> What are you saying, that this doesn't happen in the windows world?
Of course it does. But let's face it, part of the reason why Win9x is so
bad is because of legacy support for poorly written apps. I'm guessing that
GNU/Linux will eventually start to feel the same pressures.
> For the non-technical user, how much administration do they need to do?
To get GNU/Linux into the desktop market, the end-user has to do some
administration. I've set up GNU/Linux boxes for know-nothing users, and
it's worked out great. I made a few redundant logins so if they screwed one
up, I just told them to use another login. For an end-user wanting to only
play a few games, toy with web/mail, and run StarOffice, it was great.
But that was because they had me as tech support to do "high end"[sic:-]
tasks. The end-user in a small business or in the home is going to have to
do some administration. And that user is going to expect to be able to call
a friend who's also running GNU/Linux and to ask questions. Right now if
one of those people is running Caldera and if one of them is running Red
Hat, they're talking Greek to one another.
>> "If the current stylistic distinctions between open-source and commercial
>> software persist, an open-software revolution could lead to yet another
>> divide between haves and have-nots: those with the skills and connections
>> to make use of free software, and those who must pay high prices for
>> increasingly dated commercial offerings." -- Scientific American
> Poppycock! :) Linux is getting easier and easier for the non-techie to
> use.
That was just a semi-random sig that was grabbed for that message, but I
don't think that's really poppycock.
I see many, many people who routinely ignore free software for commercial
software of equal or lesser functionality and polish. There is still a big
stigma among end-users that "free = worth what you paid for it." Stupid, I
know, but that attitude is still very large.
--
Regards, | Do you support an unethical software monopoly which has hurt
. | both consumers and large parts of the computer industry?
Randy |
| You don't *have* to: http://linux.com Run GNU/Linux today!
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