Home
| Calendar
| Mail Lists
| List Archives
| Desktop SIG
| Hardware Hacking SIG
Wiki | Flickr | PicasaWeb | Video | Maps & Directions | Installfests | Keysignings Linux Cafe | Meeting Notes | Blog | Linux Links | Bling | About BLU |
On Jan 21, 2008, at 11:53, Mark Woodward wrote: > I have a real issue about "easy to setup" vs "easy to use." IMHO > they are very different. Any argument about Windows vs mac vs Linux > eventually devolve into this, because lets face it, all these > systems, once configured, are about equally usable. Sure, assuming you won't ever want to configure your computer to do something new in the future, and assuming that nothing will ever go wrong. To me, being able to set up and trying out new things myself and being able to recover from problems are important. > I think the "setup" argument is kind of a strawman, I'm the ONLY one > in my circle of friends that can comfortably setup a fresh system > from an install CD. Most would never do it. I mom, wife, son > certainly never would. So what is your mom to do if she gets a new computer, and would like to migrate her user settings and all her data over to it, but you're no longer around for some reason? (We'll say you moved to the opposite coast of the country and are very busy with a new job :). This scenario is very real. My folks live on the west coast, and my very non-technical dad just bought a new MacBook Pro. He uses it on a daily basis for his political consulting business, and he set up *everything* on that laptop by himself, including migrating everything over from his ~5 year old PowerBook. Somehow, I don't think he would have been able to do that if we were talking Linux (nor Windows, for that matter). Ease of setup is quite integrally tied to ease of use in my book. > I don't know about that. Mac is CLEARLY better, but Windows sucks > just as bad I think. Ah good, earlier, I thought you said Macs couldn't do anything better... ;) > See that's the thing, there are so many "time sinks" in Windows, and > to a lesser degree the Mac, that you have to look at the overall > amount of wasted time, and I think Linux have fewer overall deficits. Never mind all that pesky setup you'll have to get your technical friend to do for you, since you can't set up your own computer, its their time sink, not yours... ;) Of my Mac OS X and Linux installs, neither has any significant amount of time sink attached. Really, the Linux installs are where I probably waste more time, but only because Linux is where I do most of my experimentation -- hell, I get paid to work on the Linux kernel. :) -- Jarod Wilson [hidden email] -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [hidden email] http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
BLU is a member of BostonUserGroups | |
We also thank MIT for the use of their facilities. |