Re: Why

[Evan Moore <evan@info.load-otea.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca>]

i agree that linux makes a great replacement for NT but that doesn't mean
that people are trying to move it into win9X world. Corel seems to be
pushing it that way. Red hat and Mandrake are now being sold on shelves
right next to win9X. I think that there is a push to move it into the home
user domain, or at least onto an employee's desktop at work. For it to
succeed in those areas it must be easy to use. This is why i think that
Corel is makeing a big mistake. They are pushing their linux as easy to
use for home. But it has a way to go for that, and they are betting the
farm on linux. It is sort of a desperate last hope to usrvive in a
computer age where they have been dying for a long time. So what i'm
trying to say is that *if* linux had an installer that was as easy to use
as the macos it would help to open up the consumer market. 

On Mon, 6 Dec 1999, aphro wrote:

> I don't think people should concentrate too much on making the installer
> easier, at least with the people *I* know they very rarely reinstall
> windows and those that do always need help.
> 
> case in point a co worker just got his first pc a couple weeks ago(with
> advice from me he got an athlon 550 from cybermax) with win98se on it.  He
> got a gravis gamepad, which specifically said don't plug the controller in
> before you install the drivers, well guess what :) he didn't do that and
> ended up working with it for a few hours before calling tech
> support.  Then he spent(with my help) a few days with multiple video
> drivers trying to get quake3 working on his savage 4. finally after
> upgrading the opengl stuff would it run.  linux may be hard to install but
> from what i see win9x is still far from 'easy'.  At the same time I see
> linux aiming to replace winNT rather then replacing win9x.  People say
> people wouldn't use linux at home..well i only know very few people that
> use NT at home, most of those are using some form of *nix as well be it
> linux or *BSD.
> 
> saw a mac install once, looked nice.  but at the same time they dont have
> a tenth(or even a hundredth?) amount of hardware to support, and with
> their closed arch. its quite easy to ensure compadiblity.
> 
> i believe the key to linux expansion is pre installed machines. users will
> be very hesitant to change their OS from something that works for them,
> even if it means upgrading from win95 to win98 or nt or win3 to
> win9x. this isnt something that can be blamed on linux but on installing
> any other OS.
> 
> my 0.02 
> 
> nate
>