Aaron J. Seigo wrote:
On Thursday 12 August 2004 10:26, Andrew Graupe wrote:
A lot of it was first-time config, I will admit (such as ALSA, X.org,
Printer setup). Afterward, you have to admit that doing an emerge
world, and all the etc-updating that entails, isn't easy by any
stretch. Not to mention trivial tasks such as mounting a USB mass
storage device (easy once you know how, but still annoying, especially
for the average user who probably wouldn't like the command line).
ah. gentoo. see, gentoo is NOT an "average users desktop system". SUSE,
Mandrake, Linspire, Xandros, Libranet, Sun JDS, Red Hat etc. are closer to
what we should be talking about. Linux based OSes can take on many forms, and
gentoo (esp self-intalled) is not an appropriate a form for a basic user who
is expected to be self-supporting.
I'm talking about the person that just buys the $499 Dell and uses it
for word processing, internet, mail, and basic games like solitare and
minesweeper, or the average person who does these things in a business
environment, all networking aspects aside.
yep, and this person should buy a pre-installed machine. something that comes
out of the box with Mandrake, SUSE, etc... that way there is no configuration
of the hardware, just setting up printing and networking which are handled
nicely with first-time startup GUIs. they make that task nice and easy.
I agree. For linux to beat windows, it needs to make the conversion
painless. This should include a "Windows" setting which does all of the
things windows would do (automount, autoplay, driver setup, automatic
music playing/picture copying/etc... from inserted device).
this is how many general desktop use oriented Linux OSes come these days.
Remember,
just because we don't mind mounting that digital camera as a USB mass
storage device and copying everything from the commandline and renaming
it, doesn't mean the average user feels the same way.
i do mind mounting it and copying it from the command line. which is why i
don't. i fire up konqi and look in kamera://, or use one of the included
digital camera applications that uses kamera:// in the background or go into
the devices area where it shows up when i plug it in and copy them that way.
you know, just like in Windows or on the Mac. this is here now, this is in
use by a lot of our users.
that said, hotplug device identification sucks in Linux right now. Novell is
sponsoring development to help fix that in the kernel, however. hooray.
that said, there are (large) segments for which Linux is quite ready for
daily use.
To be clear, I think that linux is a daily-use-ready system for anyone
with a moderate level of computer knowledge (i.e. a basic understanding
of how the system works, and no fear of the shell or text files used for
config).
... or people who stick solely to the GUI and use a Linux based OS optimized
for such usage. which, for as good as it is, isn't Gentoo.
I'll admit here and now that the last "pretty" distro I used in earnest
was Red Hat 8, and it was no where near this. I've also thought "what
am I missing?", but I like gentoo, so there was no reason to find out.
And, one of the biggest examples of hard config for me is my printer.
It is an hp LaserJet 1000, and it requires a special driver, and a
firmware download when the computer starts. I have it working, but it
wouldn't be so easy for someone who just sits down at a computer and
expects it to work.
I'll give Mandrake a serious trial, and see what I think.
Regards,
Andrew
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