Re: [OT, FLAME] Linux Sucks
On Thursday 27 March 2003 16:17, Marc Wilson wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 26, 2003 at 06:02:33PM -0500, Roberto Sanchez wrote:
> > True. Perhaps it would have been better stated by saying that every
> > distro that wants to cater to Desktop users needs to implement a GUI
> > installer (and many other GUI tools).
>
> Why? The *user* has zero business installing the box. Yes, Joe Moron
> benefits from having GUI tools, because they mean he doesn't have to think,
> but it matters not for the installer.
>
> Everyone is talking about intuitive interfaces, and Linux on the desktop,
> and "the Windows XP killer", and etc... and no one wants to touch the basic
> question:
>
> Why is Joe Moron expected to be installing the box? Not "how neat if he
> could", but why in the world should it be set up for him to be able to?
> Why do we *want* him to be able to? Why does anyone care if he can?
>
> Elitism be damned. You don't expect the man off the street to be
> performing surgery... that's what skilled people are for. In fact, we
> prosecute people like that who pretend, whether or not they hurt anyone.
> What makes this different?
Excuse me, but this sounds very similar to the attitude that Micro$oft seems
to have towards its users, and why I won't touch their products with a barge
pole. That is, they try to make everything automatic so the average user
(who is assumed to be a moron) doesn't need to know *anything* and they don't
tell him anything either, the result is that when something doesn't work the
result is such a mess that only a Micro$oft Certified Professional can sort
it out (except usually they can't anyway). And the user has zero chance of
actually learning anything in the process.
I'm certainly not a Linux guru, but I don't think I'm a moron. What I want
is an installer that allows me to select the packages I want reasonably
easily, ideally tells me what packages I'm unfamiliar with actually do, and
doesn't (as dselect did several times) get me lost in a logical maze of
screens or start the install before I'd finished selecting, because I
(intuitively) pushed the wrong button.
Since I chose to use Linux, I certainly care if I can install it. And, by
the way, while every box you buy in the shops comes with Windoze already
installed 'for free' (big joke), if I'm going to use Linux then I'm damn
well going to *have* to install it myself because the salesman at
Computermart sure as hell isn't going to, doesn't know how, and doesnt care
anyway. And who's going to pay a heap extra over and above the price of
the computer to get a professional to install Linux on it? I don't know any
Linux gurus locally so getting it done for free is not an option. So it's
100% this user's business installing it or it just won't get installed.
cr
aka Joe Moron
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