The future of linux

[Jason Nelson]

At 11:15 AM 1/31/00 -0500, Derek Martin wrote:
>On 31 Jan 2000, Derek Atkins wrote:
>
>> I'd like to see Linux be a real condender to replace Windows.  In
>> order to do that, I think linux has a long way to go in the usability
>> area.  Ease of installation, maintenence, and everyday use are key
>> to making Linux as easy to use as Windows.  Without that usability,
>> I couldn't even conceive of giving Linux to my mom.
>
>What would your mom use it for?  Probably e-mail and office type stuff,
>right?  So you install Netscape and Koffice or Wordperfect or whatever for
>her (or StarOffice if she REALLY needs MS compatibility), and my questions
>are:
>
>1) ease of installation:  Did she install Windows?
>
Getting the big manufactures to sell preinstalled Linux machines I believe
would be part of the answer here.  Its a bit of  chicken and egg issue.
There needs to be enough of  a demand for Linux home PCs.  I think time and
groups like this one, installfest are part of the right on track and give
it time.  I heard that Rollerblades became popular because a small group of
people who started letting people try them out for free until there was
demand for mass manufacture.

>2) ease of maintenance:  What maintanence?  Once she's got an account,
>and you've set up her printer (did she set up her own printer on
>Windows?), what does she need to maintain to run e-mail and WP? 
I fall into the "Oh its easy trap" often myself.  Linux is no doubt getting
easier.   However just mounting your CDROM can be a daunting task for some
beginners.  Just the fact that the interface is not Windows or MAC can
throw some. On the other hand, my wife wouldn't touch the Linux machine
until she found a game she liked and now she uses is regularly.
Again its time and the usual fear of change.  

>3) everyday use: The user interface for KDE/Gnome is almost identical to
>Windows, from an every-day use perspective.  Once the apps are
>installed (which also really isn't that hard), what's the hard part there?
"The floppy is not working"
"Where's the 'C' drive?"
"I can't dial up" (a big one)
"How come I can't install this app (being an app not ported to Linux)?"
"Dual boot how do I do that?  Won't I lose everything"

Maybe a Windows and Mac to Linux Tutorial (if one doesn't exist)?

Remember, even Microsoft had to deal with users complaining Windoze was too
hard (coming from MAC users).  

Also, marketing (I shudder to mention it - but its a reality).  Correll,
Redhat are starting to do some but I still get a lot of "What is Linux?",
or  "I've heard of that but you'll really have to be an expert to use it"
and luckily - "I heard that doesn't crash so much I want to try it." 

Lastly,  with all that said - LINUX has an exploding number of new users as
we speak!  As this grows so will hardware compatiblily, number of
manufactures selling Linux out of the box etc. will grow   So I think it's
on the right track overall.

Jason Nelson
GTE Internetworking


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