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Time Review of Linux
afniv writes "Time.com as a short article about Linux. The reviewer talks briefly about Linux install troubles and will have future installments. "
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If anyone thinks that installing Windows isn't 1-2 orders of magnitude easier than Linux on a given random machine, then they are smoking crack, dropping acid and shooting heroin all at the same time.
Yes, Linux can go easy, if you don't stray from the path. I recently installed RH/6 on a fresh machine in order to build a gateway between my Win/98 machines and my DSL line. After trying different combinations of network cards, innumerable "gotchas" and about 15 reinstalls, I got it to work. Don't get me wrong -- it works well -- but I wouldn't want grandma setting it up. And by the way, I've been using Unix for 10 years, so I understand Unix.
I have to say: The documentation for RedHat (which is supposed to be one of the best) is absolutely atrocious. What there is OK -- just OK -- but it's insanely incomplete. I'll spare everyone all my trials, but if it wasn't for Deja News, I never would have got the thing working.
I like Linux. I want Linux to succeed. But it does the cause no good to exaggerate the pain of Windows installation (which literally millions of bonehead users have made work), and minimize the very real problems of Linux.
I have never found Linux to be difficult to install, with the exception of XFree86 which can sometimes be a bit difficult.
I think Linux has a bad reputation for installation because people actually *do* have to install it, unlike Windows---few people actually install Windows because it's preinstalled.
I certainly hope that the people doing these reviews have actually installed the "competition", because Windows 95/98/NT can be quite difficult to install. I remember having particularly difficult problems getting NT to recognize a mainstream sound card and had a horrible time trying to make it do anything other than 16 colors.
I'd still like to see the Linux installation process get even better, and I know it will.
I wrote the following letter to the editor of time.com/ tech.html]. I have been Unix systems adminstrator for three years and a Linux user for a little under a year. His installation criticisms were valid, but it is worth noting that installing Windows 98 onto a computer with an unformatted hard-drive or one that has non-windows OS on it is a truly daunting proposition which took me a couple of hours to figure out. The formatting and partitioning tools are not a part of the standard installation procedure as they are with any Linux distribution, therefore it is necessary to boot off a diskette and use the command line format and fdisk utilities.
I appreciated Josh Quittner's Linux article [http://cgi.pathfinder.com/time/personal/19990524
The perception of easy Windows installations is largely due to the fact that the vast majority of PC's come with Windows pre-installed. Most users are unlikely to ever do more than upgrade their Windows which is a relatively painless proposition. Upgrading a Red Hat system is just as easy. In my estimation, installing a Red Hat system is easier than installing Windows in any case except when the computer has Windows pre-installed and has no unpartioned disk space.
Overall the article was very informative and made the virtues of Linux clear, including it's open source code, stability and low cost. Your readers may also benefit from knowing that Gnome, while developed with help from Red Hat, is also open source software and is available from www.gnome.com, and that a very viable alternative to Gnome called KDE is available from www.kde.com and is also open source and included in Red Hat 6.0 as well as Caldera, SuSe and other distribution. Finally, it might be noted that an alternative to downloading a distribution or buying a boxed set is to pay a couple of dollars and get the distribution from www.cheapbytes.com which redistributes all of the major distributions sans book documentation and support. I would still recommend that the average user buy a boxed set.
I hope to see further linux coverage in the future.
Sincerely,
Michael Cope
--
"L'IT c'est moi!"
Take it easy everyone. He's a newbe and really want's to try it out. When Time runs articles on Linux, you know we're getting mainstream. And as it gets more mainstream, there's gonna be more stories like this.
BTW, I believe I fixed his problem with the Thinkpad. I work for the same company.
I think people who dismiss the difficulty of installing Linux are not being realistic. Even the Red Hat install requires an understanding of both the machine and OS that are far beyond most users.
Linux is, from both an installation and use view, a real dividing line amoung computer users. If you have no computer experience, Windows is difficult until you get the paradigm at which point it becomes much easier. The paradigm for Linux, if there is one, is much more difficult to get.
I don't expect that Linux will ever become the favored OS of the casual user, but I also do expect that, due to the pervasiveness of computers and early age at which children are being exposed to them, the average adult user will be head and shoulders more savvy about the machines in another 10 years than they are today. Hopefully the proportion of casual to serious users will decline, and that is where Linux will grow.
Well, you have to look at the big picture. You have to consider how this will look to the average user. In many ways, you can deal with the reporter as an average user. Installing Linux might be no picknick, it certainly wasn't when I installed my first GNU/Linux six years ago, but we've come a long way since then, havn't we? The installation tools are practically as good as for Windows. You have to remember that this reporter would probably even need some help installing Windows to get everything right! But he mentions that there are support to get so this kills one of the most common misunderstandings about Linux.
He never deals with the general system, but he does say that there's something called Gnome that will make things easier. He also mentions the Gnome logo, which kills another misunderstanding about GNU/Linux being all text and no graphics.
In the end, he gives an impression that he's content with what he sees and that he's interested in learning more about the system and he leaves a little hook for the reader saying that he'll be back with more information.
This would feel good to read as a user I think, it takes an average guy that probably doesn't know any more about computers than you do, and it explains that he kind of liked GNU/Linux and after having read this article, you'd probably be very curious about the system.
Mission accomplished.