On Mon Dec 06, 2004 at 08:18:15 +1100, john gibbons wrote: >Benno, > >I think the bug is a communications issue rather than a technical one, >unless I am missing something here. This is is a hypothetical example: > > Dumbo (that's me) sees an application on the internet he wants to >try. He clicks 'download'. Easy. A little window says 'Download >in progress'. A pause . A little window says 'Download complete'. A >little sign pops up saying 'Install? Yes, No'. > Dumbod clicks 'Yes'. A brief pause then a friendly little window >says, 'Install complete'. Dumbo then happily clicks on the new Icon >or application name and, hooray!!, it runs. > Dumbo is not even aware that there is another way of making things >happen via typing in text in a window he has never seen. That is >there for the technically competent. But Dumbo will recommend Linux to a >friend because it is easy to use and so much easier on the >pocket than the Microsoft one.
One step better there is a distro that doesn't require any installation at all. ZeroInstall. zero-install.sourceforge.net. You just clock on the hyperlink and it runs. How cool is that! I guess my point is, it is a weakness (and I think this is a generic problem, not linux specific in any way, in fact I think Linux is way way way ahead of windows in this area. Windows installers don't `just work' especially on a multi user machine.. or at least that is my experience...), but everyone knows it is a weakness, and there are thos ethat really don't care, or more acknowledge the problem, but are working on other things, and there are those that are actively working on the problem, e.g: the zero-install guys. These people do care about making things easy to use, and if you have a specific problem with some certain piece of software they probably want to know about it. Benno -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
