Quoting Derek Martin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
> On Mon, 31 Jan 2000, Randy Edwards wrote:
> > themselves, they have to be different. I fear this is going to result in
> > fragmentation along the lines of Unix. Sure, techies will be able to
> > navigate the differences, but end-users are going to throw their hands up
> > at such a marketplace mess.
> That's an argument that I keep hearing, year after year. There are
> hundreds of distros and still people are warning of the fragmentation
> that's to come. There's a limit to how much fragmentation can occur,
> because they're all still based on the same kernel. I guess this is where
> my techie prejudices get in the way, because I don't really see this as an
> issue.
I'm not sure I've ever heard a 'warning of the immenent fragmentation'
besides in FUD statements, really. What I have heard is the 'concern' that
this might happen, WHICH IS A GOOD THING.. Half of solving a problem is
identifying that it *might* happen, and, it could. But as long as we're aware
of it, we can stop it before it happens..
> For the non-technical user, how much administration do they need to do?
> Add themselves a user, add a printer, and that's about it. Installing
> software has become very easy with RPM or .deb files, and there are an
> assortment of choices of tools to make it even easier.
In your an my eyes, yes, but not to the non technical end user. They're used
to running an exe, and hitting next untill they see a 'Finish' button. Of
course, they occasionally cry when it breaks something really, REALLY bad, but
the market tolerates that. The fact that it can happen fairly easily, and yet
users put up with it, is proof of that fact.. Again, point and click..
> As for the other
> administration tools, that's what documentation is for. I haven't seen
> other Distro's documentation since early versions of slackware
> (admittedly, I rarely need lots of docs to install a different version of
> Linux -- they're easy enough to figure out), but Redhat's is very good,
> and that's the direction most newbies go.
User don't like to read docs. I've never known someone to actually read the
Win95/98 manual, and they wouldn;t expect to do it under Linux, either..
> > file differences. We need standards here to enable relatively new users
> to
> > migrate between a SuSE, Red Hat, Debian, Caldera, etc., system without
> > becoming a GNU/Linux pro.
> Why? Why does the average, non-technical user need to be able to migrate
> from distro to distro? The average user only has one machine, and doesn't
> change operating systems very often, if ever. So I don't see the validity
> of that argument.
That's all mindset. You're correct, they don't need to, but they like to
think they *can*, even though they probrably never will.. Sure thing, someone
will install RedHat, then hear from a friend about the 'new fangled, really,
REALLY cool Corel release', and they're going to want to try it.. I think the
majority of this would be semi-solved if RPM and dpkg ever talk nice to each
other..
> No problem. At least I can't see one... :)
HeHe.. That's usually what I'd say, while they are staring blankly at me,
not understanding a *word* of what I'm saying.. ;-P
---
Thomas Charron
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