Re: Suse Linux: first Impression, Too Much Work
From: Bernd Felsche (bernie_at_innovative.iinet.net.au)
Date: 08/02/05
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Date: Tue, 02 Aug 2005 09:28:48 +0800
thingemy <whb21@cam.ac.uk> writes:
>Steve Firth wrote:
>> Sandman <Peterf41@Bellsouth.net> wrote:
>>>I am spoiled by easy executables/installs for software that is
>>>Windows compatible
>> Correct, Linux isn't for you. I suggest that you take your
>> computer back to where you bought it and tell the salesman that
>> you want your money back because you are too stupid to own a
>> computer.
>Thus speaks someone who does not know the value of user feedback...
>Linux's useability for people without a history of unix use or a CS
>degree has long been considered one of its shortcomings, compared
>to OS X and Windows. And yet whenever a bog standard ordinary
>non-techie user comes along to the newsgroup for a major linux
>distribution to say what they like and don't like, a bunch of us
>jump up and insult them for telling us, and attempt to make their
>feedback sound worthless. And some of us somehow think we're being
>clever by being rude. Silly, silly, silly. It perpetuates the two
>old myths about linux - first that linux is a geek-only operating
>system, and second that linux users have no social skills!
Unfortunately, exposure to MS Windows tends to taint a user's
perspective of computing. It's a very easy system to use when it's
working but impenetrable to fix when it goes wrong (or infested with
a platoon of trojans). The MS Windows solution is to re-install. And
if that doesn't work, to re-format the hard drive and to reinstall.
The latter requires special skills. And invariable takes the best
part of a day, if not more, to install drivers, utilities,
anti-virus, anti-spyware, real applications and MS Windows patches.
You have very litle chance of achieving that in a day if you have
Windows 98 and a dialup modem connection.
Sure; there are "shortcuts" such as "ghosting" a drive - which isn't
very practical unless you have a hot-pluggable hard drive of
sufficient capacity... but they, like the re-format/reinstall result
in loss of data.
Minimising data loss requires a "techie".
It's all very easy... but very time-consuming.
Users are trained into clicking OK/Next in whatever dialogue appears
in front of them because it makes something happen instead of
stopping it from happening. Most users don't read the dialogues.
Only a few "techies" appreciate the consequences of that clicking.
It's not hard to see such social engineering being exploited by
malware.
e.g. How many people read the Microsoft blurb that appears when you
do an online update? How many people would know to what they've
agreed?
Without significant exposure to MS Windows, SuSE Linux has about the
same magnitude of learning curve as MS Windows.
Users use applications. That's why they are users. If they happen to
wander outside that comfortable space due to curiosity, they learn
incrementally. This is no more painful than learning to use MS
Windows.
MS Windows tends to come pre-installed on new hardware for some very
good reasons. One of them is that the novice won't have any idea at
all about hardware.
SuSE Linux tries not to ask any questions but "confronts" the novice
with a suprlus of "confusing" information and even some options;
from which the novice is ill-equipped to choose.
The default is usually a good start for the novice; but they don't
know that. Nor does the system make that default choice the clear
option for the novice. That's typical of the geek-user chasm that
can exist; and Novell will no doubt address that further in the next
release.
It's not a matter of technology as such; it's a matter of how the
technology is perceived.
I didn't know how to use an automatic washing machine until this
year because the UI is impenetrable to those used to non-automagics.
It takes a different mind-set.
The only thing that works like MS Windows could be MS Windows.
-- /"\ Bernd Felsche - Innovative Reckoning, Perth, Western Australia \ / ASCII ribbon campaign | I'm a .signature virus! X against HTML mail | Copy me into your ~/.signature / \ and postings | to help me spread!
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