[sf-lug] what "consistency", not near the user - we don't got no consistency!

[Paul Ward]

On Jul 30, 2008, at 11:23 AM, Rick Moen wrote:

Quoting Paul Ward (dssstrkl at gmail.com):

I think the problem is there's no consistency for people used to the

Windows or OS X experience.


You see a problem; I see something merely being itself.  Ain't
perspectives grand?


Its a problem insofar as getting people to switch wholesale from windows to
linux. I had no problem setting my grandfather up with Kubuntu, since he has
virtually no experience with computers (and was mostly interested in the
hardware), but I can imagine the problems he would have if I had given him
the choice to run gnome instead, or another distro.




The big reason why I bought a Mac in 2002 was because  OS X 10.2 on a

powerbook was just that much of a better experience  than I was having

with either Linux or Windows on a series of PC  laptops, plus it had

the unix-y stuff that I had come to love!


Oddly enough, the big reason why I prefer to run Xubuntu rather than OS
X on my Macs is that OS X's implementation of Unix sucks at nearly every
level.  (I've used nearly every MacOS version going back to 1984, by the
way.)


OS X's unix works just fine for what I need it to do (perspective, right?).
And I've used every version of the Mac OS as well. I even have my dad's
original Mac, minus the boot disks, of course. I just couldn't bring myself
to spend good money on the horror of OS 8-9, aka System 7.7


What I'm trying to say is that for people who want to try linux, but

are in between the levels of propellerhead and techtard, a lot of that

low-level consistency has to make its way to the high level GUIs.


Funny thing:  Just about every time someone says Linux "has to" do
something or other, he or she turns out to be factually mistaken.  What
you appear to mean is:  You would personally prefer that a vast
community of people whose paycheques you do not sign _change_ what they're
doing at a very fundamental level, to do things in the way that you
imagine is best, probably (I would speculate) while having an at best
uncertain understanding of the details of what they do.

I hope that works for you, but I've honestly never seen it work for
anyone else, in the entire history of software.


Not at all. I thought we were talking about issues that end users have with
various inconsistencies with the Linux experience and how to deal with that.
I don't personally have any problems with the way that Linux is produced,
although I do take issue with some of FSF's philosophical positions. I like
trying out new distros and new desktop environments. I'm not afraid of
poking around /etc to see what happens (although I tend to only do that in
VMs now). From my experience, I am very much in the minority. That's why
when I introduce someone to linux, I always give them a Kubuntu disk and
don't even mention that there are other choices. To them, that's Linux.


_______________________________________________
sf-lug mailing list
sf-lug at linuxmafia.com
http://linuxmafia.com/mailman/listinfo/sf-lug


Paul Ward
dssstrkl at gmail.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://linuxmafia.com/pipermail/sf-lug/attachments/20080730/a07caabf/attachment.html>