> Linux seems to be one of those things that is hard to get set up, and after
> it is it works much better that Windonts. First there is the problem of
Yep...I guess my view is that with another year of the current efforts to
address that installation stuff, this isn't going to be a problem.
> .... and Linux is the largest growing (selling?) o/s in the server market.
> Growth is good. I would just like to see growth of more relevance to
> everyone: i.e. the desktop users. That is beginning to happen. The
The server profile, mostly due to Internet press, is probably one of the key
things that will generate interest by desktop types.
> I'm sure you've read the posts in newbie about it worked in Windont but I can't
>solve my problems in Linux (or it's too difficult) therefore Linux is no good, or
therefore I'm giving up on Linux. This is someone who was willing to try
something new and different, just the people we need to grow, and we lost
them.
While you're right, I wonder if this matters that much. Linux movement onto
desktops is going to be driven by corporations, not guys playing Quake. If, in
good conscience, a system guy providing support for a company with a bunch of
desktop machines can propose a less expense, more powerful solution to
computing needs, Linux moves onto desktops hundreds at a time. Maybe more
important, this trickles from office to home.
> One of the related problems is that help for this person comes down to
> you and me, and I am only able to help a little at this point. Others help.
True, but this is always the problem with minority products. As more and more
Linux users are generated, there will be more and more help. People get their
help for Windows from Windows users. There's just a lot of them :-)
> But there is noplace one can go for a difinitive answer. Therein lies the
> problem for Linux, even though it is almost as true for Windows.
> In Windonts case the answer is a driver or wipe and reload the o/s (standard
>operating
Was on the phone last night with a friend of mine who's just gotten DSL and
needed help getting it set up on his Windows box. I don't think it's any
different except for two things. The first is that the driver availability is
currently much better for Windows than Linux. Also, there are more people to
turn to for help. Both of those things will change with time. In truth, the
Linux support community is pretty darn deep in my opinion. The web has made
this possible, with all the how-to stuff available, newsgroups like this one,
etc.
> But -- How is the new exille from Windont going to feel about it? The
I don't know the answer to that except to say that Corel's got problems with
their installation as they've just made it too "simple." If you've got
anything that's out of the ordinary you lose. For instance, all distributions
have video conflicts with some systems. With Corel, however, if your video
isn't setup, you're left with a COMPLETELY non-functional system and there's
nothing included that would direct you to Xconfigurator or anything else.
But other than that, a newbie who doesn't know any better might be very happy
with CorelLinux/WP. And that's not a bad thing in my view. In fact that's
exactly what I've advocated in other msgs here. There needs to be a setup such
that Linux is restricted somewhat to provide a simpler set of challenges for a
new user. Once they're comfortable working with it with their hands tied, they
could start unstrapping things and unleashing the power. One of the big
challenges to this is how to word the marketing/manual/installations for such
things as Linux has the ability.
> problem I see here is the clout Corel carries because of "brand recognition"
> phenomenon. They don't know what Linux is capable of so they won't miss....
Then again, I'd rather have stock in Red Hat than Corel right now. Maybe
that's an indication of how things are going.
Cheers --- Larry
