Linked by John Collins on Wed 4th Jun 2003 15:23 UTC
There seem to be many reviews on Red Hat 9.0, but all seem to be written by Linux junkies who really know their stuff. What about the MS Windows Convert? They say people like the first thing they use (i.e. if you learn to drive a manual transmission, you prefer it over automatic). If this is true, how does Red Hat 9.0 introduce a novice pc user to the world of computers? I hope to answer some of those questions in this tiny review.
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Whatever the situation, there should never be a situation where you cannot abort out of something. That's just nasty design.
I don't know, I think this was a fair enough review. I always tell people that if they want to run Linux, there's a chance that the install will go perfectly but probably they're going to have to invest some time, and be ready to troubleshoot. Between Mandrake, Debian, and Gentoo, and FreeBSD, no installation has ever gone perfectly, beginning-to-end. There's no substitute for familiarity and experience; knowing where things are in the OS and so forth. I think sometimes experienced Linux users forget that.
The difference is, I was interested enough to stick with it. Not everyone is going to be. The proper response to experiences like the one descibed by the author is either, fix it so Windows users aren't turned off, or just make clear you're not interested in courting Windows users. The idea that you're going to get people interested in reading pages and pages of documentation is kind of absurd.
I read docs. People who say this read docs. That's fine, we're into computers. Not everyone's that into computers. I still find that almost all of my Windows 2000 installations have been more hassle free than any Linux distro I've tried; people say that they've had just as difficult experiences with Windows, and maybe so, but I never have - I've worked tech support on phones doing Windows support, internal helpdesk, and the local geek who everyone calls for help. In most cases where I've had to reinstall, it's been a brainless experience with Windows. If I need the drivers, I know they're going to be out on the web. Can't say the same for Linux.
I just think the hassle is worth it,. for me, for Linux. I think the difficulty of Linux is overstated - it looks way more complicated than it is when you've never used it, but I certainly find it's generally more difficult than Windows. Even in the cases where installers are designed similarly (like Mandrake), they seem less reliable. Could just be my experience.