On Sun, Jul 25, 2010 at 08:53:44PM -0400, Scott wrote: > Out of boredom, and in part, related to a discussion on Fedora forums, I > made a very casual usability test comparing Fedora 13, Ubuntu 10.04 and > Mint 9. > > I used LiveCDs (which wasn't really a good test, as you'll see in a > minute.)
Just for the heck of it, I also tried PCLinuxOS' latest LXDE version. As expected, it played Quicktime without any issue. It also was much better in setting up the printer. I first went to the menu (which I suspect is a bit sparser in the LXDE version) and in printing, there was an option for HP setup. This worked. Then, oddly enough, it had a bit of trouble with my Brother 2170W, which all the others, once pointed to the IP address, automatically find and install a driver. It went to automatic discovery--not giving me an option to give an IP address--and couldn't find anything. The printer configuration tool (again, I was trying to do what I figure an inexperienced user would do, so I didn't go to the cups interface), didn't see it. At this point, I used my knowledge, and replaced its default of lp0 or whatever it had with socket://192.168.1.70, the printer's address on the local network. That then gave me the option to select the driver for it and all was good. Still, I was bit surprised. It would have been fine had the printer setup tool given me the option to manually put in the IP address, which is still, as far as I know, frequently necessary with both Windows and Apple. Additionally, using the printer setup tool, it did mention that HP printers often have additional features, would I like to use the HP printer setup tool instead. This strikes me as superior to apparently conveniently and almost automatically installing the printer and leaving the user without a scanner. Note, in case it isn't clear, that I'm not assuming the user is either stupid or lazy--I'm assuming that the user has read about the wonders of Linux and how it will be easy to install and use. Said theoretical user doesn't want to google, or join a mailing list or forum--they want their computer to do things and in all cases, they would find something that would require specialized knowledge to do. PCLinuxOS, however, would have passed all tests, simple as they were, if it had simply given the user the opportunity to enter an IP address in printer discovery. These are BASIC things, and none of the systems passes. This wouldn't be so bad if things were clearer--but the propaganda is, Use Linux, it's just as easy, and will work out of the box. In fairness, Windows often doesn't work out of the box--I have a friend who set up Ubuntu for a friend of his, because she'd lost her Windows installation disk, and couldn't locate drivers, even for the wired network card. In that case, Ubuntu did a better job, but again, she had my friend to do the setup. Even a small note when installing these printers, such as, we've discovered an HP printer--many of these have extra features, you should install hplip and then run hp-setup, would be better. This seems nitpicking, but it's the sort of thing that will simply aggravate the inexperienced user. As Jeff has written somewhere, the trend these days is to feed the LCD (lowest common denominator), and if you're going to do it, and offer this as a legitimate Windows replacement, it has to be done better. -- Scott Robbins PGP keyID EB3467D6 ( 1B48 077D 66F6 9DB0 FDC2 A409 FA54 EB34 67D6 ) gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys EB3467D6 Cordelia: Oxford. Whoopee. Four years in teabag central. Sounds thrilling. And M.I.T. is a clearasil ad with housing, and Yale is a dumping ground for those who didn't get into Harvard. Willow: I got into Harvard. ------------------------------------ To unsubscribe from this list, please email [email protected] & you will be removed.Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LINUX_Newbies/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LINUX_Newbies/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
