Hi Bernard, I see we fundamentally disagree. I think this is due to different interpretations of "desktop." Let me clarify my definition and my viewpoint, and let's see if your comments still apply. In my comments, desktop means end-user computer in the corporate world. This is different than home user operating system. In the corporate world, end-users do not install operating systems. Secretaries do not install OS. I work three jobs, for companies ranging in a staff of 14 up to a staff of 600,000. In none of these do end-users install the OS. The girl that answers the phone doesn't install applications nor operating systems. Even I, as the network admin in the 600,000 employee company do not install anything on the NT machines because they have someone else in charge of it. In this regard, since each company I work for has at least one person dedicated to IT, Linux is ready. Here's a great example: My wife used Unix at AT&T on her desktop, and she used it well. She has used my Linux dosktop at home, and does it well. There's no way she could ever install a package, much less install the either Unix not Linux. She can install programs on Win95, and with 10 minutes of training, she could download and install packages unter Linux, but she cannot install the OS. See the difference? Using this example, even Win95 is not ready for the desktop either, yet there it is. Linux IS NOT ready for the average home user. It is ready for most of the people that are on this list, but the fundamental differences between that dumbed-down, crippled OS from Microsoft and the very powerful OS that we all know and love are too overwhelming for the home user to quickly master, especially in a six page installation manual. I think the only way Linux will work in the home, is either in an imbedded device (GO SONY!) or in a dumbed-down, crippled version. There is a difference between corporate desktops, mom & pop desktops, and home desktops. Linux is ready to take over anything NT does now. Bernard Peek wrote:
In article <4.2.2.20000306193019.00a48f00@mailbox.uottawa.ca>, bsh <dk983@freenet.carleton.ca> writes
That depends on whose desktop you are referring to. Most corporations have an IT department to configure software and hardware for the users.
That's not true.
Most IT staff are employed by corporations that have an IT department, but that's not saying the same thing. Most companies are too small to have a separate IT department. So for Linux to be adopted as a desktop system in most companies it has to be able to be used by someone with no formal training in IT. They should be able to get the OS installed by reading the instructions in the manual, which should be no more than 100 pages. Installation on any standard PC system should normally take no more than an hour. After that time the system should be able to dial an ISP, print a letter and play a mean game of solitaire.
If a company deploys Linux, they should hire Linux administrators. Likewise, if they deploy NT on the desktop, they usually hire MCP's or MCSE's.
Nope. Often they get the bosses' 14-year old son to put the computer together and install the software.
What Linux is not ready for is the so-called "power user" who downloads some gee-whiz GUITweeker from download.com, changes to look of his screen and thinks he's a Guru. This individual will try to install Linux and destroy everything (because he knows all about computers and therefore does not need to read anything), and blames Linux for corrupting his data when the readme clearly said to run scandisk and defrag first.
If running scandisk and defrag is a requirement then the install program should do that and shouldn't continue until that's been done. It's acceptable for the program to offer the user the opportunity to skip those steps if they have already done them manually. The installer should still check the disk and refuse to go ahead if it is fragmented.
Expecting everyone to read all of the manual is unreasonable if the manual is more than about six pages long.
With this criteria, Microsoft Word is not ready for the desktop. Have you ever taken a Word 6 file and loaded it into Word 97?
Yes. Never had a problem with it. Until recently I kept a lot of documents in Word 6 format, for compatibility with users on 16-bit systems. It's completely transparent whether the document is in Word 6 or 2000 format. Now I don't know, and don't care, which documents are in which format.
I've used the latest SuSE and Caldera releases, and Red Hat distros back to 5.1. I've seen Linux evolving very rapidly. As a desktop system it's currently at about the same level as Windows was between Windows 386 and Windows 3. It's possible to tell that this system is going to be useful, but it's still got too many rough edges. Printing and the clipboard are the ones that come to mind.
If the current rate of progress keeps up, Linux will be ready for the average users' desktop in two or three years.
-- Bernard Peek bap@shrdlu.com bap@shrdlu.co.uk
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