth back.