You raise a good point about the software not shipping on CD. A really good example of this was when I bought a USB Bluetooth dongle last week, and a friend of mine bought the same one.
I'm used to having my PC set up to grab whatever software it requires from online repositories and just installing new hardware, watching what gets installed, and then running the appropriate application after the fact.
My friend's PC was currently running windows (though he does dual-boot) and we stopped at his place first. I plugged the dongle in, clicked over to his System Properties, and expected to see the dongle there, more or less configured and waiting for me to run software that uses it. This was definitely not the case. He took the CD out of the packaging, put it in the drive, and we got everything set up.
When we got to my place, I plugged my dongle into my laptop's USB port, went into my hardware management app, and clicked "OK" when the system was ready to grab the software and install it. My friend was amazed that I didn't need the CD for my machine, and I didn't even think of using the manufacturer's disc when we were on his machine.
One of the biggest things I notice about the "windows is easy, linux is hard" argument is that both OSes are equally easy/hard, you just have to realize that the two operate on very different paradigms.
As someone who shoots a lot of photos and is trying to switch over to a 1/2-digital, 1/2-chemical dark room, I completely agree that we need Photoshop or a good print-compatible linux app. GIMP is nice for images that stay on the PC, but I've had really terrible luck trying to get GIMP friendly with any sort of high-res work.
Having said all that though, I really disagree with your statement about digi-cams. I don't use my digi-cam much, but it's about as plug-n-play on Linux through digiKam as it is on windows, if not slightly moreso.
What troubles have you had using a digi cam on Linux, and when was the last time you tried it?
I've actually got lots of friends and family beginning to switch to linux BECAUSE of it's ease of use. They still need assistance with getting the whole thing set up, but they are all so impressed with how easily you can access good tools and information in Linux, unlike how with the past couple releases of windows all of the administration tools etc have gotten progressively more hidden from the user.
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You raise a good point about the software not shipping on CD. A really good example of this was when I bought a USB Bluetooth dongle last week, and a friend of mine bought the same one. I'm used to having my PC set up to grab whatever software it requires from online repositories and just installing new hardware, watching what gets installed, and then running the appropriate application after the fact. My friend's PC was currently running windows (though he does dual-boot) and we stopped at his place first. I plugged the dongle in, clicked over to his System Properties, and expected to see the dongle there, more or less configured and waiting for me to run software that uses it. This was definitely not the case. He took the CD out of the packaging, put it in the drive, and we got everything set up. When we got to my place, I plugged my dongle into my laptop's USB port, went into my hardware management app, and clicked "OK" when the system was ready to grab the software and install it. My friend was amazed that I didn't need the CD for my machine, and I didn't even think of using the manufacturer's disc when we were on his machine. One of the biggest things I notice about the "windows is easy, linux is hard" argument is that both OSes are equally easy/hard, you just have to realize that the two operate on very different paradigms.
As someone who shoots a lot of photos and is trying to switch over to a 1/2-digital, 1/2-chemical dark room, I completely agree that we need Photoshop or a good print-compatible linux app. GIMP is nice for images that stay on the PC, but I've had really terrible luck trying to get GIMP friendly with any sort of high-res work.
Having said all that though, I really disagree with your statement about digi-cams. I don't use my digi-cam much, but it's about as plug-n-play on Linux through digiKam as it is on windows, if not slightly moreso.
What troubles have you had using a digi cam on Linux, and when was the last time you tried it?
I've actually got lots of friends and family beginning to switch to linux BECAUSE of it's ease of use. They still need assistance with getting the whole thing set up, but they are all so impressed with how easily you can access good tools and information in Linux, unlike how with the past couple releases of windows all of the administration tools etc have gotten progressively more hidden from the user.