Re: Making Linux Easy for Newbies

mike wrote:

AND THAT'S EXACTLY THE POINT!! LINUX NEWBIES DON'T HAVE A CLUE.

AND MICROSOFT NEWBIES DON'T HAVE A CLUE EITHER.


Some SINGLE organization needs to take over management of the Linux project.
They need to set standards so that all the pieces come together seamlessly
across distributions.

Linux is managed by one person with people he delegates tasks to, each GNU/Linux distribution has it's own organization to manage the setup and development of distribution specific tools. What the "Linux mentality" is about is freedom of choice, try that on you microsoft, select another window manager, it's possible to do so, but it's not easy and you break almost all functionality.


I recently purchased my first Macintosh.

I guess you love that x86 machine, they where better when they had PPC.


While I waited for the arrival of the MacOS disks,

Funny thing, all the MacOS things are bundled together with the hardware, if you didn't get the MacOS CD, then you didn't get your Mac either.


I tried installing
several variants of linux for PPC. Problems similar to linux for PC.
Hardware detection issues, mp3 codecs, different software repositories
for different distributions. I did get it sorta running.

Sure, all the PPC versions of GNU/Linux has full Mac hardware support, supporting both old and new world Macs, the old world is more difficult to install on, while new world is just plug and play.


My problem as a linux newbie is that I often reach the point where I
want to give up. I'm stubborn and I always proceed well beyond that point.
But I eventually throw up my hands. With a little overall linux
organization and consistency, it wouldn't have to be that way.

Not everyone wants to fix their cars either, they just leave it at a car workshop. If you don't feel for GNU/Linux, then don't bother.


Windows is a business intent on world domination. They cater to the
newbie in two ways:
1) They don't give him a choice and
2) they force developers to use features not available in older
versions (they don't give developers a choice).

They don't give support either, so you will be as clueless there.


They have enough consistency that it is possible for a mortal to describe
his problem to a helper and understand the answer. Having drivers
available for every piece of hardware on the planet doesn't hurt.

Hmm... the most common problem description from a microsoft user is:
it don't work

Even if I don't use microsoft, I have had to solve others problems and you can guess what description I got and how many hours goes just to figure out whats wrong, never takes that time to fix a GNU/Linux install, even if I don't know much about the distribution in question.


Please go somewhere else a whine and prise your microsoft, try alt.linux.sucks and pl.comp.os.ms-windows.win3

--

//Aho
.

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