This has been an interesting debate (?). I finally can't resist joining in with a few thoughts.
I will start by admitting my personal bias - I am pro Open Source and anti-MS in general. I use Linux as my main OS both at work and at home, but I have to support WinXX for all my colleagues and 250 schools I work with.
This debate has been about benefits for users and administrators/support staff. I think we need to think beyond 'one size fits all'. The users come in several types (in no particular order):
- those who use a PC as a tool and which doesn't change from day to day; as long as it goes on working and does the job they don't care how it works. They would probably prefer that no new software was installed unless their job changes radically.
Also in addition having a machine which is hard to break and where they don't have to perform system administration tasks.
those like me who find the process of getting something working and knowing how it works more interesting than actually doing anything with a working PC - in my case my home PC keeps changing as I try various distros and ways of installing; I stick with one until it is working perfectly and then it is time to start a new partition.
'home' users who use their PC's for a bit of all sorts but mostly for games and/or internet. They will probably want to keep trying new software from the latest 3D game to the web development software demo from a magazine cover CD. They will often be looking for hardware upgrades too.
education users (schools/colleges etc) where the PC will be shared between many users and must keep the various users separate and stop any one user from messing up the system for the others. In general the software required will be standard and required not to change for a period of time (usually an academic year but this could vary) Ideally there should be a wide range of to suit a range of educational objectives.
Effectivly this is a variation on catagory one. With the addition that multiuser support is needed. Which may or may not be needed with the catagory one situation.
- a set of users not usually catered for in school where the user can discover how to install, mess up and fix software - including the OS. This is a very important educational process but normally we are trying to suppress that sort of experimentation in school networks.
But this would have to be on specific machines intended for that purpose. An analogy is that whilst they may do practical electronics as a technology subject letting the children pull apart any piece of electronic equiptment around the school is certainly not on.
- network administrators and support staff - they want an OS and software they can install once when the new machine arrives and not need to touch again until the hardware breaks or goes obsolete.
Also which is hard for the user to break, either acidentaly or maliciously.
My opinion of the right software for each of these:
Once they have been shown how to use it these users won't care and either Win or Lin will do, Win is more standard (so far) but Lin is more reliable.
People like me will never be satisfied, but at least Linux has brought back some of the fun from before PC's took over.
While winXX is everywhere and all the games are written for it first, ordinary home users will mostly need win. Most of the comments in this debate about Windows and ease of use were IMO aimed at this class of user
Which is probably the class of user for which WinXX is most optimal.
- There have been a lot of attempts to make WinXX suit this sort of user, but they are fighting an uphill struggle ;-) A multi-user task really needs a multi-user OS. Some schools have moved to NT workstation on that principle (but then how much software is really written for Win9X) My
Thus you can easily end up paying NT prices for something which operates as WinXX. So as to get the applications to work.
opinion is that this is where a quality thin client setup would be appropriate.
these can and should be allowed a mixture. Of course they do not officially exist as a valid class of user in most schools.
From a support viewpoint all I can saw is that Win9X means trouble.
As well as a lot of wasted time and furstration... -- Mark Evans St. Peter's CofE High School Phone: +44 1392 204764 X109 Fax: +44 1392 204763