Some idea's for making Linux mode user friendly

[ral]

Here is a list:

 

1. With a Floppy and CD/DVD-ROM icon's on the KDE desktop, it is not too hard to figure out how to access these devices. Windows users in particular get thrown off though when trying to browse through the Linux directory to attach files to an email. If Floppy's and CD-ROM's could access from /home/user/device than /mnt/device this would be easier to understand.

 

2. Similary, they also find the need to mount and unmount devices confusing.

 

3. Flash, java and 3D drivers should be installed by default or available through the package manager, although I understand that pro versions do have there plugins in the CD's.

 

4. Different installers for different distro's will be a problem for the typical user.

 

5. Installers that don't create icons on the desktop or "Start" menu.

 

6. Too many configuration options. The ones least used ones should be hidden in a separate "Advanced" tab or button.

[aru]

1. and 2. Explain them that they are no more in Windows. Unix is another history and if they want to use it, they must understand at least the very basics. One these basics is that everything included devices is threatened as a file, so they must understand that to access them they need to attach those devices to the filesystem tree, and that is achieved with mount. Also IMHO they must "understand" and "know" the filesystem layout. It isn't harder, but if they don't even have interest...

 

6. This sounds me very close to the Windows philosophy: "Make the easy easy and the difficult impossible"

 

Epilogue: A windows user in a Linux system is no more a windows user, and he must know that.

[bvc]

1. and 2. -I agree with aru. It's not difficult once you learn it. When new to windows there's things to learn that confuse people as well. Linux is not like windows and therefore there are things to learn.

 

3. Use Xandros :wink: I admit, this would be nice though. The problem arises as to what version. It can't be tied to deps because you couldn't update. I don't know how Xandros does it.

 

4. Go back to windows. Isn't there like over 200 distros? Linux is not proprietary. New users from windows should understand this b4 they even try to install a distro.

 

5. Is anoying, especially for a newbie.

 

6. Again, agree with aru. The best thing about linux is that it does what you tell it to do. Whether it works or not is up to you. If the least used config options are in a advanced tab, there're not hidden. In windows, the options in the Advanced tabs aren't advanced, and are the ones that seem to actually make a diff sometimes :wink:

 

My 2 cents :)

[Glitz]

Here is a list:

 

1. With a Floppy and CD/DVD-ROM icon's on the KDE desktop, it is not too hard to figure out how to access these devices. Windows users in particular get thrown off though when trying to browse through the Linux directory to attach files to an email. If Floppy's and CD-ROM's could access from /home/user/device than /mnt/device this would be easier to understand.

 

2. Similary, they also find the need to mount and unmount devices confusing.

 

3. Flash, java and 3D drivers should be installed by default or available through the package manager, although I understand that pro versions do have there plugins in the CD's. 

 

4. Different installers for different distro's will be a problem for the typical user. 

 

5. Installers that don't create icons on the desktop or "Start" menu.

 

6. Too many configuration options. The ones least used ones should be hidden in a separate "Advanced" tab or button.

 

1) The user configuration tool only needs to be modified to add a link from the /home/user/device directory to the /mnt/ directory.

 

2) Unfortunately supermount still doesn't work. But I think that a small tutorial supplied with linux showing linux users coming from windows how to do these sorts of things would solve all those sorts of problems. Unfortunately no one has ever thought of that.

 

3) This is a licencing issue. All boxed sets should include a separate CD with non-GPL software that clearly states that the contents may not be distributed.

 

4) Yes but most new users will stick to one distro until they are either familiar with linux or totally frustrated with it. The tutorial mentioned earlier would go a long way in this respect.

 

5) That's up to the person creating the package. Some kind of standard for how to put icons on desktops and configure menus would help tremendously.

 

Glitz.

[ral]

I have participated to a greater or lesser extent in the deployment of Linux (RH 7.3. RH 8 and ML 9) in two places. An Internet Cafe (2 of 11 PC's) and a Law School Library (approx 180 of 200 PC's).

 

The problem with having to explain things to people is that works when you are dealing with a few people. Having to explain things to 600 students and 300 staff, with 200 new students every year is a bit of a difficult task. Similarly, having to give people a short course before renting out a machine would also be difficult.

 

In the case of the Internet Cafe, its now back to all Windows for now (it was more conveneient to acquire 2 more XP licenses especialy since they sell Windows OEM licenses here so long as you buy any piece of hardware like a screw and not necesarilly bundled with a new unit --- this also makes going to Xandros more expensive). Mozilla integration though, went well witout much causing problems. OpenOffice causes a few problems but has now also been successfully integrated. So now we have 98/2k/XP boxes running either OOo or Office 2000 and Mozilla and looks like we will be getting a few more XO's in the next few months to replace the remaining Win95 licenses.

 

Its still on testing in the Law School for another 5 months, but there have been plenty of complaints so far.

 

I love Linux, but I have to admit, migrating to Linux in a environment where you have multiple and changing users has proven more difficult than expected, Nos. 1 & 2 being the main problems.

 

By the way, the Law School was using RH only until I showed them Supermount. As problematic as it may seem for some people, it actually got ML in the door

[emh]

2) Unfortunately supermount still doesn't work.  But I think that a small tutorial supplied with linux showing linux users coming from windows how to do these sorts of things would solve all those sorts of problems.  Unfortunately no one has ever thought of that.

 

Is supermount really so buggy that it is unusable for everyone? I've used Mandrake 8.2 and recently 9.0, have always had supermount on, and I've never had a problem with it. Am I in the minority? I haven't done anything special to make sure it works.

[bvc]

I've used sm in 8.1 and 9.0 without any probs. I'm listening to a cd through xmms rt now :wink:

[ral]

Well...it works for me...and it work well enough for the SysAdmin of the Law School to decide to deploy ML9 instead of RH8 for desktop duty... altough RH will occupy Servers and Workstations.

[polemicz]

works ok, but takes soo soo long to realize that the drives are empty.

[Guest jglen490]

Great ideas, and I've had experience with people who don't "get" Linux. The hardest thing to show potential new users is the simple fact that Linux is not Windows and doesn't try to be Windows -- despite the best efforts of distros such as Xandros.

 

Linux is the kernel, and only the kernel. Everything else is the product of a distro.

 

A Linux installation is a not monolithic product, it is the result of many different, and sometimes similar, products put together. The user gets to choose what product to use, or not use.

 

It would be very difficult for one installer on one product to predict what wm/GUI/DE that is actually in use. that would require whoever built that installer to know each and every menuing mechanism used by each wm/GUI/DE in existence. And let's not even try to get the a point where every possible product is governed by a rigid set of standards, because that's Windows not Linux.

 

Please don't get me wrong, standards are a great thing, but are not the answer to every action. Linux is not, and should not be, a monolithic, monopolistic product. It needs the tension of competing products and approaches in order to remain the lively thing that it is.

[Guest JaseP]

Supermount works fine until you need to run something like WineX to emulate a Windoze environment.

 

Then, you get problems with copy-protected CDs not wanting to run...

[Glitz]

 

2) Unfortunately supermount still doesn't work.  But I think that a small tutorial supplied with linux showing linux users coming from windows how to do these sorts of things would solve all those sorts of problems.  Unfortunately no one has ever thought of that.

 

Is supermount really so buggy that it is unusable for everyone? I've used Mandrake 8.2 and recently 9.0, have always had supermount on, and I've never had a problem with it. Am I in the minority? I haven't done anything special to make sure it works.

 

I think it's a "combination of hardware" thing. It seems to work for some people and not for others. The symptoms are even different amoung people who have problems with it. That's what makes it so maddening. You're never quite sure if it is supermount or a hardware problem until you actually solve the problem.

 

Ah, well, whada ya gonna do?

 

Glitz.