Michael Dell Speaks About Linux 3387

"Roy"posted the following on 2006-03-08:

And one of the many reasons that Windows users stay from from Linux. It really is all well and good saying that having 340 Distros "is a good thing" when you know what you are looking for. Its not when you dont : and guess what? Most dont. There are enough subtle differences between these distros to make it hellish for the non-initiated to install-fault find a Linux system. Subtle start up sequence changes, different package managers, different installers : nothing hugely major but certainly the sum of the parts makes for quite a number.

Just today I did a clean install on a brand new "surfing" box : Nvidia 6100 gfx. X wouldnt work. Fine. I was told that Nvidia was the way to go with Linux, but from previous issues on another machine I knew to switch it to Vesa driver by sudo editing the xorg.conf. Another interesting thing was the Ubuntu installer not seeing the USB mouse or keyboard until after the system was installed. End result : works fine. Brilliant, but heres the interesting part : a friend was watching the install and commented how easy it all looked. Until the X part :: then he said "yeah, it was something like that that made me give up". Now remember he just wants it to work : he is a journalist. He did not have another PC at home when he was installing, he had no prior knowledge of Linux and certainly didnt know anything about switching to root to modify an X config file and this combined with no internet google help made him give up.

Personally I think the first thing these installers should do is to do an X test THEN the user has the option to carry on the install. I read that a graphical installer is on the way so maybe, just maybe, this will be an integral part of the new installer : I think it would win a lot of interested but cautious users over to Linux. Without X the Linux newbie is as good as dead : command lines are a thiong of the past for them and they want their GUI system admin tools - apart from the obvious fact that GUI Sys admin tools prompt you for what they need rather than you needing to guess from a 20 page man page : and thats if you know the command-config file you are supposed to play with.

-- "A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world" - LeCarre.