On Sunday 02 March 2003 07:27 am, Andrew Scotchmer wrote:

> is the average end user perspective.

I think your point is understood, although what gets me, is that many times, 
and I'm not saying you did this, when comparing the two from a "Windows user" 
or "average user" perspective, we forget about how much we know about 
windows, and how much we don't know about the alternative.  To a windows 
user, the linux way is too hard and too much work.  The conclusion is always 
that if I have to learn anything, it is not as easy as Windows.  At this 
point in time, it is about re-learning, not being harder.  

Case in point:  Installing the nVidia video driver.  

Under windows, I click on a file, click yes, agree, yes yes, reboot, change 
the screen resolution and depth in display settings and reboot.   On linux, I 
type "rpm -ivh NVIDIA*" and then make a couple of minor changes to a config 
file and restart the X server.  

But if you objectively evaluate the differences without regard to what the 
user already knows, I believe the linux method is a lot faster and is less 
work.  If I timed it, it would be a lot faster and I did not have to reboot.  
But to the Windows user, who is not *familiar* with linux, it *seems* a lot 
harder.  But once educated and familiar with the process, it isn't harder 
after all.

I at one point I even agreed with this, but as I got *familiar* with it, I 
started to see why it wasn't easier.  Now yes, there are places where Linux 
is in fact harder, but there are places where Windows is hard too.

So when people say they want things to be easy like Windows, they are really 
saying 'I don't want to learn another way right now" and I think that is 
okay.  I just wish the endless comparisons of which is better would be more 
honest about stuff like this.
-- 
Greg

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