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While your comments are a little pointed, it's hard to argue against them.

Linux needs to be more userfriendly how? The current GUI paradigm is 30+ years old, and some people will just never get it. Short of interfacing via voice activation which incorporates strong A.I., computing will just be one of those activities meant for smart or otherwise interested people.

A modern distro like Ubuntu would not be any more or less userfriendly than commercial offerings if they enjoyed the same OEM share.

Let's get something straight: most people are forced to user Windows, and a large portion of them don't even know the interface well enough to get around. Windows isn't necessarily userfriendly, it's just familiar due to marketshare, and it still takes a Windows geek to fix co-workers' and grandmas' computers. And these dolts are hailed as geniuses for the effort. Just goes to show what perceptions are worth coming from the average user.

Edited 2009-08-24 19:42 UTC

Indeed. And at the point where the computer will be doing all the thinking, why does it even need a user? Where's the value-added on the users' part, if his only contribution is to point and drool?



Like a lot of the other OS-nerds here currently do, I once would try to install what I felt was better software and OSes on the machines of everyone I knew. But, becoming the neighborhood help desk wasn't really my goal in life.

Some users don't know and don't want to know, and IMO, there's nothing wrong with that. That's why communication services are heading to gadget platforms like phones. I say that's good for them and us. They want the services, not a high-maintenance computing platform. For us, terminally-incompetent end users contribute nothing back to the FOSS OSes and, if anything, just end up making them more like OSX and Windows (and, if I thought those OSes were so great, I'd go use the real thing).

In my case, the issues had more to do with issues common to all OSes: Passwords, formatting, file formats. These aren't OS issues, though; they are issues with all computers.

A couple of other points: The competent Word user had no trouble working with OpenOffice Writer. She said there was a lot of overlap in concepts. The church secretary has no issue with a point and click interface. Point and click basically works.

The major usability issue I encountered involved security. XP-Home, when set up as a typical home use system with a single user, is easy to use. Any time you enforce user privileges, things get complicated.

Wow - you insulted non-technical computer users, Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, etc. all in one shot. Any other groups you want to insult? You could probably take a shot at nationalities or income levels next.

Wow - you insulted non-technical computer users, Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, etc. all in one shot. Any other groups you want to insult? You could probably take a shot at nationalities or income levels next. "

Chronically-incompetent computer users typically want their thinking done for them. People that voluntarily file into a church to receive a monologue about the nature of the universe without demanding anything resembling proof are doing the same thing.

At least choice of operating systems is something less likely to get people to kill each other over though.

By analyzing the contents of your posts I have come to the conclusion that you too are a member of a church.