A few weeks ago, I wrote an article for OSNews entitled “Update on Red Hat’s Limbo Progress.” It was to be a short article on how much Red Hat’s beta releases have impressed me – to share with everyone some of the changes a desktop user sees and maybe generate some additional interest in my choice, Linux. Little did I know, one of my comments nearly incited a riot- it would flood my Inbox, leave me feeling silly about something that I still think is true…it was just poorly stated.
So, let’s try a little experiment.Let’s all agree to step back, forget what we know, and pretend we’re seeing Linux for the first time. Let’s pretend we don’t know too much about anything besides Windows 98. Let’s visit a world where the computer is an intimidating machine that requires a highly skilled technician for basic tweaking. You with me? Okay, here we go…
We just booted up for the first time and logged in, so far so good. The desktop is pretty comfortable; a standard Windows user will be able, in virtually every distribution that configures X and defaults to it on login, to comprehend what they are seeing. Some of the recent changes, for the better, I’d add, have stripped the confusing names, like xSane, Toaster, Evolution, Mozilla and terms like Halt from their default menus and replaced them with much more logical and self-explanatory names like “Scanner”, “Burn CDs,” “E-mail,” and “Browse the Internet.” In fact, a very basic user, who is likely using Hotmail or Yahoo Mail or some other web-based e-mail could probably navigate around and get almost all of their day to day work done just fine.
Let’s take our user a little further. Let’s say she becomes comfortable and gets used to everyday apps like OpenOffice.org, grip, and XMMS. Then one day, our fairly standard user decides she needs a new application, maybe Mr Project, which we’ll just agree didn’t come with the distribution she has installed. Let’s even assume she talks to her buddy who tells her that the app is probably on freshmeat.net, a great repository for Linux apps. She finds it there easily enough and downloads it, and now she has an RPM in her home directory. She associates her home directory to her “My Documents” folder, maybe she knows it’s more like Windows 2000 than 98 in a sense. She double clicks it and nothing happens. A minute later, it asks her with what app she would like to open this mysterious RPM. A google search, or maybe, if she’s particularly smart, a newsgroup search, later and she has her answer. In this case, she must visit the terminal and type “rpm -Uvh packagename-1.0.i386.rpm“. She does it. It fails. She doesn’t have rights. After some more research, she finds out she must type “su” at the command line first, enter the root password, and then repeat the command. Once again, it fails, she’s missing some dependencies. She finds a similar package on sourceforge.net and downloads it (from her local mirror, of course). Now she has a compressed archive file, a “tarball,” she’s told it’s called, in her home directory. But even after she figures out how to uncompress it and untar it, she doesn’t know how to install it. Thank God someone had the forethought to tell the user in the README file to visit the command line, su to root, and run ./configure with the necessary flags. “Where should I install this?” she wonders? The README says, “for SuSE, here, for Red Hat, here, for Mandrake, here….” Frustrated, our persistent user spends some time looking for a solution. Since she’s not ready to download Debian just for the .deb files she’s told resolve dependencies, she uncovers the solution: URPMI…or APT4RPM …or GnoRPM. Let’s hope she doesn’t find out that one of them is deprecated, since she has no idea what that means. But wait! Now she’s found information about IRIS, Click n’ Run, Red Hat Network, and Red Carpet. “What am I supposed to do?” she asks herself. Her solution, despite her noble effort, is to boot back into Windows 98 where nice, comfortable .exe files are waiting and the answers are any old help desk away.
People don’t hate Linux, but the community’s arrogance when it comes to addressing legitimate user concerns are continually self-defeating. The acronym “RTFM” is a great example. Why do people even know what that means? Is it really that common that we tell someone to “Read the F*cking Manual!” that we need to abbreviate it?! It’s not that Linux users are bad people, it’s that there is that much about Linux that is not fairly obvious to a new user. Most flavors are getting a lot better at addressing these concerns. Most people are too. I understand there is a learning curve when learning a new Operating System, but shouldn’t we ask ourselves if we, as a community, are doing things the best way anyway?
There IS interest in Linux, but the simple things kill it quickly. Linux’s biggest weak spot, in my opinion, is software installation. Although there are numerous solutions, here are my thoughts, from scratch – on the ideal way to install software. Installing software over the internet cannot work all the time – it relies on your sources having the software as soon as you want it, often NOT the case. Therefore, I could propose something like the following:
First off, the definitions must come from a centralized committee, perhaps the LSB. A new format is declared, perhaps *.lif, for Linux Installation File. It needs to have an extension to indicate, fairly obnoxiously, “I AM THE INSTALL FILE FOR THIS APPLICATION.” The file, when double clicked, or run from the shell with the scary ./ prefix, invoke a menu that says “You have chosen to install new software. This must be done as the “Root” user with administrative permissions. Please enter the password in the box below” or something like that.
Next comes the fun part: we must either agree that all software is installed in the same place in each distribution, or else, we invoke a second menu, this one unique to your distribution, which recommends a place to install the software. Perhaps it says “You are trying to install a new program. Distribution X recommends new software be placed in the ‘/opt’ directory.” Of course, you could install it anywhere, but the menu should tell you where it thinks it should go. The system files would go where they should, just as a Windows application puts files in C:\Windows, but most of the software would be in one place.
Incidentally, acknowledging that some people prefer to compile their applications from source, this would most definitely be possible, these suggestions are purely supplementary.
Uninstalling software must be easy as well. Perhaps an option in the Gnome or KDE launch menu that says “Uninstall software.” Here, a list of all software is kept and the necessary way to uninstall it is tracked. I’m not the most technical person out there, but I would think GConf, a registry-like control for Gnome, would be a benefit to this. A user must have the option to uninstall, sometimes simply because they don’t like the clutter of too many applications, which, ironically, is another problem (too many apps by default – too many that do the same thing.)
Lastly, continuing in my “I’m not really qualified to make these sweeping suggestions but do anyway” piece, there must be an easy way to make shortcuts to these new apps. I understand the complexity in saying that I should be able to drag an item to the desktop holding Shift or Alt or Ctrl and get a shortcut, but…well…I should. If Microsoft can pull it off in Windows, why can’t we? Many people are vocal about the limitations of X Windows. I had the honor of exchanging some e-mails with a prominent player in the Linux world a week or two ago, and he explained that the non-multi-threadedness of X Windows was a killer that continued to plague Linux. With due respect, our desktop user, trying to make the switch doesn’t care, and frankly, the term multi-threaded just confirmed her doubt. Worse, she’ll probably tell someone she tried Linux and came back, and they’ll think, “Jeez…and she’s much more technical than I am! I guess I’d never be able to figure it out.”
APT and RPM, for those of you still with me, are not competing technologies, they’re not even in the same category. But at their basest level, they can partially manage packages, and when distributions ship with either their own proprietary update agent or in a format that is confusing and, for lack of a better term, “non-clickable,” it’s time to sit down and decide if we should cut our losses and go back to the drawing board.
At the beginning of this piece, I should have explained that everything I’m saying is predicated on the fact that we want new, less technical users in the Linux community and that we want Linux on the desktop – even if it’s just the corporate desktop. I believe that with numbers come commercial vendors, more commercial applications, and in time, a better, more complete community. And in the end, isn’t that what we all want?
About the Author
Adam Scheinberg is a Network Administrator for the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA). He uses NetWare 5.1 and Windows NT/2000 at work and is currently running Red Hat Limbo II, Windows 2000, and Windows .net Server RC1 at home.
I can’t see why installing software got much to do with linux on the desktop. Maybe for advanced users, but i dont believe my mom have a clue on how to install software even in windows, yet she gets her work done. In fact i think her using linux would be a good idea as the chance of her screwing something up by accident is much much smaller.
So while installing software might be a big issue for advanced users who like to tinker with their system and try all kinds of stuff, i hardly think it is an issue for most low tech users that i know, in fact i think there is WAY more software on the 3 mandrake install cds than they will ever need. Hell, there is enough for me if you dont count the fact that im running the development version of kde.
I’ve used used Windows 3.1/3.11/95/98/NT/2KPro, OpenVMS, SunOS, Solaris, Linux, and now Mac OS X. My point being that I’m not your average user, IRL I architect large scale e-mail systems (1M users or better).
For years I struggled with Windows on the desktop. I am a big mobile user and wanted one thing, the ability to put it to sleep and have it consistently wake up, ready to go. I never got that to happen with Windows. This past April I went out and purchased a new laptop. I did not even try Windows XP on the machine, I formatted the drive and installed Linux. I struggled with the machine until about 21 days ago, when I purchased a Powerbook from Apple.
The beauty of OS X from Apple is that it Just Works, is based on Unix (FreeBSD), and there are lots of commerical applications for it. I get a wonder GUI, the stability of Unix, and that thing I wanted, it works, everytime. From opening the cover to working where I last left it takes seconds.
MAC OS X.2, code name Jaguar, promises to be even better.
I think we can talk about how to improve Linux without all the drama. People who say linux is marginal or trash just because it doesn’t currently meet their needs are just as bad as the cheerleaders who say it’s ready for everyone.
In an ideal world, the computer would just do what you want without you even asking. Linux is not there yet, but Windows isn’t either, and as a developer I can tell you that it’s not possible. Also, please remember that at one point you had to learn Windows, either by reading a book (Windows documentation isn’t helpful either) or trying things out. If you’re willing to do the same with Linux, it will be more than worth your time.
The main problem is that Red Hat doesn’t have much incentive to create a good desktop distro. They’d rather others (like Ximian and Lycoris) spend the R&D, and servers are their core competency anyway. I expect they’ll be very user-friendly when the other efforts release their work.
I agree with almost everything that was said here! My one point of disagreement was that he recommended a registry like database for keeping track of the uninstall information. I think one of Linux’s great strengths is that so much of it is accessible in text, rather than binary registry-like files.
We should have a central place of the uninstall information, but let it be preferrably in txt, but if not in txt in a format that can be dealt with on a low level from a command prompt or over a network easily.
To write desktop applications for linux still does not worth the efforts.
And one (and probably the most important) of the reasons was nicely stated in this article.
My point of view is that each particular OS is NOT stile of life but just a tool (I am not bying a fork that costs me 3 days to learn how to use it with each different kind of salad)
In my private net I have win2000, winXP, OsX and Linux machines, and gues wich OS helps me to generate my money.
I like linux I see the power, but the power itself is not enough. The cognitive load is the thing killing the users.
After reading the comments I get the feeling that most people don’t want to put a little time into learning how their OS works.
Most of the distributions make it fairly simple for users to install and remove applications if you learn how to use the package tools for your distro (apt for Debian, pkgtool for Slackware, RPM form SuSE/RedHat/Mandrake etc.). Those tools are not perfect, but they mostly do a pretty good job, and if you want more you can always spend a little time learning how things actually work – like know your way around the directory structure, learn to use the command line (just a bit), learn how to find documentation online etc.
I don’t understand why people are so affraid to learn a bit more aout how their computing environment works – it doesn’t take much effort to learn the basics, and you’ll gain a lot.
Julie, i agree with you all the way – all it takes is to sit down and really learn a few things. The problem is that the vast majority of average corporate/home users are really computer illiterate, in the true sense of the word – they have no clue about anything that is actually about the computer. They also have no patience or willingness to learn (some do, of course). So, for example, when it comes to installing software, if they do that at all, they are used to wizards doing it. If presented with a typical Linux style installation of an application, they would, “What? You have to be kidding – why should I learn that when Windows does it for me?”. I fear that is one of the big obstacles that Linux has to get past in order to be successful on the desktop.
It has to be as simple as Windows’ Add/Remove Programs. Ideally, it’d also include an autopdate…
And yes, I know about all the version interdependencies of libraries. Something has to be done about this as well, even if it as brain-dead as Windows XP’s approach of duplicating libraries because disk is almost free now…
I can’t see why installing software got much to do with linux on the desktop. Maybe for advanced users, but i dont believe my mom have a clue on how to install software even in windows, yet she gets her work done. In fact i think her using linux would be a good idea as the chance of her screwing something up by accident is much much smaller.
Yipe! So if it’s too much trouble to create a feature, just deny that it has any use! Install software? Why would you want to install software? Use what we give you! You’re better off not having any control over your computer!
Jesus, and I thought Microsoft was arrogant.
Until you Linux guys start thinking of the user as a customer whose needs you are trying to meet, rather than a wild beast that needs to be restrained, you are never going to gain an appreciable share of the market. I don’t care if the software is free; I don’t care if the programmers are unpaid volunteers. You are competing against commercial products and that’s how people are going to judge them.
Computer professionals are the second worst people to consider usability issues. (The absolute worst are nonprofessionals who fancy themselves expert users.) Making computers easy to use threatens their self-image as computer gods. Using Linux is like pounding nails with your fist. Sure, it’s manly, but it’s neither the best nor the most comfortable way to get the job done. Installing software is one of the most basic activities on a PC; it shouldn’t be any more difficult than copying a file. That’s how installation is done on the Mac, and that should be your model, not Windows’ absurd Add/Remove Software control panel.
I use LindowsOS.
Check out the over 1,500 products that you can install with just one click: http://lindows.com/warehouse
Check out how easy it is, adding products to your menu, desktop (if desired), auto run directory (if desired), even adjusting file associates.
http://lindows.com/tryclicknrun
Jay
Well, It’s taken me 5 hours to read through all of this. I’m probably the only person who has. But I must interject my opinion:
First off, for the guy who switched to Windows because you could not access your ISP’s SMTP servers (no authentication support in Kmail)– I’m almost crying. #1 I believe mozilla and netscape have this support, and #2 MOST IMPORTANTLY, linux can easily be used as an SMTP server. Chances are it already was for you. You just should have put either localhost or 127.0.0.1 when it asks for your SMTP server. Of course you should have checked this by at least doing #service sendmail status. You could also use qmail.
Second: The Filesystem is very important the way it is. nobody seemed to mention /boot or /var or /proc. I don’t know everything about the filesystem, but there is method to the madness. It has had this similar structure since the original ATT unix. Also keep in mind that if you have a Gui between you and the filesystem, it really doesn’t matter what it looks like.
Third: What happened to what this was supposed to be about? Wasn’t the topic RPM vs Apt??? My answer: none. I’ve used RPM and tar ball mostly. I’m going to try running apt on my redhat system. I’m still learning, and things are still changing. Perhaps Redhat and Debian will create an RAPMT. However, I believe there are tools that give you the benefits of both worlds. I’ve heard of them, but nobody is going to read this anyways. I’ll look for them and try to use them.
Fourth: RPM, Apt, and ./configure && make && make install are in their current form for many reasons. There are graphical tools which make them easier to use. It seems some people were responding to the article only and not reading other responses. I can’t blame them; there were a lot of responses, but their complaints/suggestions were either said before or someone had a resolution.
Fourth.a.1beta == There is no “practical” Linux virus. RPM, Apt, and source help prevent this. Another thing: Changing these tools too much might hurt usability in the way that it will frustrate users who learned to use them in their current format and now they are different
Fourth and 1: I REALLY REALLY don’t see how hard it is to do “rpm -ivh package.i386.rpm” or “apt get package” or “tar -xzvf package” then “./configure && make && make install”. I’m not saying it’s perfect or easy. It’s just not rocket science or brain surgery. PRTM — Please Read the Manual
Fifth: I forgot. I just read 211 other opinions, I can’t keep my thoughts straight.
Sixth: It is impossible to avoid arguments and tempers. That’s just the way the world works. Try not to yell. That doesn’t solve anything. I understand people’s frustration. I’ve had dependancy problems and source compilation problems too. Try to explain your problem. Try not to be insulted so easily. They probably arent’ trying to hurt your feelings. Also, try not to say anything on purpose that will hurt somebody’s feelings. You don’t have to sugarcoat. Tell the truth. BS’ing is even more insulting. Just don’t say something just to hurt somebody’s feelings.
Seven: Mistakes are inevitable. Don’t give up if you are a new user. You have to make mistakes to learn. Tel this to people. Even in Windows, mac or the easiest Linux ever people will make mistakes. Tell them they will make mistakes and it’s okay: it’s part of learning.
Eight: Os’s are not Life and Death choices. Nobody is going to die because they don’t have a computer. Linux will not solve world hunger or stop Palestinians and Israelis from fighting. Well, maybe Linux could solve these problems. Some scientist using Linux could discover the answers to these problems, or the poor starving children might be able to afford education because linux is free and then they can find a way to feed their families. Maybe Israeli and Palestinian students will work on GPL projects together. I don’t know. I don’t have infinite knowledge. I can’t tell they future, I make the future. Pretty good heh? (I’m not Canadian — but nobody is reading this)
Nine: I need to go to bed. Sorry.
Ten: If there is a Linux using female between 18-35. I’m single. You probably guessed that already. I know, this is not appropriate, but who’s going to read this? I could use a girl friend. I believe beautiful women come in all shapes and sizes. I won’t push you around or disrespect you. I will listen to you or just let you cry on my shoulder if you feel like it. (if you were in Wakayama for 2002 WCBF, contact me — we probably know each other already!!!) I have my faults. If we get married, we have to use Natural Family Planning. I’m a strict Catcholic and a Linux user so I like that complicated stuff. I’m also a little immature. I hate the idea of growing up. Now, you have to be a real woman, not a transvestite or a transexual. If you are, we can still be friends, I won’t judge you or anything. I’m just not into that. Actually, if you are, I encourage you to be my friend. I could use a friend PERIOD. I may not be able to use linux and become a master programmer and explain to people why linux is the way it is, but a friend is real important. Sure this is off topic, but who stayed on topic??? Besides, who’s going to read this?
I’m sorry. I hope this wasn’t too long. For anybody who read this, thank you and my condolences.
I missed Summer Slam. I really only wanted to see the Shawn Michaels/HHH Match. Anyways, I know why Austin walked and I don’t blame him anymore. This is total Bull$417. Brock Lesnar Beat the Rock. I’ll bet Austin found out they wanted to push Lesnar so quickly and he could not agree to work with it. I don’t blame you Stone Cold if you are out there. This is garbage.
But it’s only TV. I just object to this because Lesnar has been in WWE for like 6 months. Foley put his life into pro-wrestling for like 13 years before he won the title. Foley had a lot more charisma and was more fun to watch. And there are tons of people who have spent years killing themselves and never won a title or never got on TV. Sure, Lesnar deserves the tile, but maybe a year from now. If anybody should have won the title it should have either been Flair, or Benoit, even Eddie Guerrero or RVD. Benoit is due. This just makes me understand why Austin walked. I’d rather see Shawn Michaels win it. It would have been better for Vince McMahon to win it now. this is ugly.
Please don’t delete this post. Nobody else stayed on topic and hey, nobody’s reading it anyways. Remember girls I’m single, use NFP, Linux, and I’m sensitive to your feelings. I will admit when I’m wrong. I will endeavor to never argue with you.
I can’t believe all this about RPM being complicated or especially Apt. Love is complicated. Let me tell you. Why can’t I just click on Love and it installs, and we get engaged and get married and have a honeymoon. What’s with this dating stuff? And “I don’t want to ruin our friendship?” Ouch, that’s DLL hell (Don’t like lusers). C’mon. I’d even settle for the Windows virus prone binary for love….wait a minute…NO…I am not that desperate. All I’m saying is Love is more complicated than RPM dependancy heck or Apt Guess or compiling from source. And I really really like avoiding virii both in Linux and Love. Once I find the right girl, there will be no need of an Unistall feature (I’m Catholic, so we get in trouble for uninstalling spouses — and rightly so in my opinion: Tom Cruise should have his head examined to break up with Nicole Kidman. Sure Penelope Cruz is gorgeous, but she was supposed to be for me TOM!!! Tom RTFM of Catholocism. Penelope is probably Catholic so stay away from here. I hope your next movie is with Stone Cold Steve Austin.) Unfortunately, I met my dream girl, and the problem was I did not install, demo, or even read the cover. That’s right never even kissed her. Haven’t seen her for 2.5 years. There are a lot of inappropriate metaphors I’m purposely avoiding because I not only loved her, I respect her, so no further comments. I was just too shy, I guess. That’s what happens when you don’t RTFM. What manual was I supposed to read? Who knows. Point is, I got confused by the girlfriend install system. I guess it was the Mac system — she did all her homework on an old mac laptop using Clarisworks. I’ve never installed mac software. See, RPM even with dependancy problems (just search google for the missing ones and install them–I’ve found quite a few searching Red Hat’s site. Be sure to check out the errate section, I think it’s rhn.redhat.com/errata when you need to update or check for updates). Anyways, you can always fix a computer. I can’t fix my love life. Well, I’ll just have to try Apt. BTW, if a user can’t learn to use Apt or RPM, I’m suprised they even know what a computer is. I don’t mean can’t use, I mean can’t learn to use. Nobody will know it right off the bat.
One last thing: Perhaps we can find a way that’s better that windows for installing. By better I mean better security, ease of use, privacy, quickness, actually works, no library messes, and is EXTREMELY DIFFERENT.
I’m still single, but nobody’s reading this anyway.
I am trying to migrate to Linux, which I prefer to Windows. However, installing applications is not easy. I have twice attempted to install KDE apps from source onto my Red Hat system, but it seems that I don’t have the necessary information. The directory structure appears to be different. Furthermore, I am not a new computer user. I am a Computer Scientist with 37 years experience on a variety of systems. Installing a KDE app (say) packaged for RH (say) may be easy, but this is an NxN problem. Surely we can do better than we are doing at present.
Loki software created a nice graphical installer. I have installed a couple of games, including the Unreal Tournament Linux version. Borland use it for the installation of Kylix. Very smooth.
Not only does this article not do justice to the founding principles of a *nix OS, but you have completely missed the point of a good GUI. First of all X is the only GUI with its own network protocol, and although currently sys admins have no Idea on on what that means or how to use it, it will be of vast importance in the future. Second, the greatest power is at the command line, and RPM is more robust then any installer that I have ever seen, and I use to write Setup programs using InstallShield ( what a piece of crap). Users SHOULD NOT choose where applications go, the programmer should. Any ideas to the contrary are commpletely windows based ( window lover!). There is a very deliberate directory structure which programmers adhear to, or at least the good ones do.
There are probably 10 20 GUI to both RPM and APT that you can use. Don’t make something out of nothing. I don’t want users that just use computers, Every computer user should be able to configure his/her computer. Users MUST be knowladgeable of what it is they are using. I hate poeple who just want to get something done, without knowing how something works.
Has this guy ever actually USED Debian? Gnome-apt? Deity? True, the UI’s need some work, but i don’t see why all those RPM users put up with their packaging. Freshmeat?! Why would you? Just fire up your fav deb-installer, select the app you want and it installs itself, handling all dependancies and asking any questions in english.
Imho, it’s nonsence ranting about a new-and-improved packaging manner, only another competitor to divide the masses. Apt has it all! Don’t put up with anything less!
Usually you download a compressed file (.sit or .zip), double click on it to uncompress it. This creates a .dmg file which is a disk image (is that similar to an RPM file?). Once the disk image is mounted, usually all I have to do is drag the application into my applications directory. If it is a system update, all I have to do is double click on the installer app. Nothing more. For the home user or end-user, this kind of simplicity is key. I would suppose that if Apple can do it, the Linux community can too.
>>>>>>>
How is this easier than apt-get <app-name>?
>>>>>>>
I’m not sure that it is – again I have very little experience using Linux. I was just pointing out that under OSX all I have to do is click on the download link, double click on the resulting icon on my desktop and that’s more or less it . Maybe apt-get <app-name> is just as easy. Maybe a wrapper could be written for it that will make it this easy. All I am saying is that – as a fairly non-technical end user – if I see a program I want to use, I just want to use it. I’m not against learning, but I also have a whole bunch of other things to do in my life and will give up on the computer fairly quickly if it demands too much of my time to get something done.
I totally agree with Spark’s comments. Improvements to rpm technology are happening. KDE already includes KPackage tool that can do most of what can be achieved from the command line. There is usually a way to get the required dependencies sorted out. Standardisation of packaging is something that is evolving. Above all I disagree with the comment that the Linux community is unfriendly to the new user. My favourite is http://www.linuxnewbie.org but there are hundreds of other groups out there where an interested convert can get all the help he / she needs. I say this from personal experience – I started in earnest with Linux about 6 months ago and so far have managed to solve all such problems through books, the internet and above all helpful people on user groups / mailing lists.
I totally agree that we do not need a new package format.
First of all .deb is working really fine right now. All we need is a deb based distribution that’s super easy to install and will setup everything nice,tidy,hasslefree and usable from the start. Someone said something about .deb not scaling. That is we wont have every single app on earth covered. Well, we dont need to support Sewer Systems AudioPowerMagic MediaPlayer cause we got XMMS. If an app is not in the packagesystem chances are it sucks anyways and should not be used by newbees. We have to teach users about the paradigm shift. You dont download applications out of websites in .deb world. You get them by apt-get or your favourite apt front end.
A new format would just spread further confusion. Also Linux is not an OS its just a kernel. Debian,Mandrake,RedHat and the like are OS’es. Therefore we can’t have a package format that will support all linux-based OS’es since they are really different OS’es. All we can strive for is cooperation between the vendors in the interest of the community at large.
Of course the situation is not optimal right now… I think the following should be taken care of:
Debian based distro that is übersimple to install. This should setup a nice gui with all the apps the user will probably need. It should also have some kind of ‘assistant’ that will teach the user about their new and shiny system. For example it should tell users about the different ways to install apps. It also has to give the user tips about how to install the most common commercial apps that cant be included in the .deb system. Like RealPlayer,LimeWire,eDonkey and Opera(.deb packet available).
We shouldn’t try to make Linux Windows… Linux should be better than M$. Users should be taught about the basic paradigm shifts coming from Windows to Linux so that they can use their system and then they can continue learning from there.
Peace.