On Thu, 2003-04-17 at 17:50, Ian D. Stewart wrote: > On Thu, 2003-04-17 at 16:50, Roberto Sanchez wrote: > > >Seems to me that almost all of the objections to Debian in particular are > > >based on installation difficulties. Since most computers sold come with the > > >o/s pre-installed that issue no longer exists as soon as the vendors wake > > >up. > > > > > >Point of interest one our local Wintel vendors provides OO for Win with > > >what > > >he sells. The thin of the wedge is in. > > > > > >Bob > > > > > > > I agree that the difficulty of installing Debian should NOT be the primary > > criterion for judging its fitness for desktop use. You are also correct > > that most MS users do nt install their own OS. Getting OSMs to offer non-MS > > OSs as an alternative is a step in the right direction, but unless the > > install is so simple that the average person can do it themselves withno > > real difficulty the huge installed base of MS customers will remain out of > > reach for the time being. > > I've been following this thread with some interest. I'm going from the > other side of the fence, as it were. Part of my duties at my paying job > include evaluating new technology and making adoption recommendations. > > Some of the things I take into consideration when evaluating a new > product: > > * Does it address a business requirement not currently met > * Does it address a business requirement that is met in a better way > (better being extremely subjective) > * What is the impact of migrating to the new product? > * If technology-related, does the development staff have the skills > necessary to leverage the new technology (i.e., if it's based on COM/VB > it probably won't get adopted in a Java shop, and vice-versa). > > Issues such as cost, freedom and ease of installation tend to fall > relatively low on the priority list. > > If I were evaluating a new office suite, here's some of the things I > would consider: > > Can I open/import existing documents (including scripts/macros)? > > Does it have features *that we would use* not in the current product > (e.g., the ability to export a Word document to PDF)? > > Can it integrate with the existing solution (e.g., can I embed a > spreadsheet created with the new product into a PowerPoint presentation) > ? > > > > HTH, > Ian That is why I despise most reviews that just speak of the installation process. The vast majority of the time with a system is not involved in installing it (hopefully) but actually doing operating tasks, be it financial management, program coding, scientific data analysis, or porn surfing ;) Show me a system review that speaks primarily of the software available on various platforms (multiple Linux distributions, the various BSDs, MacOS, that fringe non-unixish freak o/s called Windows) and the reliability and operating costs of accomplishing various tasks. The installation reviews are just lazy attempts to get something quick to write, without actually running or stress-testing software, policy, design decisions, completeness, and user-intuitiveness. Something like evaluating a bridge based on how smoothly its construction went, rather than the fact that it has no onramps and its surface is only 1 metre across, and the strait it crosses actually rises over the surface of the bridge at typical high tide. My friend I wrote about is not ready to administer his own computer - Windows, Mac or Linux. I would offer that most people over 30 aren't ready to administer their own computers because they didn't get the exposure to that side of using them when young. But as a user of a reliable system, he likes Linux as it stays reliable, which Windows didn't do. He is very impressed that he doesn't need to do anything with his DSL connection - it just starts, if it goes down on the ISP end, it is restarted on its own. His staff can check their email on that machine without being able to wander into his files, and he has not had a virus, and is actually closer to being able to consider tools such as samba-based file sharing between work and home - having only Win98 at work cut into the possibilities of calling into the system over the Internet from home for files. He had to nurse Win98 and similarly XP to do tasks, while Debian GNU/Linux just does it. He may not be exposed to non-gtk apps much at present (Acrobat, Xpdf and MPlayer would be the main ones to come to mind,) and he may be annoyed when he sees them, but so far, so good. The only thing not working, and not likely to work for him is the Canon flatbed scanner connected on the printer port - which he used twice in the three and a half years he has had it. He knows there is potential for other problems, for two years, I was using that system with Win98 to offload pictures from my super-cheap digital camera (wasn't cheap when I bought it, compared to today's prices) before gphoto2 and gtkam finally brought support for it. He also knows that things don't always work right out of the box with Linux - I had to build a couple programs from source for him and then tweak them, but once that was done, we were back to what I mentioned before - it was reliable, and even pain-relieving. Not that I expect he will ever become an Emacs master... -- Mark L. Kahnt, FLMI/M, ALHC, HIA, AIAA, ACS, MHP ML Kahnt New Markets Consulting Tel: (613) 531-8684 / (613) 539-0935 Email: kahnt@hosehead.dyndns.org
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