Hi Kedar,
On Tuesday 15 Mar 2005 9:30 pm, Kedar wrote:
> Hi All,
> I was just thinking what things would be nessesary to create a Ideal
> Desktop Linux Distro. When I say "Ideal" I mean that a Newbie should be
> able to operate it and should feel that it is more easier/as easy to
> operate as Windows.
I'm not going to answer your question. I feel compelled to share an
anecdotal experience with everyone here who has the misconception that
windows is easy/easier to use. When I latched on to linux about 6 yrs back I
was pretty aggressive about promoting it. So, when I assembled my first
system at home, I put linux (RH7.3 ..or was it 6.<something> ??) on it.
Nobody in my family besides me were computer savvy, so I taught them their
way around linux (remember this is 6 yrs back) ..basic stuff, like creating
files/surfing the web/ reading email/ playing music etc.
Things that didn't work (like playing some media files etc), I
convinced them are not worth it, because it either required money to buy
stuff that would make it work or would have to be pirated (which my folks
rightly thought is not a good thing). So well my dad, mom and sister ..sort
of grew up on linux.
Now, when they thought they were ready, they started fearlessly
sitting in front of other systems (read windoze boxes) and were utterly
confused. Examples of their confusion:
Mom: why isn't anything happening ...I clicked on the icon ???
Me: ..ehe mom you have to double click in this windows thingy
Sister: I saved this file here (pointing at the desktop), now I want to copy
it to a directory in my home. How do I do that ?
Me: ...ehe, you have no 'home' per se, you can create a dir in the C:\ or ...
(long explanation about profiles etc)
Dad: What does it mean by "cannot open file blah blah ..I just want to write a
note ....."
Me: ...ehe, dad the file doesn't have an extension without which windows or
the application does not know how to open the file .....(long explanation
about file associations and extentions and how, unlike linux, one usually
invokes/opens the application using the file and not the other way around)
small stuff like that which we take for granted because we _grew_up_ using
windows. Well, after training them a lil' bit more about some subtle
differences in OSes, they are now comfortable with both.
Make what you may of this lil' story, but you'd have to really repeat such an
experiment and then have the participants tell me that windows is easier to
convince me. :-)
Point of this whole mail is if you have *real* newbie, try having them grow up
on linux, they'd in all probability be less scared, feel more in control and
be more productive once properly inducted. Also *migrating* them to, or
teaching them the differences about Windows, would be easier that going the
other way round.
Regards
Steve
--
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