Linked by Charles Williams on Mon 7th Apr 2003 03:17 UTC
We have all heard the horror stories of how GNU/Linux is difficult, if not almost impossible, as far as general desktop usability is concerned. In particular, there seems to be a continuous stream of gripes printed across the Internet, from Microsoft Windows users who wish, or have tried, to migrate to GNU/Linux, yet gave up in frustration. But what happens when complete computer newbies are introduced to GNU/Linux? By computer newbies, I am referring to those who have no computer experience whatsoever, in either a Windows, Mac, Linux, Unix or other environment.
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..for a number of reasons:
1. Always likely to be free
2. Easy to keep up to date and secure
3. Easy to upgrade between major distro version numbers
But it's not currently easy to install or maintain, which is why it's perfect in this situation because our friend the author has installed and is going to maintain the computer (until he's transferred enough knowledge to hand over the reigns and the url to the Linux Documentation Project).
I liked the article and look forward to its follow ups - we'll learn if Linux is doing things right from people who won't compare it to Windows the whole time.
Also the command line is perfectly easy to use if you're shown how to do a particular task with it. However most people don't have a handy geek on 24/7 call and this is why most people prefer clear icon-driven GUIs. With a GUI you can figure it out yourself and its not so hard to remember how to do things. Anyone can learn and benefit from the CLI, but obviously it has to be replaced if there's to be a future in GNU/Linux.
And finally GNU/Linux is the more correct name for a collection of GNU and misc. free software running under the Linux Kernel interacting in harmony to allow people to get work done. It would be more appropriate if major publications gave credit to the Free Software Foundation but really it's not worth getting annoyed about.