Linked by Jeremy LaCroix on Thu 3rd Jun 2004 07:02 UTC
During the majority of my time working with computers, Windows was the operating system of choice. Reason being, it's all I've known. In 2002, I took a college course titled "Linux Administration" which entitled me to a few cd-roms of Redhat 7.x. While this course was nothing more than a few extra credits for me, I fell in love with Linux and went through the entire textbook a week into the class. It was a nice feeling to use something "different" than what I was used to.
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Maybe it's not the majority, but there are many Windows users who have never installed any software. They let other people do it. Most people have someone who occasionally comes along and "fixes their computer". And the average users with a need for "ease of use" (ie. limiting possibilities) hardly ever need any package that is not on the distribution CD. Therefore it is a lot easier if you give these people something like Mandrake, show them the package manager and say "This is where you can look for Software". It's sorted in categories, and it resolves dependencies automatically. I installed karamba on a mandrake system years ago, and it installed kdelibs and stuff from the distribution CD. automatically.
Personally, i moved to Gentoo because i hate binary packages, but that's another Story.
I also like the way most apps in BeOS are installed: All files are in a zip, just unzip it to anywhere. If there are any shared libraries in it, they make a symlink to the directory and you just have to drag the file on that symlink.
Package Managing in GNU/Linux (yes, that's what the real "geeks" call it) is quite easy and intuitive for people who are new to computers (I tried that out, I don't just claim that it is so). In fact, it is very confuding that every application has its own installer in Windows.
You are not a geek. I have the impression that you are just another one of those who moan if something doesn't work similar to how it is done in Windows. You are a somewhat more experienced computer user, therefore you don't ask where your start button has gone, but you make the same mistake in concept.
The biggest problem of alternative operating systems (GNU/Linux, Mac OS and BeOS, for that instance, others may be lacking some "usability") is not that anything is missing, but that users are thinking microsoft instead of thinking logically (or just trying out).