On Tuesday 12 March 2002 01:42, Miark wrote: > > Doubtful, and the install is not the largest problem. The largest > > problem is the way *Nix was evolved. It wasn't meant to be anything but > > a distributed computing environment. So it was not meant either to be > > used by anything but gurus. Configuration & use aren't easy on Linux. > > Maybe that will change. I hope so.
Miark is right - it already has. I've used Windows from 3.1 to 98, RedHat 6.* and Mandrake from 7.0 on. Mandrake 8.* is the easiest OS I've ever worked with (big thanks to the Mandrake development team). > When it comes to just getting the computer to work, I'd have to > say that messing with config files is the -exception- rather than > the rule. IMHO, it used to be the rule; now it's the exception. > > I mean, why do I have to edit a cfg file in *nix to get a > > modem to HUP & NOHUP properly(If that's a good example?). > > I don't have a modem in my Linux box, so I really don't know how > tough it is to get one to work. Neverthless, even if it is tough, > it's still the exception. It would have to be a pretty weird modem not to run kppp out of the box. > > My point...I can't even give a decent example because this > > OS is not intuitive. Granted M$'s isn't either in some ways, however > > they at least *attempt* to make it so, and do well at it for the most > > part. > > I'd have to disagree because I think this is a learn/relearn issue. > Setting up a video card, for example, is really no more intuitive > in Winsux than it is in Linux, and I see this all the time whilst > consulting. All my clients use Winsux, and not one of them could > tell you how to even change the screen resolution. I think it just > seems more intuitive because most people learn the M$ method first. I couldn't agree more. MS is sometimes amazingly counter-intuitive, but they've convinced people that "computers are like that". Take clicking on icons - lots of people in my office are still stuck in Win95 mode, and reflexively double-click an icon in KDE, thus opening two instances of the same program. And when it doesn't open immediately, they keep clicking - the record is 16 instances of Netscape (which is such a RAM-hog that the computer slowed so much I couldn't move the mouse to close them and had to do Ctrl-Esc and have a coffee while I waited for the window to come up). But I don't blame people - unlearning is always more difficult than learning. When I was teaching t'ai chi, the students who drove me crazy were generally not the martial arts newbies with no flexibility or co-ordination, but the ones who'd done karate. No matter how often I said "Relax! Drop your shoulders! Don't lock your knees!", the muscle memory was still there. If developers want to make interfaces more user-friendly, instead of trying to mimic Windows, they might be better off looking at Macintosh. I've never had a Mac, but I have never, ever heard a Mac user complain about Macs (even those Windows users who refuse to consider any other OS still bitch about Windows - except they think they're bitching about computers in general). Robin
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