-----Original Message-----
From: Rich Kulawiec <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Wednesday, June 24, 1998 5:11 PM
Subject: Re: Should we be pushing Linux over Windows 95?
>Yes to the first, but no to the second. Granmda should have a Mac, so that
>she can install and configure her own software a high degree of probability
>that she won't break the last piece of software she installed.
I hesitate to agree with that, because of two points:
1) If she's in her local software store and she sees a great-looking program
that she wants, odds are that it will run under 95, but not on the Mac.
2) If she does blow something up beyond her capabilities to fix, there will
be more local computer technicians who can deal with a 95 system.
I picture that what we want for Grandma (and of course there are going to
exceptions, I wouldn't give my Grandma even a Mac, and when my wife's a
grandma she'll be using some form of Unix) is something that meets these
qualifications:
1) Preferably she doesn't have to do any installation initially, and if she
does every question should be explained onscreen and idiot-proofed.
2) If she sees a program she wants, the odds that it won't work on her
system should be as minimal as possible.
3) It should come out of the box with PPP, a web browser, and an email
client, which should be commonly-used enough that at least half the
technicians at her ISP know how to set it all up and troubleshoot it.
4) If she sees a piece of hardware that she wants, the odds that it won't
work on her system should be as minimal as possible. Further, any local
computer store at all should be able to install it for her.
The Mac achieves number 1 with flying colors, and half of number 3 depending
upon her ISP. (A lot of them tell Mac folks "sorry, here's the numbers you
need, you're on your own troubleshooting".) However, it fails numbers 2 and
4 currently.
This is not the place to discuss how it could fix these things.
However, I think it's pretty clear that Linux, in it's present form, doesn't
meet any of these requirements fully. Even number 3; although Linux has a
tremendously robust PPP implementation and a plethora of connectivity
applications, Grandma's ISP probably doesn't support it at all. I know ISPs
who use Linux on their servers, and still don't have enough trained
technical support staff who can troubleshoot hooking it up.
Red Hat has made tremendous strides in solving all of these problems, and I
am quite optimistic that they'll solve them all or at least drive the
industry enough that someone will solve them. But Grandma probably isn't
going to be able to fathom which programs she can buy, and which ones she
can't. She probably isn't going to understand why she can't buy the cheaper
Winmodem, but has to spring for the real modem instead. Never mind that the
Winmodem sucks even under Windows.
When you explain it to her, she's going to say "let me get this straight; I
paid Gateway for a computer that came with Windows 98 for free (it wasn't
free, but she had to pay for it whether she wanted it or not, so for our
purposes it's free) and then I spent $49 on this Red Hat Linux thing, and
now I have to pay more for some hardware, can't use other hardware at all,
and can't buy any programs? Put Windows back on this thing or I'm shipping
it back to South Dakota."
Grandma doesn't know that Linux is going to make her computer run faster,
more securely, or more robustly, and she probably doesn't care. She does
know that the ladies in her sewing circle all have this ICQ thing, or that
she can play bridge at the Internet Gaming Zone with her old friend Myrtle
who moved to Florida, or that she can buy that cute little scanner at
CompUSA and use it to email people pictures of her grandchildren. Except
for that naughty one that installed that nasty Linux thing. He's out of the
will.
She can do that will on the new legal aid program she bought, that won't run
on Linux but runs on 98 just fine.
I want to see Linux overcome this. I'm a firm believer that if you start
with a good foundation and build toward legacy support, you end up with a
better product than if you start with legacy support and try to retrofit
cement over the cardboard foundation.
--
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