Guest pgk3734 Posted May 15, 2004 Report Share Posted May 15, 2004 java script:emoticon('') I am a young old guy (63 this month) who has been a Linux user since about the year 2000. I'm just musing in regard to the article about windows vs. linux usability. I suppose if a senior citizen can install Mandrake and also Debian which I both use, then younger minds surely must be able to install and use linux. I am using Mandrake 10 now which I believe to be the best version so far and should also cause a royal pain in the ass for windows. (I hope.)java script:emoticon('') Edit: topics merged by spinynorman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pgk3734 Posted May 15, 2004 Report Share Posted May 15, 2004 (edited) Forgot to ask: If Micro$oft still offering the refund for removing their OS? :D Edited May 15, 2004 by pgk3734 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted May 15, 2004 Report Share Posted May 15, 2004 I dunno, havent bought one in ages...bundled or not :D but isnt it a legal requirement some places ??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ixthusdan Posted May 15, 2004 Report Share Posted May 15, 2004 I can only speak for the US. Software has been bundled for so long that people frankly don't understand what they are paying for. Many people buying computers don't even understand that the operating system is not already on the hard drive when it is produced at the hard drive factory! :D In short, when consumers become aware here, change occurs. Of course, between the hard core marketing of Microsnippettes and the inept marketing of some linux os's ( ), the US public will remain in blissful over-priced ignorance for now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iphitus Posted May 15, 2004 Report Share Posted May 15, 2004 I suppose if a senior citizen can install Mandrake and also Debian which I both use, then younger minds surely must be able to install and use linux. oh but they do!! im 15, and ive introduced it to some friends who now use it too. I run Arch, I ran debian late last year but oculdnt install it on this machine due to hardware difficulties (installin off firewire CD-RW) iphitus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvc Posted May 15, 2004 Report Share Posted May 15, 2004 (edited) 'can' and 'will' are two completely different things. :D Edited May 15, 2004 by bvc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phunni Posted May 15, 2004 Report Share Posted May 15, 2004 true enough - trouble is, most people think they can;t (even if they can) or simply don't care - or don't even know there is another option! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urza9814 Posted May 15, 2004 Report Share Posted May 15, 2004 (edited) yea, everyone THINKS it's all confusing...I know all my friends do (I'm 13 BTW...proving that yes, kids can install this easily)...I got one friend using it once...took forever though...he kept saying he couldn't figure out the install, but he's really lazy, so that explains it...anyways, I got it up for him, he thought it was awesome, then realized you couldn't install by double clicking, and pirated windoze. Edited May 15, 2004 by Urza9814 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phunni Posted May 15, 2004 Report Share Posted May 15, 2004 See - there's a problem right there. The fact that not being able to install by double clicking (although you can with an RPM can't you...?) is enough to make someone go back to Windows, just shows how lazy people have become - often because windows has done everything for them! Places where windows is not necessarily the first OS people use (I hear a rumour there are places like that...) shows that, actually Linux is no harder to use than windows - it just seems harder because it's different. I maintain that the main reason why Linux is sometimes harder than windows (or appears to be) is because of lack of third party support - which is nothing inherantly to do with the OS itself, just how much of the market it has broken into. As more software is ported and more hardware supported, I think Linux will takes even greater strides forward... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvc Posted May 15, 2004 Report Share Posted May 15, 2004 See - there's a problem right there. The fact that not being able to install by double clicking (although you can with an RPM can't you...?) is enough to make someone go back to Windows, just shows how lazy people have become - often because windows has done everything for them! Places where windows is not necessarily the first OS people use (I hear a rumour there are places like that...) shows that, actually Linux is no harder to use than windows - it just seems harder because it's different. I maintain that the main reason why Linux is sometimes harder than windows (or appears to be) is because of lack of third party support - which is nothing inherantly to do with the OS itself, just how much of the market it has broken into. As more software is ported and more hardware supported, I think Linux will takes even greater strides forward... actually, technically, you can install with not only a double click but a single click :P Yes, we live in a lazy world and linux is not for the lazy. If you think lin is just as easy to use as win, you were either raised on lin, been using it long enough and not win long enough to forget (also having not used xp-pro), decieving yourself, or flat out lying. Make excuses about third party or whatever, which almost null in lin, but people do not care! They just want it to work and work easily. That, is not linux....this forum is proof of that. Yes, there are win forums but the questions/problems are not comparable and neither are the people asking the questions which is even more proof. DONE :bvc: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phunni Posted May 15, 2004 Report Share Posted May 15, 2004 But - I reckon 90% of the problems in Linux are caused by either: 1) unsupported hardware 2) software functionaltity not properly implemented in Linux Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thinkliberty Posted May 15, 2004 Report Share Posted May 15, 2004 then realized you couldn't install by double clicking, and pirated windoze. Yeah you can't double click to install a virus in Linux. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmac Posted May 16, 2004 Report Share Posted May 16, 2004 iphutisYes, we live in a lazy world and linux is not for the lazy. If you think lin is just as easy to use as win, you were either raised on lin, been using it long enough and not win long enough to forget (also having not used xp-pro), decieving yourself, or flat out lying. Can't say I agree. Its not laziness so much as complete indifference. People are now used to buying a computer with windows all set up. Most don't even know what an operating system is. The computer is used blindly as a tool without the need to learn what it is. It's only if you need one to work with yourself or get interested that what makes it work becomes relevant-a lot of people are like that. The computer breaks get someone to fix it, get someone to maintain it. The same kind of mentality that has them calling out raodside assistance when they have a flat tyre. Understandable if you are physically incapable of removing the nuts or are disabled, pathetic if tyou don't even to know where the spare is. Thanks to microsoft we have PC's everywhere but people don't know how to use them properly or what goes on inside them because they buy one, plug it in and it works Actually I'm fairly indifferent myself but this is something I need to know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fred_the_fish Posted May 16, 2004 Report Share Posted May 16, 2004 I'd have to say, I don't think its laziness or really indifference! - A Joe Average punter walks into a Dixons or a PC World, buys a pc, expects it to work out of the box, and doesn't want to spend time making things work. When Linux is available on a PC straight from the retailers, we will see this change... until then, its like buying a car - Joe Average has a mechanic that they take a car to when its not working correctly, they don't expect to have to do that as soon as they buy the car from their local Ford / Renault / Volvo / BMW etc garage. - If they wanted to play with it, they would have built a kit-car etc.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urza9814 Posted May 16, 2004 Report Share Posted May 16, 2004 (edited) Most don't even know what an operating system is. Yea...I figured that out a little while ago...I was doing this English project...and, like everything else I do for English class, I worked Linux and Linus Torvalds into it...lol...and it was this presentation thing...and I was trying to explain what linux was, and this one girl is just like 'what's an operating system?'...My English teacher explained that for me...at least she understands a little of this stuff...it amazes me daily how little normal people know about computers...I think a lot of times we just assume they know more than they do, because to us it seems like really basic knowledge. Heck, my girlfriend has trouble figuring out what version of windoze she was using. Told me XP when it was ME, because the laptop had a 'designed for windows XP' sticker on it...and it took her about 10 minutes to notice that! I knew it wasn't, for I'd seen it before, but she still couldn't figure out what version it was...I doubt Linux is ready for that kind of user yet. Edited May 16, 2004 by Urza9814 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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