I'm afraid this is going to start a **war** and that's not my intention, but I really feel I've got to get this off my chest.
Firstly, let me say that I've been using LINUX on and off for 6 years and that it's been my only OS since deleting OS/2 (z"l) 3 years ago. So I'm a committed LINUX user. And I have no intention of using anything else - although my wife and kids all use Windows - and of course that makes me the primary sysop for their machines :-(. My problem is that LINUX (as much as it's progressed over the years) is still much too hard to install, set up, and use. As things stand now, it's not really a viable alternative for John Q. User. As opposed to other OSs (that will remain nameless), there's still too much tweaking required. And for a non-technical user, it's just impossible. If I just consider my own setup since upgrading to Mandrake 9.0 (I've used Mandrake since 7.0), the solutions to most of the problems I had, were beyond what the average user could have handled. Sure, IGLU was very helpful, which is again proof that if you GOOGLE around and RTFM before asking questions, the list members are usually very good about helping. But, why should this help be needed? I won't go into the details here, but those who have read my posts over the past couple of months know that I had problems with USB printer support, iptables, file permissions, etc. And most recently, I haven't been able to use my FlyVideo2000 card. Although all the problems (except the FlyVideo2000 card) are solved, it all required too much effort. As someone wrote to the list recently (sorry, don't remember who - and this is not an exact quote): I want the computer to do useful work - tweaking is only a means to that end and not the purpose of having the computer. So how can we expect the non-technical user to even consider LINUX? I consider myself a technical user - but I've given up on the TV problem, so what does that say? I know it's **sexy** to talk about self compiled kernels, etc. And, in fact, on MDK 8.1 (and previously) I did compile my own for various reasons. But, should I really have to compile a kernel just to watch TV? And, more importantly, what about my next door neighbour, who doesn't even know what the word compile means? How does he get to watch TV? Basically, all this keeps LINUX as an OS for **experts**. As I said, I don't intend to start a war - I am a committed LINUX user - but it really shouldn't be so hard. -- Shlomo Solomon http://come.to/shlomo.solomon Sent by KMail (KDE 3.0.3) on LINUX Mandrake 9.0 ================================================================To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
