Am Dienstag, 21. Februar 2006 13:49 schrieb Kenneth Schneider:
(...) This is certainly going to drive a -LOT- of people back to MS.
I don't agree. In my opinion people is *not* not switching to Linux because they *know* that this or that piece of hardware will not work, but because they are *afraid* of Linux, thinking it's too "complicated" or for "computer freaks" only. When I hear arguments against Linux I never hear facts, just rumours. This is more an image problem than a technical one. I was very much afraid of loosing the possibilities of my high priced software (photoshop etc.) and now I'm happy experiencing that OS-software is even better, easier, more comfortable. Anyway - if you ever hat to go through the hard times working with MS for years (like I unfortunately had to) and then "discover" Linux, you will *never, never* want to go back. I don't even want to come near an MS-PC anymore! With Linux the problems arrive in the beginning, until you have your machine up and running. If it runs, it's just easy life. MS is contrary: it's easy to set it up and then live starts to be a horror :-)
It is hard enough to get people to linux with the slow development of drivers, now it will be even worse.
Most of the common users like I am one (sometimes called "the idiots" here - or did I get this wrong?) don't have any idea about such technical things and don't read articles about kernels etc. because we only understand "trainstation" (I know one can't say that in english this way, anway...) I guess the following suggestion is unrealistic again (but its just an idea): Why not set up a page with some tested computer models? I don't mean single parts, chips and so on, because "we idiots" often don't even know what chip we have on our ethernet card etc., but just some lists (e.g. "1] home PC", "2] office PC", "3] gamer PC", "4] cheap laptop", "5] top laptop") with common hardware parts that are widely available, so people can go to a shop, give the list and say: put me this together and give me a box of Linux. I could even imagine that some hardware makers or sellers will exert themselves for beeing on that list. Don't you? regards Daniel -- Daniel Bauer photographer Basel Switzerland professional photography: http://www.daniel-bauer.com special interest site: http://www.bauer-nudes.com