I did not write it is impossible (or even hard) to install Windows
applications. I was just saying it is a pain. yes, one can go through
Wikipedia, use the Web browser to search the websites, learn to use Firefox's
download manager (by the way, in my previous list, I forgot the removal of
the installation file: can it be done through Firefox's download manager?),
etc. All that just confirms it is a pain installing software on Windows. How
much mouse clicking/key pressing to install a few programs on Windows vs. on
Trisquel using Synaptic? Maybe 100 times more? And no, you cannot "catch up
some work" meanwhile: you always have a "Next" button to click.
And I am not even talking about the trauma it entails for non-experienced
users ("am I on the correct website or downloading malware?"; "what is the
architecture I should chose?"; "should I listen to the anti-virus that warns
me of a potential risk?"; "in what directory should I install?"; "are the
proposed additional modules useful?"; etc.).
Applications are much easier to install on GNU/Linux... as long as the user
accepts the use of the package manager. Some new user insist on going through
the pain of downloading the packages through the Web. They then complain that
compiling is hard. We talk about the package manager and they still refuse
it. What can we do? Maybe try to explain some additional advantages of
package managers:
the authenticity of the repository is checked (with Windows, a "man in the
middle" attack makes the user install a corrupted version of the
applications);
dependencies are automatically resolved (on Windows, all applications include
all dependencies and you end up downloading/installing/running the same
libraries tens of times, the well-know abusive RAM consumption mainly comes
from that).
Besides, we are talking about Firefox and Thuderbird here... and the latest
versions of both applications are available in the repositories. Yes, the
browser's icons are different... and onpon4 already suggested to just change
the icons (what is indeed the easiest way).
