Hi Paul! Paul W. Abrahams wrote:
George Toft wrote:
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.
You make your points well and eloquently, George, but your last sentence makes the alternative sound worse than I think it is. Dumbed-down and crippled aren't entirely the same thing, for instance.
Dumbed-down and crippled has its place. The Linux Router Project (LRP) is one example. I use it and have set it up for four people. It's almost like an embedded system. Simple, easy to use - if you understand networking. LRP is very difficult to use when you are used to a full Linux system. But being cripple is its strength - since it does so little, and everything it does has been reviewd for absolute necessity, the whole distro fits on a single floppy disk.
Also, the connotation is that any such version would be a monstrosity. To the contrary, it might even turn out to be a more reliable, non-Microsoft-controlled, better-designed, but nevertheless Windows-like system.
Well, Paul, I thought about your point for several minutes. You are right. And I'm sure it will come to be - in the future (even in the near future). But I don't think we are there, yet. On the other side of the coin, in my Beginning Linux class that I teach for a local computer vendor, I watched a Linux newbie install SuSE 6.3 without any help. The only Linux experience she had up to that point was the previous seven hours of instruction I had given her and her classmates, which included a text-based install. Good Job, SuSE! (Ok, I confess, I had to translate the opening German screen for her. For some strange reason, German is not a very popular language in Hawaii.)
And why couldn't it have a side door that provides access to the full underlying system?
Maybe this is where TurboLinux is going with their Workstation and Server versions? Thanks for the well thought-out counter point. -- George Toft http://www.georgetoft.com -- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/