Michael Polak wrote: > > My girlfriend uses Linux, because I won't install and maintain Windows > just for her - I rather show her how to do all the work shee needs to do > for university in StarOffice. And her sister uses Linux at home too, > simply because I installed it, and it works. And my father (who is > programmer) started using Linux at work (he works for siemens), my > brother is working at internetworking company and uses Linux too, so as > a result, my mother uses Linux at home too (for web browsing). > > Note, that they are *users*, not admins. They won't install Windows or > any windows application on PC themselves, and they rarely want or need > to do more than web browsing, e-mail and word-processing. Are they nerds > ? I think they are rather end users...
They are pretty special and well treated "end users" I think. ;-) Maybe your family and friends aren't a reasonable sample ? Maybe Europe is different too. Here in the west users expect everything to be fast and not require any thought or imagination. (or hassle!) My "X" gave up on DOS software not because she couldn't use it, she couldn't think of anything to use it for. Now she uses W95 and IE to surf, but she sometimes needs assistance even here. The younger users (my kids) use W98 and haven't the faintest idea how wasteful of bandwidth their activities are. They have cable modems and GHz computers. They don't download music or movies with them, they need all that horsepower just to surf. :(( > in fact, the only audience which > is not ready for Linux are windows "power users", who install new > hardware and software by clicking "continue" button. End users won't > notice and difference... It's more difficult than that I think because end users expect to have the software pre-installed. In fact, to them a computer isn't a computer unless it will display a Wincrap logo at turn on. And computer manufacturers are not ready for Linux. They will resist it strongly because Billy makes their market for them.:( The far east is a very good example (excepting China which has adopted Linux) where Korea and Taiwan and Japan use the VERY latest Wincrap with a vengence and don't seem to care if their sites and methods are unfriendly to non-win users. - Clarence Verge -- - Help stamp out FATWARE. As a start visit: http://home.arachne.cz/ - The internet is infected - Windows is a VIRUS !! --
