Yeah, OS X installed on the second try for me. Very simple and easy. A couple of glitches, like now file serving for OS 9 is hosed.
For comparison purposes, Linux PPC 2000 and YellowDog linux both took several attempts and neither is up as I write this.
Read the story nearby about the clueless woman who was sold Linux by a clueless clerk. She thought she was buying a word processor. She installed over Windows and dusted it all. She had no backups and didn't even know she should have had any. Gee, if you pour grated cheeze on a plate of spaghetti, it ends up tasting cheezier. You don't expect the whole plate of food to turn into a chunk of cheeze.
This is the consumer. AOL IS the internet. Sun IS the dot in.com. So do you really think you're going to get this person to intelligently react to kernel error messages? You're dreaming.
These people switch between Netscape and IE without knowing it, they just don't notice. They have multiple versions installed, they don't realize it. We had to make Netscape plugin installers that squirted the plugin into ALL plugin directories on the whole machine, every single browser we could find, every plugin folder, copies, about a meg apiece. That was the only way to guarantee success for these people.
These people barely understand their filesystem. File managers have moved from being multiple window (macos 1980's) to single window (windoze 1990's) because seeing more than one directory at a time totally blows their minds. Same for browser windows: most don't realize you can have more than one window open. If a new window opens to cover the existing window, they think it's the same window.
They use the SAVE command in the File menu in MS Word, but the SAVE button on the toolbar in Excel, never thinking that you can use either in both places. They learn what someone taught them and that's it.
The person they learned from knew little more, but was intent on showing off how much they knew. It's the blind leading the blind, and most people are too blind to see that their leader is blind. Those who brag the loudest have the highest credibility. And the clerks at "the software store" (walmart) know more than anybody.
These people have trouble running the Win98 installer. When they can't get the Linux installer going, they're going to get frustrated. But they don't want to look dumb. When the subject of Linux comes up later, they change the subject, just like when you mention the hot internet stock they were bragging about six months ago.
Linux is NOT a consumer product. There are way too many roots sticking out of the ground. Sticking a GUI on the installer I think did not measurably make it "easier to install". Auto-detecting hardware I think makes a big difference. The biggest problem is stuff that breaks; the GUI is pretty but yet another thing to break.
You guys don't realize the learning curve you've got under your belts. To you, it's "easy" or at least "doable" to install Linux and go use it for everything. That's because the dozens (hundreds?) of roadblocks that come up, you've somehow learned how to work around them, and you do this unconsiously. (It may have taken a dozen runs of the installer for you to learn all these gotchas.) But each of these roadblocks is a dead end for anybody who doesn't know the magical incantation to get past, or the theory behind the blah blah subsystem, or for anybody who just doesn't have the time. If you have an 80% chance of getting past a roadblock, you have a 7% chance of getting past a dozen roadblocks in a row, and that's the only way to get it installed.
Typically, I run the Win95/98 installer and I can get it working the first time. Same for MacOS. The beta MacOS X installer didn't work the first time for me, had to run it a second time. For a given machine and Linux distro, it's not surprising for me to have to run the installer a dozen times to get it right. And there's some combinations I still haven't gotten going.
This is not a consumer product. Linux has a long way to go.
1) Segment the market into pieces, each of which is a small market (like department stores in different towns, or different software products).
2) In the segments where you do NOT dominate, cut prices and subsidize the hell out of it to suck the blood out of the competition. (like what's been happening in your town, or what's been happening with Internet Explorer/Netscape).
3) In the segments where you DO dominate, you can feel free to jack up prices, slack off on doing a good job, and generally be a pig. Feed the profits into (2) above. (Like what your town will be soon, or like MS Word or MS Excel.)
That's it! That's the game Intel, MS, Budweiser and others have/are playing. Not fair, but all too legal. Unless you go too far, and then the justice department unleashes their swarm of snails to bite at your ankels.
How does it end? Typically a company in that situation will become so fat and stupid, some competition finally steals it away. This typically takes thirty years, no kidding. They have to be REALLY fat and stupid. MS isnt' there yet.
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Yeah, OS X installed on the second try for me. Very simple and easy. A couple of glitches, like now file serving for OS 9 is hosed. For comparison purposes, Linux PPC 2000 and YellowDog linux both took several attempts and neither is up as I write this.
You guys shouldn't be surprised.
.com. So do you really think you're going to get this person to intelligently react to kernel error messages? You're dreaming.
Read the story nearby about the clueless woman who was sold Linux by a clueless clerk. She thought she was buying a word processor. She installed over Windows and dusted it all. She had no backups and didn't even know she should have had any. Gee, if you pour grated cheeze on a plate of spaghetti, it ends up tasting cheezier. You don't expect the whole plate of food to turn into a chunk of cheeze.
This is the consumer. AOL IS the internet. Sun IS the dot in
These people switch between Netscape and IE without knowing it, they just don't notice. They have multiple versions installed, they don't realize it. We had to make Netscape plugin installers that squirted the plugin into ALL plugin directories on the whole machine, every single browser we could find, every plugin folder, copies, about a meg apiece. That was the only way to guarantee success for these people.
These people barely understand their filesystem. File managers have moved from being multiple window (macos 1980's) to single window (windoze 1990's) because seeing more than one directory at a time totally blows their minds. Same for browser windows: most don't realize you can have more than one window open. If a new window opens to cover the existing window, they think it's the same window.
They use the SAVE command in the File menu in MS Word, but the SAVE button on the toolbar in Excel, never thinking that you can use either in both places. They learn what someone taught them and that's it.
The person they learned from knew little more, but was intent on showing off how much they knew. It's the blind leading the blind, and most people are too blind to see that their leader is blind. Those who brag the loudest have the highest credibility. And the clerks at "the software store" (walmart) know more than anybody.
These people have trouble running the Win98 installer. When they can't get the Linux installer going, they're going to get frustrated. But they don't want to look dumb. When the subject of Linux comes up later, they change the subject, just like when you mention the hot internet stock they were bragging about six months ago.
Linux is NOT a consumer product. There are way too many roots sticking out of the ground. Sticking a GUI on the installer I think did not measurably make it "easier to install". Auto-detecting hardware I think makes a big difference. The biggest problem is stuff that breaks; the GUI is pretty but yet another thing to break.
You guys don't realize the learning curve you've got under your belts. To you, it's "easy" or at least "doable" to install Linux and go use it for everything. That's because the dozens (hundreds?) of roadblocks that come up, you've somehow learned how to work around them, and you do this unconsiously. (It may have taken a dozen runs of the installer for you to learn all these gotchas.) But each of these roadblocks is a dead end for anybody who doesn't know the magical incantation to get past, or the theory behind the blah blah subsystem, or for anybody who just doesn't have the time. If you have an 80% chance of getting past a roadblock, you have a 7% chance of getting past a dozen roadblocks in a row, and that's the only way to get it installed.
Typically, I run the Win95/98 installer and I can get it working the first time. Same for MacOS. The beta MacOS X installer didn't work the first time for me, had to run it a second time. For a given machine and Linux distro, it's not surprising for me to have to run the installer a dozen times to get it right. And there's some combinations I still haven't gotten going.
This is not a consumer product. Linux has a long way to go.
That's how to do a monopoly.
1) Segment the market into pieces, each of which is a small market (like department stores in different towns, or different software products).
2) In the segments where you do NOT dominate, cut prices and subsidize the hell out of it to suck the blood out of the competition. (like what's been happening in your town, or what's been happening with Internet Explorer/Netscape).
3) In the segments where you DO dominate, you can feel free to jack up prices, slack off on doing a good job, and generally be a pig. Feed the profits into (2) above. (Like what your town will be soon, or like MS Word or MS Excel.)
That's it! That's the game Intel, MS, Budweiser and others have/are playing. Not fair, but all too legal. Unless you go too far, and then the justice department unleashes their swarm of snails to bite at your ankels.
How does it end? Typically a company in that situation will become so fat and stupid, some competition finally steals it away. This typically takes thirty years, no kidding. They have to be REALLY fat and stupid. MS isnt' there yet.