Linux Ready for Prime Time?

Colin Marquardt colin.marquardt at usa.alcatel.com
Tue Jun 20 18:57:31 PDT 2000


Hi,

* Eric Skagerberg <eric at skagerberg.com> writes:

> Kirkpatrick has always asked:  Would you turn Linux loose on your typical
> white-haired grandma?  Could she use it as easily as a Windows or Mac
> machine?  Or are we still a year or two away (or more)?
[...]
> Key usability issues for me:
> - Installing the OS
> - Installing software
> - UNinstalling software
> - Hardware compatibility (modems, for example)

I think that these two general topics should be left separated. 
The "white-haired grandma" gets a fully configured system, with
exactly the applications she will use, and that's it.

No need to install the OS or software because she wouldn't do it
under Windows or a Mac either. Use what comes preconfigured, and
leave the rest for the "kids" to fix.

Back in Stuttgart, Germany, they ran Netscape under fvwm95 in a big
internet cafe. I doubt that more than 5% of all the users ever noticed
it was not Windows. And with Linux it is much easier to prevent the
users to do funny things with the system.


If you really want to include installing software in the comparison,
then it is probably a still bit harder to install something under
Linux, but IMO that is due to the fact that most people have already
been exposed to Windows before. If your test bunny has never seen a
computer before, the differences would almost be negligible I guess.


Newbies would/should also buy a pre-configured and pre-installed
system, so the HW compatibility is not an issue either. And not all
things running fine under Windows'95 run equally good under W2K. It
can bite you whereever you go.

Cheers,
  Colin



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