Re: Control hidden folder/file settings?

On Sun, 22 Jan 2006 12:31:07 -0500, Rick Moen staggered into the Black
Sun and said:
> mayayana <mayayanaXX1a@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>Most people cannot install software if it requires more than a mouse
>>click. If they have to research command line options in order to
>>choose where software installs,

*Usually*, when you're installing software on Linux, it's from a distro
package and the package defaults are fine. If you're compiling from
source, the default executable directory is almost always /usr/local/bin
.. There's not really a lot of need to compile from source these days if
you're a casual user.

>> On the other hand, I'm beginning to think that I may be looking at
>> this in the wrong way. Maybe Linux is just not destined to function
>> as a mainstream Desktop option.

(And in the other branch of this thread, you seemed like you wanted to
poke around with Gtk2::Perl. Programming is *not* a "casual user" trait
anymore.)

> That's actually, as is notorious, primarily a consequence of Microsoft
> Corporation's stranglehold on OEMs, which is in minor part maintained
> through bundling agreements [...]

> On the other hand, if you were to preload most commodity "desktop"
> systems in the stores with, say, Xandros Desktop OS Standard Edition
> (a new-user-oriented Linux distribution), they'd not have problems --
> fewer than they have now, I'll bet.

"They" being the systems, or the users of those systems? I think the
users could have plenty of problems. It is possible for the average
untrained user to screw up in ways that the makers of Xandros haven't
considered. It is impossible to make a system foolproof, because fools
are so ingenious. That and Tech Support Horror Stories are usually
true--CD-ROM = cupholder, using a mouse as a foot pedal, putting a
floppy disk in a backpack with a live cat, etcetera.

I'd say they'd want Deluxe, not Standard. Standard doesn't include
Crossover Office; Deluxe does. Even with that, there's always something
like "Deer Hunter 2100 Iridium Super for Windows" on sale at the
Wall-Mart bargain bin that won't work with Crossover. A "typical" user
who buys something like that will get annoyed at Xandros (or at the
computer itself), and will probably then buy or illegally download a
Windows CD.

For the whole "culture lag" thing, there's always the Open CD. Running
Firefox, Gimp, OpenOffice, Thunderbird, and so forth on Windows may help
get people used to the apps they can use on Linux. Or not. No matter
how pretty and easy you make Linux, it's *not exactly like Windows*, and
there are going to be people who can't deal with that. (Those people
would probably have the same problems with OS X, though, so maybe it's
not worth worrying about.)

--
Matt G|There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see
Brainbench MVP for Linux Admin / mail: TRAP + SPAN don't belong
http://www.brainbench.com / "He is a rhythmic movement of the
-----------------------------/ penguins, is Tux." --MegaHAL
.

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