Comments on: Is Linux Friendly Enough?

by: Ookaze

Mon, 07 Mar 2005 09:19:13 +0000

This blog entry shows a degraded view of the KDE desktop experience.
With default configuration, KDE wins hands down on Windows :
- Saved sessions (that alone skyrockets the gap)
- Stability (KDE desktops will go for months without crashing)
- Organized menu by default
- i18n features and integration. Most english speaking people overlook this, but it is actually a BIG win for Linux desktops, as most Windows apps are only english.
- same for a11y.

Most of my newbie users are afraid of Windows installers, with english EULAS they do not understand, asking them yes or no (I’m french) for things they do not understand. Thay WAY prefer Mandrake installer.

by: ammoQ

Mon, 07 Mar 2005 06:49:08 +0000

Greg: “Windows and Mac have a base level of functionality that can’t be changed which provedes a foundation of basic features that can’t be messed up by the user.” Is this a troll or do you really mean it? Most Windows users (at least at home) have Admin privileges and can destroy pretty everything.

by: Jayan

Mon, 07 Mar 2005 05:05:14 +0000

..
but can it keep up ease of use for the majority of people who know little to nothing about computers?
..
People who know nothing about computers will find GNU/Linux much easy to use. They don’t have to compare every step they do on Linux against what people do in MS windows..

by: Greg

Mon, 07 Mar 2005 02:51:01 +0000

Linux desktops have a long way to go before they are as bullet proof as Windows or Mac. Try right clicking on the panel and choose “Delete” now set any user, no matter how skilled with computers, down and see if they can use the computer. Windows and Mac have a base level of functionality that can’t be changed which provedes a foundation of basic features that can’t be messed up by the user.

by: Uno Engborg

Mon, 07 Mar 2005 02:38:48 +0000

Why do everybody seam to think that windows intallers are so simple. You have to answer this and that, While in linux you just get the added functionality no questions asked. With modern install systems like yum and aptget all dependency problems are fixed automagically, and once installed you can ask what package a file belongs to. The only reason Linux doesnt win in on usability is that it is not windows.

by: Marius

Mon, 07 Mar 2005 02:16:14 +0000

By fat the biggest Linux usability problem is hardware support and configuartion. There is still a lot of hardware from big name manufacturers, that is either not supported, or not supported well. It is usually difficult to change the setup for hardware that is not set properly out of the box. I used Linux for 10 years now, but I can still not recommend a newbie to try Linux. Until hardware support is fixed, it will remain an OS for the computer-savvy.

by: Matthew C. Tedder

Mon, 07 Mar 2005 01:43:58 +0000

In the Cyber Cafe I ran for one year, we never had one single usability question pertaining to how to use the desktop (KDE). People browsed the web, played games, and did word processing and spreadsheets constantly. Our number 1 problem was printer jams. Second, was Mozilla crashing a user session (but was eventually made reasonably less fequent with Mozilla thunderbird (and firefox is even better). Konqueror is best of all, but it takes a bit of tweaking before it can be used as a full drop-in replacement web browser, and only the latest versions render some sites properly.

Most usability questions were (1) how to use a web site; (2) how to do something in OpenOffice.

The one application we couldn’t get working reasonably well that users commonly requested were instant messenger clients. The Linux replacements for AOL and MSN instant messengers just don’t support all the features people are used to in Windows.

Otherwise and overall, our surveys indicate that regular customers prefer the Linux/KDE environment over Windows. Although more people do prefer MS Office over OpenOffice… They are evenly divided over mozilla Firefox…

With OpenOffice, some reject it at first site and do not even want to try it. But those who try initially ask where to find things/how to do things only to soon feel just as comfortable as with MS Office.

The KDE desktop… they seem to enjoy it at first site… exploring and finding things with no more difficulties than Windows. They often comment on things it allows them to do that Windows does not.

by: Tim

Mon, 07 Mar 2005 01:16:42 +0000

I’d give Linux a hands-down win when it comes to installing software. Click through install wizards are actually a terrible way to install software - they’re slow, inefficient and completely unnecessary if you have proper package management and at least a roughly defined filesystem structure in your OS (ie Linux).

Its much quicker and more user friendly to have non-interactive installs like with RPMs or Debs. The desktop focused distros such as Suse, Mdk and Fedora all have nice graphical package management programs so new users don’t have to resort to a command line to install stuff. I really don’t see how the slow and error prone (most users have no idea the correct folder to install apps in windows - if there is such a thing) install wizard way is better than Linux distro’s fast and easy package management.