On Thu, 30 May 2002 15:41, Brian Parish wrote: > On Thu, 2002-05-30 at 07:44, FemmeFatale wrote: > > Tom Brinkman wrote: > > > On Wednesday 29 May 2002 11:13 am, Dave Conroy wrote: > > > > > > It's only a matter of time before lot'sa people will need to > > > unlearn Windows, and learn somethin else. Specially with M$'s new > > > fangled SA programs (price gouging scams), and the horrific security > > > holes that all M$ OS's and software feature. > > > -- > > > Tom Brinkman Corpus Christi, Texas > > > > a) won't happen soon enough > > > > b) won't happen. > > > > Why? Because linux will never be a desktop OS for the masses IMO. > > Requires too much tech knowledge and most just want their machine to > > work. Shrugs, My opinion. I know its come a long way but its still got > > a longer way to go yet. > > -- > > Femme > > I agree if you are talking DIY installs, but having just set up my 83 > year old father-in-law on 8.2, I don't agree on the usability side. > Anyone who doesn't know "about computers" either has a friend who > installs it, or buys the machine with the OS (W$) preinstalled. Ask the > average user to install W$ from scratch and the gotchas would come just > as fast as they do with Mandrake. > > So this is the real difference from my viewpoint. The guy next door > knows about W$, but not about linux. Given someone like me to set it up > and provide an icon for each thing you want to do, Mandrake is not a > problem for the novice. > > It's a telling point that having changed the 83 year old over to linux > from W98, the number of "support" calls I have received is so far zero - > used to average several per week. > > Brian
Yep, this is the way that i see things too. Give em a configured Linux computer with a user login and they are less likely to roast it, it is less likely to hiccup, and they can learn the operating system if they choose. If they find something else they want installed and configured, why can't we do that for them too. I have seen more balls up computers of people that have indiscriminately loaded than any other damage excepting virus. When they feel they are ready to start using the root password, then give it to them. Most USERS would never ask for it. Remember most that come to Linux at present are at least semi computer literate and are used to playing under the hood. Time we started touting the invulnerability of this idea. Thus: * Linux is virtually virus free * A well set up box is more idiot proof by far * what you break in your own directory is often easily fixed. i.e. delete the ".kde" directory and log out, then log back in again. * Linux is far more standards compliant * Low cost, even pre-installed I'm sure there are others. Now where is that MySQL front end to complete the picture? Others have already said how it is not a problem to migrate USERs to Linux from windows. How many businesses happily migrated staff from Wordperfect to Word because a boss decided it looked better. -- Michael
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