-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi Guy,
On Saturday, December 13, 2003, at 10:33:09 PM PST, you wrote: > Last night I spent an exasperating 6 hrs struggling with numerous > issues. I'll submit them as bugs if appropriate. I feel these issues > (and many more like them) are impediments to the widespread adoption > of Linux as a desktop platform. [snip] > But unfortunately the fit and finish on many things is wanting, and > those less zealous than the people on this list will find Linux as a > desktop frequently exasperating. As someone new to Linux, I'd like to thank you for your comments. I installed Mandrake 9.2 onto my second hard drive almost a month ago, and I'm still trying to sort out several things that seem like they *should* have been fairly basic. I know that Linux is quite different from Windows, so I understand that I have a lot to learn (with lots of help from many good people on this list!), but I'm going to have to agree with your comments that I quoted above. It takes a good bit of effort in often obscure directions (and a Klingon-English dictionary!) to get even some very basic things up and running. While there is lots of help available via lists like this one and a few news groups, it can still be a little frustrating to have to send out a request for help every time a new Klingon command is needed to perform some procedure that I've been told I need, yet still don't quite understand why...or even just what it's supposed to do. Over the past several years, I've had to learn how to tweak my Windows systems - especially for security and privacy issues - and have become pretty good at tinkering with it when I need to (though, after the initial setup and keeping track of a few basic things along the way, I really don't have to do much tweaking anymore). Once I pretty much "figured out" Windows a few years ago, installing a new OS and getting things tweaked to my preferences so I can just *do stuff* is very quick and painless. I can and do tweak when I have to, but tweaking and tinkering is *not* why I enjoy using a computer. After hanging around Linux mail lists and news groups for over a month now, it seems that for even experienced Linux users, tinkering can be a fairly time consuming hobby in and of itself. I find myself wanting to do other things...especially things away from the computer. Then, there are people like my mother, who really could benefit from a truly secure and stable system (well, here I must admit that my WinXP is both faster and more stable than my Mandrake 9.2 on the very same hardware). I can now see that getting her set up with a Linux system she could "just get to work with" would be a rather daunting task compared to getting a Windows system working reasonably well for her. If Linux distros are ever going to really be able to compete with Windows on the desktop, it's going to take a lot more than just a small group of happy "tinker 'till you drop" enthusiasts who are quite content to now and again sing choruses of "Linux rules, MS sucks!". While I understand the unfortunate "vicious circle" reasons for it, I still cannot deny that the range of truly useful and refined software available for Windows remains a not altogether unimportant issue for someone wanting to switch from Windows to Linux (or even for someone ready to get their first computer with one or the other type of OS). Even after lots of searching for comparable programs and tweaking what I can, when I go from my Windows and the programs I have installed there to my Mandrake and its programs, it feels like a definite "step backwards" in terms of overall functionality and usefulness (and at this point at least, speed and stability is an issue as well). At the end of the day, all I really want is a tool (computer) that does what I want in a way that pleases me, and I must admit, at this point anyway, I can be persuaded to compromise my preferred principles in favor of a truly slick set of tools. Whenever I say something like that, I feel that I should qualify it by saying that other than the OS itself, I really don't use any MS software, but lots of third party software written for Windows systems. I'm going to keep working on tweaking my Mandrake, and I may eventually try other distros as well, but for the moment, I'm going to have to continue the heresy of using Windows for my "mission-critical" tasks, and also only recommend Linux desktop distros to the most tinker happy hardy souls. I wish it weren't so, but that's how I'm feeling about it right now. Anyway...I'm always grateful for this list. Even when I'm not asking specific questions, I'm learning many useful things from reading the questions and answers of others. I'm always very busy color coding messages for future reference! :-) - -- Melissa PGP public keys: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]&Body=Please%20send%20keys -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- iD8DBQE/3DDCjVbXUvsE8ukRAnT+AJwP27kuvd71NubBf2EcNj+jFrfXkACfaSBo 2pg7mE6a0YVXCF5Uhqkv3EE= =k8FH -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
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