Newbie experience: Ease of use (was: Ballmer: No sleep lost over Linux (News.com)) [LWN.net]

Newbie experience: Ease of use (was: Ballmer: No sleep lost over Linux (News.com))

Posted May 1, 2003 19:01 UTC (Thu) by KingKevbo (guest, #10975)
In reply to: Ballmer: No sleep lost over Linux (News.com) by freeballer
Parent article: Ballmer: No sleep lost over Linux (News.com)

(eg They (windows) for some reason think a server should have a webbrowser, media player and messenger) Duh why??

I hate to fork the topic a bit, but there's something that I've been pondering in my experience with both Linux and Windows. I'm a Linux newbie and have had some experience with Windows 2000 servers and. I've found that, with what little Linux experience I've had, it's been easier to set up many services under Linux than Win2k. The Windows GUI seems to obfuscate many aspects of server setup (eventually making the administrator drop down to a command prompt anyway for certain functions). Even after taking a couple of MCSE classes I find myself having to look up where Windows is hiding a particular administrative doodad just so I could do something simple (like turning off Simple File Sharing in XP :-( ), just because it is in such an illogical place. If I have to edit the Registry to get something accomplished, then it's certainly not worth my time to have a GUI with a web browser, media player, etc.

On the other hand, I set up a Debian box as a mail server here at work with very little Linux experience (and I mean very little: Midnight Commander was my best friend ;-)). It took me a long time only because I was trying to do something relatively fancy (spam relay prevention, etc.). And the more I learn, the easier it's getting.

IMHO, GUIs don't necessarily make life easier, especially when they get in your way. M$ seems to obfuscate more than innovate (if you call having deep pockets innovation). :-)

Kevbo

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