Judith,
If this is the case then please accept my sincerest apologies for the bulk of
what I have said (although I haven't really said much :-) ). I still get the
feeling, however, that you are annoyed that GNU/Linux is not Windows. Fine,
it may not be quite as user-friendly, but it is still a work in progress --
you do appear to recognise this.
As I and others have posted earlier, different people have very different
notions on what "user-friendliness" and "intuitiveness" is. Some people
prefer how the command line works, some prefer Windows, some prefer MacOS 9,
some prefer MacOS X, some prefer GNOME, some prefer KDE... The list goes on
and on. Each *nix GUI project has it's own goals and target audience. While
it may look like KDE and GNOME, for example, are trying to lure Windows
users, they are doing it in different ways. They are both very respectable
environments, and both are very usable, but in different ways. When switching
to anything new, one must keep an open mind -- otherwise there is no point.
Your "special character" (e.g. cedilla) problem is interesting. Microsoft
tries its best to blur the distinction between elements in its OS, as
Civileme has noted. In GNU/Linux, on the other hand, packages and elements
are clear-cut and well-defined. Civileme appeared to be annoyed that many
people blame the entire OS for little problems like this, when the fault (if
it is a fault) usually lies with an individual package. I agree with his
statement. However, I'm not sure where the best place would be for a "special
character" feature. Perhaps it is a "problem" with XFree86? I know that MS
also makes available an option for using "US International" keyboards, yet
still provides an across-the-board function (using Alt) for special
characters. I realise that character sets vary across character sets (e.g.
ASCII and Unicode) -- could this be an issue here? Note that this problem is
different from the em-dashes and smart-quotes that you can get in MS Word.
You obviously have done some homework when it comes to attempting to solve
your problems. However, I still cannot excuse your assertions that logging in
as root is harmless. This has got to be the *worst* thing you can do. You
speak as if you know much about network (and remember that the Internet is
also a network) security yet you claim that your Windows box is safe. I must
say that your idea of encouraging people to log in as root and then having
"bad things may happen if you do this" messages is simply preposterous (for
technical reasons). I do not blame you for this, though. This your first
(AFAIK) crack at a secure multi-user OS, and this new paradigm would
understandably be a bit bewildering and confusing at first. Civileme has
already dispelled the "open ports" myths, so I shall not revisit that.
My bottom-line is that GNU/Linux is a different OS, with different ways of
doing things. If it ever becomes a mainstream user-friendly OS, it will not
be user-friendly in the same way that MacOS or Windows is. There are
different ways of doing things, and one must keep an open mind in order to
learn them. For example, your annoyance with typing the root password over
and over can be safely circumvented with user permissions, su, kdesu and sudo
(as I have repeated endlessly over the past few weeks).
I intend all this as constructive criticism, not as an insult or a flame. You
are obviously not a troll, and I can sympathise with many of your views.
On Wed, 11 Jul 2001 00:13, Judith Miner wrote:
> The idea that I am a Microsoft employee or a "plant" infiltrating this
> list gave me the best laugh I've had in a long time. Especially since
> I've done nothing else for the past three weeks but try to get a good,
> working Linux system in hopes that I will never again have to spend my
> not-abundant money on anything from Bill Gates' company. The only
> Microsoft software on my computers that I paid for is Windows itself.
> There is also no pirated Microsoft software. I have Microsoft Works on
> my laptop, but that's because the laptop came with it and it provides a
> spell checker used by other applications. I don't like Works and don't
> use it. I have no Office, no Word, no FrontPage, no Money, no Publisher.
> Oh yes--I do have Encarta. It was free after a rebate, so I figure
> Microsoft lost money on that one.
>
> Some of you think I'm negative about and critical of Linux. That's
> because you haven't heard my complaints about Microsoft and Windows.<g>
> As with just about everything of this nature on the Net, you don't post
> messages about stuff that's working well, you post about your problems.
> In fact, there is a lot I like about Linux and some things about which
> I'm wildly enthusiastic. I intend to stick with it for the duration. I
> also agree that it is getting friendlier all the time, and while it has
> a ways to go, it's headed in the right direction.
< < BIG SNIP > >
> >> it looks weird to me that she doesn't know how to get the cedille <<
>
> In Windows, you get a "c" with a cedilla in *every application* by doing
> Alt+0231. It never occurred to me that you'd have to set up a US
> International keyboard to get a cedilla. And the little hook under the
> "c" does not appear on a keyboard. I guess you use a comma for that
> (though I don't actually know). Is that supposed to be obvious?
>
> The tennis match I have on TV as I write this is almost over, so any
> other replies will have to wait for later.
>
> Oh--one more thing. Someone suggested reading a book. Let's see--I have
> printed out the Linux-Mandrake User Guide--210 pages; the Linux-Mandrake
> Reference Manual--182 pages; the complete Font How-To--31 pages; the
> entire section on "Setting up Printers, Fax Machines and Fonts under
> Unix" from the StarOffice installation guide--17 pages; and a few more.
> I've read all of the User Guide, Font How-To, and section from
> StarOffice, and have gone through part of the Reference Manual.
> Apparently not enough.
> --Judy Miner
--
Sridhar Dhanapalan.
"There are two major products that come from Berkeley:
LSD and UNIX. We don't believe this to be a coincidence."
-- Jeremy S. Anderson
