Scott Leighton wrote:
On Saturday 12 June 2004 1:10 pm, Steve Wagoner wrote:
I don't normally like to jump into flame wars, but this one is just too juicy to resist.
You are simply more familiar with XP.
No I'm not. I migrated from Win98 since I refuse to accept XP's EULA. My experience with XP is limited to watching co-workers who migrated from Win98 to XP use it.
Your statement about your frustration with the clipboard system just proves his point. It's not that one is inherently more user friendly than the other, they are just different. Not better or worse, different. After getting used to how it works I find it faster to just select text and middle click than to have to do all of the intermediary pointing and clicking. As a budding programmer the ability to store multiple items in the clipboard and paste them at will is invaluable.
You, and several others, have made some excellent points about my newness to Linux and familiarity with Windows clouding my viewpoint on the issue.
You have valid points, I _have_ used Windows for years now and I _am_ used to things working a certain way, so yes, a part of the frustration in switching to SuSe Linux is related to the inevitable learning curve in understanding the differences between the way the two OS's approach things.
But, that also makes my point. The home workstation market is made up of millions just like me.
* We are used to being able to simply plug things in and they either work or they prompt you for a CD to get them to work.
* We are used to installing programs that end up as icons on our task bar or desktop where we can easily find them.
* We are used to being able to pop a DVD in and everything just works, the video, the sound, everything. There is no way my 70 year old mother is going to chase down rpm's to install from packman's site to get DVD's to work.
Now, Apple has figured it out with their OS X. I just bought an eMachine for my son at college and I am very impressed with what Apple has done. It's not windows, it doesn't have to be, but there were no major jarring surprises in using the machine. When he installed programs, he got icons in logical places. DVD's played. CD's played. Everything worked.
That's exactly where the various Linux distros need to get to when you talk about the home user workstation market. Until Linux distros do that, they will not penetrate to any large degree and that's the point of the author's article.
Scott
To Scott, et al: Now, I am as green as the next computer user and have a dual boot machine with Windows 98SE on one harddrive and SuSe Linux 9.0 on the other. I stopped upgrading Windows because, first; I had reached a stable version and two; I had found good third party virus and worm protection, neither one of which came from windbag Gates! I also do NOT get hacked like those using XP either! I have, I admit, had a rocky time with Linux, but, for some reason, being stubborn I guess, I was able to figure out the majority of my problems, except for a printing problem I had. That was solved by the present version of SuSe Linux 9.0 although they now have a 9.1 out, also. I do belong to a sig that concentrates on Linux, any version, but because of all the new first timers, there are certain details we have as yet not gone over. However, I am shifting over to Linux, for instance I now do my word processing and internet through Mozilla for Linux. The Word Processor is Open Office, but I may get the new Linux WordPerfect. There is a desktop publishing program for Linux called Scribus, and at least 2 different finance programs for personal finance. Or you could use the spreadsheet in Open Office for a finance program. As far as Windows is concerned, its days are numbered on my computer and I am sure on many, many others!! There is absolutely no reason to buy a Windows based machine, as Linux can even run Windows programs and , in a network, Linux is a more stable server!!! :-)