Star Ask OSNews: Linux User-Friendliness
Linked by David Adams on Mon 24th Aug 2009 09:21 UTC
Linux 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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RE: Our Church took the Plunge
by bm3719 on Mon 24th Aug 2009 19:15 UTC in reply to "Our Church took the Plunge"
bm3719
Member since:
2006-05-30

Our church took the plunge and switched to Linux. I had already switched from Internet Explorer, and had familiarized the staff with OpenOffice. Let's just say I keep getting reminded how one needs to refine the definition of "user friendly."


Sounds more like you decided for them.

Linux replaced XP Home. There was one Windows user, the administrator, and there was no login password. Multiple people used the machine and had done something to the OS, so it would no longer accept updates without blue screening. Our secretary had trouble with the concept of user name under Linux. She also had trouble for a few days logging in, as the password wouldn't work for her (it worked fine when I did it). She also had trouble understanding that the user password and the e-mail password were different things.

From a point and click perspective, I made the desktop similar to Windows, except the icons to launch programs were bigger in Linux. I even made sure there was a "My Documents" icon on the desktop. The concept of multiple desktops left the secretary nonplussed, but after some fiddling around, thought that four desktops was too many, but two might be useful (she got two).


Sounds more like you're treating the symptom instead of the real problem: dumb users. But then, this is a church we're talking about, so the people there are probably used to having their mental faculties permanently set to `off'.

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