OSNews

I totally agree with the article. Except that I think he is talking about the wrong audience. I don't hear Linux users complaining about text installs vs. GUI installs. I hear that from Linux newbies/Windows users who want to switch but are approaching the problem from a different angle.

Do they even know that Windows has a GUI installer? Nope. They've never installed it. But in order to try out Linux they have to do an install for the first time in their life. A life that has been dominated by pretty icons and flashy graphics. When they don't see the same on a Linux install they get nervous and complain about how Linux isn't 'friendly' enough.

They aren't looking at it as an installer. They are looking at it as just another application for them to run (this being the Linux application). They've been warped into thinking that they have to have one hand on the mouse for their computer to work, and a plethora of desktop icons to click on in order to get any work done.

Its just a matter of viewpoint. And really, there is no reason why different installers cannot be written for the various systems that still use text interfaces.

I'm rambling now, so you can ignore the rest if you want :> But this may be related to the tendancy of people to not want to read anything longer than a sentence. I've seen this since the BBS days where users wouldn't read the main menu and on the web these days where I get emails with questions that are prominently answered on my webpages.

bcl