Linked by Kevin Russo on Thu 31st Mar 2005 18:40 UTC
I read a lot of reviews comparing GNU/Linux and Microsoft Windows, and inevitably the topic of installing software comes up. Most reviews indicate that installing software in Windows is much easier than that of the desktop GNU/Linux world. I decided to do my own comparison based on my desktop usage to see the difference. The following are my results. Those of you that come from the Windows world may be a tad bit surprised at the ease in which software can be installed.
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I have a friend who has been using *nix systems for at least 5 years, has a lot of experience with development and still doesn't know the difference between "su" and "su -". Doesn't know that the DISPLAY variable needs to be set to launch an X app or that xhosts needs to be set to allow access to other users on their machine before launching those apps. He does know how to use synaptic, but doesn't know which packages to get.
But the same can be said about any user for any platform, windows included. If you use a platform for 5 years you usually get pretty good with it. Everyone has been using Windows for the last 5 years, so of course they've learned how to install software. They may not know what software is available or how to use it, but they probably know how to double click on the icon and click Next until it is installed.
We could very easily give them the same stupid interface for Linux. But, of course, apt-get style package managment is so much nicer. So they'll have to learn something new. This will take them another 5 years, after we convert them over to using Linux. So maybe 10 years?
By then Microsoft will be selling a package manager for Windows for only $150. Well worth it, for these people who have a problem with learning new things. They are much happier when they can blame someone else for their ignorance.