Re: Comment on article - Switching Back.
nate wrote:
<a lot of other good stuff>
> but 'easier' is not easy enough for many people, so it
> doesn't matter if its easier if they still can't manage
> to do it.
>
> I admit that change is hard, it was not easy for me to
> completely drop win32 at the drop of a dime back when i
> did i think in 1998, it was a slow process that involved
> me getting more and more fed up with the system, and then
> i'd boot into linux and have honestly a more stress free
> experience.
>
> and since many people managed to use DOS, even Win 3.x
> back in the day(or even worse win2.x), I am confident
> that linux is far and above at the very LEAST win3.x(i
> started computing with win3.0). people can learn just
> about anything, they just have to be exposed to it, it is
> that much harder when they have used a similar product
> that works quite differently.
>
I have to agree with most everything nate wrote. During the
2/3rds of the year that I am at university I live with 4
other people in a rented house. Anyway, one day one of them
had a problem with his computer in that he couldn't boot it
(it later turned out to be a problem with the harddrive).
Anyway, he had an assignment due the following day that he
had to complete some edits to and because he used
WordPerfect no one else in the house other me had
WordPerfect (or anything that could read .wpds - I was
absolutely amazed to find out that M$ Word can't even open
wpds!). Though I have a dual boot machine, I only have
WordPerfect for Linux so he had little choice but to use
that. Once I had explained the notion of mounting a floppy
(and unmounting it) through the KDE Desktop icon he was able
to complete his assignment on my machine, print it (using
qtcups) and even check his student webmail with Mozilla (and
Netscape for hotmail - I hadn't figured out how to disable
enough security settings back then to allow him to access
hotmail with Mozilla. Go figure). KDE's K menu didn't
present any great obstacle either being similar enough in
concept to the Start Menu (and he later commented that the
grouping of similar application types made things a lot
easier than Windows).
I don't think he would be capable of installing Debian or
another linux distribution (or Windows for that matter) but
once presented with a configured OS with GUI I'm confident
that most people, like he was, are going to be able to
figure it out or learn it in reasonably short order.
--
David P. James
Ottawa, Ontario
http://members.rogers.com/dpjames/
The bureaucratic mentality is the only constant in the universe.
-Dr. Leonard McCoy, Star Trek IV
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