Yes, my grandma can run Ubuntu Linux
http://www.cnet.com/8301-13505_1-9889681-16.html
Grandma hacks Ubuntu
Last week Lenovo lent me one of its X61 ThinkPad laptops so that I could
give Ubuntu Linux a try. Having had a bad experience with Novell's SUSE
Linux Enterprise Desktop a few years ago, I had sworn off desktop Linux
and determined not to return.
A week into a new trial with Ubuntu Linux, however, it's clear that
desktop Linux has come a long way. I found it extremely easy to use,
including when I had to install a program (Skype) that wasn't included
in the supported applications list. This is an operating system that my
grandma could (and, in fact, did) use.
This isn't to say that my week with Ubuntu Linux was uneventful. I had a
few struggles, which I'll detail below. These struggles, however, were
almost entirely due to running Ubuntu on unsupported hardware, and not
any fault of Ubuntu (or Linux) itself.
Hairdressers run Ubuntu, too
But first, the good. If you're familiar with Windows, running Ubuntu
Linux is a breeze. In fact, my biggest complaint with Ubuntu is that it
feels too much like Windows. I use a Mac precisely to get away from the
utilitarian ugliness of Windows. Finding it in Linux didn't endear
Ubuntu to me.
But for most people, this will be a Very Good Thing, given that it will
mean a significantly lower learning curve.
To test how hard it is for an average user to find their way around
Ubuntu, I had my grandmother (top right) and the lady who cuts my hair
(above left) give it a try. I set them down in front of it and asked
them to perform certain functions:
You need to write a letter to a friend. Will you start the
application that manages this and start working on the letter?
You need to sell something on eBay. Please find the browser, upload
pictures of the item for sale, and post it.
Installing Skype
In every case, it took them just seconds to figure out where to go in
Ubuntu to accomplish the task. Neither one complained about using
OpenOffice (I didn't tell them it wasn't Microsoft Office, and they
didn't seem to notice a difference), nor about using Firefox instead of
Internet Explorer. They had work to do and the operating system and
applications didn't get in their way at all.
In fact, what I found perhaps most impressive was how easily Ubuntu
recognized my camera and imported the pictures. I'm used to this
simplicity with Mac OS X, but I was shocked (really) to see the system
walk us through the importation and management of images. For a desktop
to appeal to the mainstream, it simply must be able to do this. I also
had video on my camera (a Canon PowerShot SD1000) and Ubuntu imported
and played it with ease.
This ease continued when I installed Skype. Going "off-piste" was what
drove me away from desktop Linux several years ago, but this time it was
as easy as installing an application on Windows or Mac OS X.
Double-click on the installation file and...done (See above right).
In this and other ways, Ubuntu demonstrated that it is clearly ready for
mainstream desktop adoption. I would have no qualms about recommending
Ubuntu to grandmas and other normal people everywhere, people with no
love of the command line.
My first (but not last) error message
With that said, my Ubuntu experience wasn't flawless. As noted, most of
these problems stemmed from running it on excellent, but unsupported
hardware (Lenovo's X61 ThinkPad). Whenever I'd put the computer to sleep
it would wake to a dim screen that I'd have to CTRL-ALT-F1 / CTRL-ALT-F7
to fix (and I only learned about this workaround through the generous
assistance of someone in the comments section of my first post on
Ubuntu).
I'm good at self-support, so I immediately went to Google to find the
answer to the brightness problem. Two hours later, I was in my own
little corner of Linux Hell. I was told to add lines to certain files
(/usr/share/hal/fdi/information/10freedesktop/20-video-quirk-pm-lenovo.fdi)
on my hard drive. I tried from the command line, and then by browsing my
file system. Despite having root access on the machine, it kept telling
me I had insufficient permissions to make the change.
Ultimately, I gave up.
I tried to change the appearance of the desktop
(System:Preferences:Appearance:Visual Effects), but got the error show
directly above (left). To be fair, I get random error messages
occasionally on Windows or Mac OS X, so the fact that Ubuntu throws them
up, too, isn't a deal breaker. The difficulty, however, is that there's
precious little assistance available if things go wrong, as most people
are Windows drones or Mac OS X people. Yes, there's always Google (i.e.,
others out on the 'Net), but I was directed to go to the command line so
often via this route that I just can't see most people being able to
resolve their issues in this way.
All in all, however, I am very impressed with Ubuntu. It still has a
ways to go to match Mac OS X in elegance and simplicity, but if I had to
choose between Windows and Linux today, there wouldn't be a contest. It
would be Linux every time.
Given that 95 percent of the world still wastes away in Windows land,
this is a good situation for Ubuntu. The learning curve required to
switch from Windows to Linux is all of 10 seconds long. My grandma did
it. The lady who cuts my hair did it. Neither one of them is an expert
with computers.
In fact, as I was testing my grandma's ability to use Ubuntu she kept
saying,
Matt, you're just trying to get me to look dumb. I'm not smart
enough to use computers.
To this I responded, "Grandma, that's exactly the point. You shouldn't
have to be 'smart' to use a computer. The computer should be smart
enough to let anyone use it and benefit from it."
After ripping out a few emails, browsing the web, writing some letters,
etc. on Ubuntu Linux, I'm confident in saying that Ubuntu is smart
enough for the myriad of average people like you, my grandma, and I.
--
Rudi
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Berhenti langganan: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Arsip dan info: http://linux.or.id/milis
