On Mon, Apr 28, 2008 at 11:50 AM, Manish Chakravarty <manishchaks at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > > Interesting post. I'd agree with a lot of these niggling issues when > > my dad decided to use linux, and I installed the supposedly easiest to > > 'manage' linux system. > > My dad got me a mac when i was in my 5th standard. It used to have system > 7 on it. > The machine was an Apple Macintosh LC 475 [1] > > I used it a lot and loved it. > > My second computer was a Power Macintosh [2] and I loved it to ( It ran > System 7.6.1 ) > This was when I was in my 9th std, 1997. > > I managed to install Slackware and later on, Redhat 4.2 on it on Virtual > PC. (it was an x86 emulator on PPC ) > My mom, dad , sister and myself loved the mac, and we still use a mac at > my home to this day. > > My sister had to switch to XP at college because all the software she > requires for ther MA/Russian is not avaiilable on anything other than XP. > She still feels at home on the mac though, even though she has a PC laptop > now. > > My point? > Most of our family members are non-technical people. They would feel > comfortable working with any modern desktop OS that you introduce them to ( > Dont give them DragonFly BSD! Ubuntu, OSX , BeleniX and even PC-BSD would > do) > > Install it. Setup their internet connection. They will like and learn > their system. > Once they learn it, they would not want to switch. > > As end users, most non-technical people dont care much about the OS. They > care about getting their job done. > ( chatting with people, some email, viewing photos, watching movies, > making birthday cards etc ) > > IMHO: bundled software on OS more important that OS itself for non-tech > audience > > My dad reads up on medical topics (he's a doc) and my mom does general > surfing, chatting and reads about places and travel. > > For all their needs, almost any modern OS would do. > The requirements are > 1) Firefox > 2) IM ( iChat or Pidgin) > 3) A photo viewer > t4) watching movies/listening to music > > I personally find the Ubuntu OS easiest to use for myself. And for my > parents i always recommend OS X > > I like the way OS X "scales" From a super easy-to-use interface to a UNIX > terminal. something for everybody. > Of course Apple gives such a nice experience since they have a tight > hardware/software bundle. > > > Unfortunately OS management is for geeks and sysadmins, perhaps even > > my dad, but definitely not for my girlfriends. Call me pragmatic, but > > I'd recommend MacOSX to my girlfriend, if I had one ;) > > My gf uses an _ancient_ computer with XP at her house. > I handed her BeleniX 0.7 running on my laptop. > She was nervous ( mind you, she's been working in the IT industry, on > mainframes, for 2 years now) > > I told her BeleniX was linux [3] and opened firefox for her. She was able > to check mail etc just fine. > > -- Manish > > > > > > [1] The LC 475 was a lovely machine: www.everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_* > lc*/stats/mac_*lc*_*475*.html > [2] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/*Power_**Macintosh > [3] Please dont thrash me for this! > * > > _______________________________________________ > belenix-discuss mailing list > http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/belenix-discuss > http://groups.google.com/group/belenix-discuss > > Some of the criticisms in the article are spot on. Using 'Whole Computer' instead of FileSystem or something will be a small but important improvement as also the 'Transmission' part. However, I disagree with the photoshop bit; a first time photoshop user is definitely going to be very confused. Also, as others have pointed out, mimicking Windows is not the way to get more users. Mac OSX does not try to mimick any Windowisms and that IMHO should be the way *nix systems are developed. Intuitive != Familiarity. Kunal -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://mail.opensolaris.org/pipermail/belenix-discuss/attachments/20080428/e782f48d/attachment.html>
