Linux for Grandma?
just before lunchtime on Monday, the 28th of April 2008 by Chad
I was interested to see how far Linux had come since then in terms of being used easily by the mainstream. So, I tricked my grudging girlfriend Erin into sitting down at a brand new Ubuntu 8.04 installation and performing some basic tasks. It’s surprising how many seemingly simple things become complicated and even out of reach for someone without a knowledge of Linux. There are a lot of little things that could be done to make the experience a lot more friendly for non-computer-literate people – some of them easy to implement, others not at all.
The results come down to… not quite there.
What is truly sad is that I look at all the issues I’ve seen with Linux and is listed in the article. And it would be solved if there was one company, one group of people, that designed Linux. As it is every group out there with every single package available has their own way of doing things. Sad to say but Linux would work for people if it was overhauled by Microsoft.
Linux simply needs a consistent look and feel throughout everything. Once single software install format. One single file system layout. When I install software I shouldn’t need to know where every stupid prerequisite library is. Or have to recompile random applications when I upgrade from MySQL 4.x to 5.x.
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April 30th, 2008 at 10:29 am
Maybe Erin simply isn’t very computer-smart, or is afraid of computers. It happens. Or maybe the article’s author had inappropriate expectations.
Just because Gnome is different from the Windows UI doesn’t mean the Windows UI is somehow more “untuitive” or otherwise better.
I’ve been extremely satisfied with Ubuntu Linux since I got it installed about a year and a half ago. It’s different from OS/2, but excellent anyway,.
April 30th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Actually Erin supposedly, while not a computer “person” would count as a power user.
As for myself, as much as I want to love Linux, I just can’t use it on a desktop. I spend far more time learning how to do something than just being able to do it.
Linux as an application server I’m really fond of. I’ve even built a small business server that handles domain logins, faxing, pdf printing, file sharing, email, etc.
But as a desktop, it frustrates me as a software developer to no end that every app out there has a different UI with no standard look and feel. When I write applications, I want it to be intuitive so that anyone can just sit down and use it. And it hurts my head some of the things that have to be done on Linux boxes to just use it.
April 30th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
This comment is very much what i’m talking about. This covers the forking of the pigdin open source IM client about what is probably the stupidest of reasons:
http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/4986#comment:272