Linux 'desktop' still too geeky for mainstream users?

[deano_ferrari]

Very well put Johnathan. I too remember configuring modems and xfree86 server issues by hand. I cut my teeth on Red Hat linux - around 2000. I remember when KDE 2 was first released, and how primitive I thought the configuration tools were - still under heavy development at the time, much like KDE 4.X is now.

[hito_kiri]

I did not have much trouble getting into Linux because I wanted to, and I learn computer stuff pretty quick. I honestly have forgotten a lot that I used to know about Windows because I have been using Linux so much over the past year and a half. I'm even using Opensolaris in Vbox just to get a taste for unix. I still have trouble sometimes in linux, but I have the will to learn how to fix them.

I think if linux is the first OS you learn, you will probably not have too many problems with it. It is when someone who has learned Windows attempts to, as said before, learn Linux, they get frustrated because it is different and they can't learn it fast. I have also noticed that people who attempt to learn Linux after being a Windows user, especially the Windows fans who think it is the best thing in the world, tend to blame Linux for any problems they might have, even though they probably have those same problems if not more in Windows.

Where I work at a community college, the engineering lab computers are administered by the computer teachers (both Linux gurus, one started off on the very first Unix) so we have Fedora on them in addition to Windows. One particular woman who I would consider a mainstream user actually blamed the fact that her computer kept crashing in Windows (running AutoCAD) on Linux. I tried to explain that the real problem was the computers were really old and aren't very high quality in the first place. And we never have many problems on the linux side.

I think mainstream user to me means Windows user, and while I don't want linux to become like Windows, I don't think we should ignore all the windows users out there. But like said before, linux has come a long way and it is headed in the right direction.

[syampillai]

Originally Posted by oldcpu

...I do think Linux can be made better by closer standards between Linux distributions. We waste a lot of effort of volunteers with packagers in each distribution having to repackage the same application over and over. Which means less applications are packaged than could be. Thats a Linux fault, and IMHO its sad to see. I believe that duplication of the same app packaged in over a dozen different ways outweighs the advantages of the duplication ...

Good point.

[syampillai]

Originally Posted by Jonathan_R

... While usability should be a deffinate focus, we need to not loose site of what makes Linux great. The modularity of Linux, and the fact that it is designed with security in mind. Linux is a true multiuser, networked, security based OS. The rest are just add ons.

Very often, we tend to forget this.

[geoffro]

I actually think this is one of the problems Linux is not an OS but the kernel with add ons being the different distributions which can be very confusing for newcomers.
They try one distribution, don't like some part of it say ubuntu which has gnome and say hey Linux (ubuntu) sucks.
Not that i have anything against ubuntu just an example

Originally Posted by Jonathan_R

Linux is a true multiuser, networked, security based OS.The rest are just add ons.

[oldcpu]

Originally Posted by hito_kiri

I think if linux is the first OS you learn, you will probably not have too many problems with it. It is when someone who has learned Windows attempts to, as said before, learn Linux, they get frustrated because it is different and they can't learn it fast.

Thats a good point.

I think it also applies to any PC knowledgeable user who is trying to learn another OS fast.

I struggled with the MacIntosh for a couple of hours (I kept trying to drag things into the wrong box, or I kept looking for a menu item that did not exist) and my friend in essence stated my frustration was because I was used to the Linux way of doing things, and I was too stubborn too adapt to the Mac way. Possibly true. And it possibly applyies to some Windows experts who fail in their attempt to migrate to Linux.

[growbag]

Originally Posted by Chrysantine

No one really wants to "argue" with you because of your previous history in posting to various threads here - it's about as useful as shouting to a wall.

So does that mean that you have no counter argument and are now reduced to "my dad's a policeman, so there " retorts?

Oh please do tell about my "history" of posting in these forums, and why I'm so hated here?

[bkorb]

RE: A4 paper -- To be completely honest, I don't know if it has been gotten working correctly in 11.2. I know for sure that in the past, (11.1 and earlier) you could set your country to US and follow various menus (like desktop->regional&language->other->paper (someone's kidding, right?)) and only get part of it. Somewhere along the line, enscript or cups or something would have a different config method and you'd have to fix that one, too. I don't know about 11.2 because it is still in such a state as to be unusable. (I cannot compile and link my programs into working executables.)