Whilst all these comments are quite valid, the problem for most "users"
(rather than programmes or sysadmins) is that they have already spent a lot
of time training to use Windows.
I some cases this is formal training (a company run couse, for example),
sometimes informal (user-to-user coaching), sometimes indirect (employee
gets trained on company software package and gets to know how to use Windows
as a side-effect), sometimes self-motivated ("Windows for Dummies").So, the biggest problem for most users with non-Windows systems is that it's not Windows. Windows, being "Borg" software has accumulated bits from every other OS and software package along the way. For example, to close a Windows window, you can: - press the "X" button in the top right - press the invisible button at the top left and choose close - press Alt F4 - right click on the taskband icon and choose "close window" To maximize: - click the second-in button at the top right - double click on the title bar - right click the invible top left icon and choose maximuze - press alt-space-X - press Windows+Up Another good example is the use of the menus. In Windows you can use the click-click-click method to select from menus, but you can also do the MacOS click-drag-drag-drag-release method as well as F10+arrowkeys+enter and [Alt]+arrowkeys+enter I think the biggest problem for most X-Windows based Linux systems is that they generally have just "native" support for these kind of actions. It is this kind of thing that has made Windows dominant and IMHO the very thing that prevents larger-scale Linux use. Microsoft used to have things like "help for WordPerfect users" in Word and "help for 123 users" in Excel. Linux distributions just don't have that KILLER instinct that Microsoft used to have. Oh, and Windows 7 is so good I would pay for it. 2009/8/4 Richard Lockwood <[email protected]> > Right. I think that sums it up. If I tell my Mum that, she'll look > at me as though I'm from Mars. > > To be honest, as a non-Linux user, but experienced "computer" user, I > have no idea what the hell DEB or RPM are. > > If that's the best sell you can do, it just demonstrates that desktop > Linux still isn't ready for the day to day computer user. > > Cheers, > > Rich. > > On Tue, Aug 4, 2009 at 1:03 PM, Andrew Bowden<[email protected]> > wrote: > > Most Linux software is now available in DEB or RPM format. There's some > > smaller packages that aren't, and commercial companies have a habit of > not > > fitting in. But frankly most modern distros take an RPM and DEB and know > > exactly what to do with it so that the user need do little more than > click > > on the file. > > - > Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please > visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. > Unofficial list archive: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > -- Brian Butterworth follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/briantist web: http://www.ukfree.tv - independent digital television and switchover advice, since 2002
