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Hardy Heron Making Linux Ready for the Masses?
desmondhaynes writes "Is Linux ready for the masses? Is Linux really being targeted towards the 'casual computer user'? Computerworld thinks we're getting there, talking of Linux 'going mainstream 'with Ubuntu. 'If there is a single complaint that is laid at the feet of Linux time and time again, it's that the operating system is too complicated and arcane for casual computer users to tolerate. You can't ask newbies to install device drivers or recompile the kernel, naysayers argue. Of course, many of those criticisms date back to the bad old days, but Ubuntu, the user-friendly distribution sponsored by Mark Shuttleworth's Canonical Ltd., has made a mission out of dispelling such complaints entirely.'"
I was reading this article and was astonished to find there is actually massive non-technical user backing behind the project.
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gutsy goatse for the masses
Hey, I was convinced to install it. Unfortunately, I was also convinced (by that HIGH RECOMMENDATION) to unnecessarily put GRUB over the primary HD's MBR, instead of just the secondary hard drive that Ubuntu was installed to, making the failure cascade to my entire system, and locking me out of it.
Yes, I was a dick to the forum. Doesn't mean the install CD/instructions combination are in order.
Apology to Ubuntu forum.
That's hard to do when OEMs are forbidden from advertising anything but Windows.
Quite frankly, I don't want to use the same operating system as someone who refuses to edit any configuration file.
Marketing Linux to the average desktop is a bad idea. Leave Linux to the power users and the server market.
I support the Center for Consumer Freedom
Hey man, you should try out this latest version of Linux!
Oh ya I heard about that Linux thing, there are so many versions of it though, it confuses me - what is this one?
It's Ubuntu! The latest release, hairy hardon[1]! I mean.. oh.. bleh, nevermind.. *retreats*
[1] does this mean it's the 'porn browsing' edition?
which is totally what she said
sorry but that's no and no.
./ so by definition we're GEEKS and already technicaly minded... the rest of the world doesn't think like us!
Want to use your favourite software (photoshop, dreamweaver, GTA 4 etc: nope, that's for windows and/or mac only.
Want to buy new hardware... well you can if you scour the internet for days finding out if it's compatible; you can't just pop down pcworld one saturday afternoon and pick something up and know it'll work.
Want to use Ubuntu without broadband... nah it's not really designed that way, you'll be waiting days to install anything..
Want to install some software... sure... if you broadband no problem... oh, but it might install the software anywhere on your system... good luck learning to grep it. Fat chance if your friend has just given you a cdrom with software on it!
want to play games.... err... well... no.. not really, but hey we've got solitaire!!!
What about installing applications from magazine's cover disc (like what you can do with windows and osx)... err no, you probably can't do that either... as you'll have to compile something or other and you probably haven't got all the right library headers or something.
want to do anything other than surf the web and run openoffice... get used to using the terminal (still)
KDE and Gnome have come on in leaps and bounds, linux itself has come on enormously in recent years.. but it's still so so far away from being a user friendly OS for regular joes. (just looka the filesystem, it's still a throwback to the 1970s and is virtually unintelligible to non linux folk
WE might all think linux it's the dog's bollocks but we read
spun: First, ditch the whiny tone.
I probably did exactly what you did, "clicking" (or hitting return or whatever) through all the screens. The difference is just that you didn't get GRUB error 25 at State 1.5.
Put simply, you got lucky. Not getting error 25 in your cases, is not the same as "no one gets error 25 and they're stupid if they do even though I wouldn't have known what to do to fix it or regain access to the machine".
Apology to Ubuntu forum.
Install Windows -- it won't play DVDs out of the box. It's the same reason (patents/copyrights whatever).
I don't know why Linux distros don't just infringe the MP3 patents. They probably infringe loads of others, why treat the media codecs specially?
Read the journal, read the links.
... except a few bits in a bootloader.)
-Followed install instructions EXACTLY AS WRITTEN.
-That included DISABLING THE SAFETY PRECAUTION I planned to use, namely, only changing the secondary hard drives so that no matter what, I could get into Windows.
-Much much later others told me it happened because the secondary hard drive was too large, which the install process had to have known, and which nothing I could have done *BASED ON THE INFORMATION GIVEN* would have changed that.
-Failed attempts at rationalizing why it was completely my fault include:
--I didn't exercise due care. (Except for having a secondard computer on hand, setting aside a few days when I wouldn't need the computer, only installing the OS to secondary hard drives so I'd always be able to access windows, reading all install instructions posted, googling for extra info.)
--I went into some fancy menu and messed with stuff. (Yeah, menus I didn't know existed...)
--The burn failed. (Nope, checked that.)
--The download failed. (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ignoring the checksum for a moment, you have to actually believe somehow, that every single file I have ever downloaded was without any error whatsoever, but somehow, when I downloaded this specific file, the download erred in just *precisely* the right way to make EVERYTHING go exactly as it is supposed to
--You didn't take [precaution mentioned nowhere]. (It if's an OS for newbies, why aren't those precautions listed? How much expertise do you expect newbies to have?)
Apology to Ubuntu forum.
Modding Trolls +1 inciteful since 1999
Now talk someone through that who wonders where the "any" key is, or who tells you they "downloaded the linux" and now "the windows won't turn on".
.conf to set up his screen, his boot loader, his sound, nor anything else. Ever. NEVER EVER. The same people who edited config.sys and autoexec.bat don't have a problem editing .conf files in linux. It's the 98 and XP generation who are adopting computers as an appliance you buy from wal-mart, point and click and it just works. XP allowed a computer to be an appliance and huge percentages of the population were exposed to computing with no requirement to know anything about how it works. Linux still requires that knowledge.
Seriously, people, the thing you are missing is this: Linux on the desktop will not be widespread until the config files are gone. The mythical Joe Sixpack CANNOT and WILL NOT ever edit a
Flappinbooger isn't my real name
I still can't quite understand why I am more willing to apologize here, when it was my computer that got hosed for following the standard instructions...
But then, we reach a contradiction here. As you know from the past, people can't quite agree whether the CD I downloaded at the time doubled as a Live CD. I certainly got tons of criticism for not downloading a second. And, I couldn't seem to actually, you know, BOOT ANY OS. But then, even the equally 100% intelligent people pointing out what a dumbass I am yet believe I did have a Live CD, didn't seem to know what I could have actually *done* with my "Live" CD to fix the problem. Plenty of people on the forums asked about booting off a CD, but you didn't have one available so you never got to the next step of the steps needed to fix your problem, though apparently you eventually found one. Nevertheless, it was mentioned plenty. Yep, I didn't have a tool that wasn't listed as required. Tell me how that's my fault.
Note that I *did* follow the instructions that actually had a hope of fixing the problem, and I did say exactly what happened when I tried that, and, oddly enough, no one followed up. They kept repeating suggestions they knew I couldn't do, or that someone else had already suggested. Or, my favorite, suggest I do something I already did! And where exactly have you apologized? I see you admit that you were a dick, but that's not an apology, especially since it's followed by a "but". Did you not read my sig (the one I have when I post from my UbuntuDupe account)? That has a pretty damn unambiguous apology.
But let's say you did read it and think the "but" equivalent somehow invalidates it.
Guess what: claiming that my complaint about Ubuntu's technical merits was valid, in no sense takes away from my apology for the manner in which I carried out that criticism.
If you think this:
"I'm sorry for saying you're only useful for the hole between your legs, but I still think you shouldn't scatter nails on the carpet when guests are about to arrive"
is a non-apology because of the "but" clause, your view is so warped I cannot justify spending time to correct it.
And, has the non-existent webcam support been put there, working OOTB, already? And what about TV tuners? And what about "exotic" resolutions that everyuone and theirdog uses since over three years, like 1440x90 and 1280x800? And what about temperature sensors? (Only SMART ever worked) And what about supporting all the hardware out of the box? And what about sensible defaults in programs, so that their config files point to the right /dev node?
And so on and so forth forever. Linux will be ready for mainstream the day Canonical has two thousand, not developpers, but technicians to integrate everything nicely together, so that Linux may become a nice, directly-usable DESKTOP UNIX like MacOSX. Hell, I gave up on Linux BECAUSE it's so EASY to get MacOSX to do everything I want it to, right on my non-Apple PC.
Making laws based on opinions that stem up from false informations leads to witch hunts.