Erle Pereira wrote:
Depends on which market segment or use case you want to please. I honestly
think that we have gone far beyond Windows XP on a number of levels, but a
lot of scale is required to extend beyond a few particular market segments
or use cases.
if i might add some hands on experience here...
The acid test for Operating System usability really is in taking a group
of people who has never really used a computer before (read
un-corrupted) and give them a choice. Hard by any means today. Ive been
lucky to experience it though.
I've been invovled in the grassroots level in India introducing the
under priviledged to computing. They were all kids / few adults who do
not have regular access to a computer.
Linux (gnome, kde, fluxbox, fvwm2 (yes thats right)) , windows etc..
there werent any macs to work with (price issues... this was a non
funded workshop really)
we had used a mix of operating systems, and pushed in a few Linux
desktops where we could.
Suprise! Guess which interface they took too, the preference for linux
(gnome, kde etc..) was pretty apparent. Over the rest. A lot had also to
do with the range of applications which were available to 'play' with.
They were not really going by name or anything. This lot barely
understood the difference between windows and open source.
lots of things don't work as they should.
The point I am trying to make here is, why does linux fail on *some*
desktops. ...
usb devices? cameras? mp3 players? display cards? ... auto-detection..
'Mostly' Hardware related issues? nothing else really.
Where does this problem originate? .. ... we all know this one.
The distro makers / kernel team and the rest are all doing the best they
can to fill a gap, which (in a fair world) they *should* not be having
to deal with in the first place, at which I think they are all doing a
Fantastic job.
A lot of 'end users' will testify to this.
-Erle
---
p.s. Im new here so apologies, if the tone of this mail comes across as
a bit harsh, its *not* meant to be. Just felt I could add some value to
this interesting discussion.
No apologies needed. About 5 years ago I did a major linux install
across a multi branch business. About 50% of the users were first time
computer users and there were no problems, and the desktops were a lot
less sophisticated 5 years ago. I also did a smaller windows to linux
switch about 5 months ago; all of the users had windows experience and
it took about 1 hour each for them to get the hang of KDE.
--
Howard.
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When you want a computer system that works, just, choose Microsoft.
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