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Dumber people can run Linux (Inquirer)
Here's an Ubuntu
review (the version is not specified) in the Inquirer. "Here's
the other thing: it worked. It said, 'Choose a user name and a password.'
It logged me in. And there was an entire computer, ready to go. It
connected to the Internet. Firefox went places. Email
downloaded. OpenOffice...officed. I mean, call that open source? Where's the
anguish and pain? Where's the six weeks of downloading drivers and learning
how to compile source code? A shocking lapse of standards, I call
it."
(Log in to post comments)
Dumber people can run Linux (Inquirer) Posted Oct 16, 2005 18:17 UTC (Sun) by emak (guest, #488) [Link] Open source == pain ?
I'm glad I learn things every day.
Dumber people can run Linux (Inquirer) Posted Oct 16, 2005 18:33 UTC (Sun) by jjstwerff (subscriber, #4082) [Link] Open souce is an opening out of the pain.You can change the applications to really work for you and not only show bugs (= special features).
Dumber people can run Linux (Inquirer) Posted Oct 16, 2005 22:52 UTC (Sun) by anonymous21 (guest, #30106) [Link] He is just being M$ sarcastic :), you know, get_the_facts and other FUD from M$ ???
He just conludes the opposite, "it worked", it did all the expected stuff without any fuss.
Dumber people can run Linux (Inquirer) Posted Oct 16, 2005 23:26 UTC (Sun) by RMetz (guest, #27939) [Link] SHE was being sarcastic, as the original poster would have understood had he or she read the article. After that she says something along the lines of the open source community is making journalists' jobs hard because they basically just bitch about how hard linux is to use.
It's a very nice article, read it.
The author's name is Wendy Grossman, I think a lot of LWN readers would really like her work, I know I do.
Easy to understand Posted Oct 17, 2005 3:16 UTC (Mon) by leonbrooks (guest, #1494) [Link] Closed Source == beaten into numbness.Any questions? (-:
Ubuntu version Posted Oct 17, 2005 2:07 UTC (Mon) by rvfh (subscriber, #31018) [Link] She said a lot of lines were spit at installation so it´s not Breezy. Shame, she would have been even more seduced!
Ubuntu version Posted Oct 17, 2005 2:40 UTC (Mon) by arcticwolf (guest, #8341) [Link] I think she's referring to the messages printed at boot time, there.
Ubuntu version Posted Oct 20, 2005 2:21 UTC (Thu) by mdz@debian.org (subscriber, #14112) [Link] Breezy spits only a very few lines at boot time, before going graphical, while Hoary stays in text mode until X launches
Dumber people can run Linux (Inquirer) Posted Oct 17, 2005 11:37 UTC (Mon) by hensema (guest, #980) [Link] Doesn't anybody think it's weird ubuntu is hyped as the user friendly Linux, while other distributions have been at least as friendly for some years now? Maybe compared to vanilla debian ubuntu is very user friendly, but I don't think many fedora/suse/mandriva users will be impressed. The only explanation I can think of is the large devoted fanbase debian has (but debian is too nerd-friendly and therefore not usable for normal users).
Dumber people can run Linux (Inquirer) Posted Oct 17, 2005 12:30 UTC (Mon) by nathan (subscriber, #3559) [Link] I have used several linux distros, and ubuntu has turned out to be the simplest and easiest to use. I used to use Redhat. I tried installing SuSE but things were weird. I used Fedora. I tried debian, but it failed to install. I switched to Ubuntu when I (a) heard good things about it and (b) Fedora totally scrogged a system upgrade. I used to fine tune and configure installs to be just right, now I'm lazier and want something that works.
I just dist-upgraded from hoary to breezy, and It Just Worked.
The only gripe I had with ubuntu is that the install does not have a prominent notice saying 'experienced user warning:ubuntu uses sudo for everything. You will not have a root account unless you do $MAGIC_THING' :)
Dumber people can run Linux (Inquirer) Posted Oct 17, 2005 12:50 UTC (Mon) by jjstwerff (subscriber, #4082) [Link] passwd root
Dumber people can run Linux (Inquirer) Posted Oct 17, 2005 16:22 UTC (Mon) by seyman (subscriber, #1172) [Link] > passwd root
I've had to explain this to several people (all experienced Unix/Linux users) who were all quite surprised not to be prompted to for the root password. It doesn't help that the answer to this question is buried at the bottom of a very long FAQ which isn't that easy to find on the ubuntu.com website.
Dumber people can run Linux (Inquirer) Posted Oct 17, 2005 13:55 UTC (Mon) by mohaine (guest, #6101) [Link] The only gripe I had with ubuntu is that the install does not have a prominent notice saying 'experienced user warning:ubuntu uses sudo for everything. You will not have a root account unless you do $MAGIC_THING' :)I wouldn't really call giving root a password a $MAGIC_THING. When you get right down to it, Ubuntu just delays the root password setup until you need access to root. While I hated this at first, it makes since. Most users don't know what 'root' is and have no idea why a root would need a password.
Dumber people can run Linux (Inquirer) Posted Oct 17, 2005 15:48 UTC (Mon) by nathan (subscriber, #3559) [Link] You miss my point. An experienced user expects a root account. It doesn't matter what $MAGIC_THING expands to. It just needs to be flagged. Otherwise, you get to the end of the install and (a) wonder if you missed a step, (b) wonder how to unwedge yourself. Yes, you _are_ wedged, you have a system _you_ don't know how to effectively operate. Call it $MAGIC_THING, $RANDOM_THING, $WHY_IS_THIS_DIFFERENT_THING, I don't care.
Dumber people can run Linux (Inquirer) Posted Oct 17, 2005 21:54 UTC (Mon) by sjj (guest, #2020) [Link] Well, I have used sudo almost exclusively for root access for years (except at work...) so I didn't even notice for weeks.
Dumber people can run Linux (Inquirer) Posted Oct 17, 2005 13:03 UTC (Mon) by smitty_one_each (subscriber, #28989) [Link] Don't confuse the technical discussion with questions of usability.Ubuntu, apparently, has figured out how to market itself. Whether or not Ubuntu really is any easier is less important than its success in convincing the market of this 'truth'. -Chris
Business model is important too Posted Oct 17, 2005 13:16 UTC (Mon) by man_ls (subscriber, #15091) [Link] The focus of a distribution is also important. I had real trouble keeping my old Mandrake 9.1 up to date, as sources were changing all the time; I am sure that if I had subscribed to Mandrake Club it would have worked flawlessly. This does not happen with Debian which is a voluntary effort; updates are usually painless.Similarly for corporate users, Mandriva, Red Hat or Novell surely work well for them. Ubuntu is focused on common users; and it does not require you to pay or subscribe anywhere for things to work as they should. That alone is a big advantage for regular users.
Focus on PEOPLE! Posted Oct 17, 2005 15:24 UTC (Mon) by AnswerGuy (guest, #1256) [Link] Ubuntu is not just marketing hype. The difference is their focus on humanity . It helps quite a bit that they have a clue. But, technically, lots of people in the Linux community have had a clue. Having someone really build on all the clue and make human factors their priority is exactly what's making Ubuntu such a forced for the community.
JimD
Focus on PEOPLE! Posted Oct 17, 2005 15:55 UTC (Mon) by cventers (subscriber, #31465) [Link] Absolutely. Name another Linux distribution that lets you (and encouragesyou to) order stacks of free professionally mastered CDs for absolutely no charge whatsoever.
Dumber people can run Linux (Inquirer) Posted Oct 17, 2005 15:12 UTC (Mon) by Arker (guest, #14205) [Link] I can't agree with your premise at all. Fedora/SuSE/Mandriva never impressed me as particularly user-friendly, even in comparison to stock debian.
Dumber people can run Linux (Inquirer) Posted Oct 17, 2005 21:36 UTC (Mon) by penguinroar (guest, #14460) [Link] Well the reason its called userfriendly is because it quite frankly is. I previously ran RedHat Fedora at home and they are very similar. Ubuntu does take the user a notch up and goes out of their way of getting things to "Just Work" out of the box. Fedora is a kickass distribution and i run it at work on my Terminal Servers but for my home and laptop computer Ubuntu is just very nice to me. I dont thrive in installing drivers etc (i hate it in Windows too) and a dist that does everything for me gets a thumbs up. On a production machine its a whole other story and i mostly put RedHat on those.
Debian Etch is almost as friendly Posted Oct 20, 2005 6:10 UTC (Thu) by ssavitzky (subscriber, #2855) [Link] Really! It's true that all of the setup is done in text mode rather than under X, but the only X setup it required was picking which resolutions I wanted. And the text setup may be mildly annoying (if you were paying for it the marketing hype would call it "retro" and make you think it was stylish) on a workstation, but it's deeply appreciated on a tiny ARM-based gadget that has nothing but a serial port for a console.
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