Linked by David Adams on Mon 24th Aug 2009 09:21 UTC
A reader asks: Why is Linux still not as user friendly as the two other main OSes with all the people developing for Linux? Is it because it is mainly developed by geeks?
My initial feeling when reading this question was that it was kind of a throwaway, kind of a slam in disguise as a genuine question. But the more I thought about it, the more intrigued I felt. There truly are a large amount of resources being dedicated to the development of Linux and its operating system halo (DEs, drivers, apps, etc). Some of these resources are from large companies (IBM, Red Hat, Novell). Why isn't Linux more user-friendly? Is this an inherent limitation with open source software?
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 15:53 UTC
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 22:43 UTC
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/19/13 23:11 UTC, submitted by Drumhellar
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Linux is a Kernel. It is hidden from the users. It need not be user friendly.
I assume you are talking about X windows not being user friendly.
I have read the post, you are talking about the other 2 major OS, I assume you are talking about MS Windows and Apple. So you are comparing Linux with Windows and Apple.
User friendlyness is subjective. Let me ask you, how many clicks (least possible means) do you take to copy & paste a text in windows. select text, right click, move the mouse to copy, click the mouse on copy, move the cursor to the desired location (couple of clicks here), right click for the pop up menu, move to paste and click on the paste.
Under X it is simple, select the text, place the cursor on the desired location (couple of clicks here) and then click both left and right button together.
So do you see that X does much efficiently the same task with little effort from you compared to windows.
There are many more such features were X does beat Windows. To me X is more user friendly then windows.
If you are taking about the nice looks, color, special effects then I agree X may not be that efficient. I have a laptop with 2 GB Ram and I can't even open MS word as quickly as I can under Wine / Linux. I have to close all the special effects under Aero. So tell me what is the use of all these special effects if a user can't use them (so windows is not user friendly again.)
I have been using open source OS since 1992. I can say that open source OS distributor have done a great jobs.