JohnH
Group: Members
Posts: 46
Joined: Mar. 2006 |
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Posted: Mar. 10 2006,13:00 |
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Microsoft's dropping of Win 9x and Me support is an opportunity for widening the linux community. If these people can be shown an easy to use free OS then we can win them over.
Linux needs easier program installation. It's sometimes very difficult to find a newly installed program.
Linux also needs easier file/disk user interface to win over these windows orphans. Typical reactions to mounting/unmounting user processes are "What is this nonsense?" and "Why cant I just click on it to open it up?"
There was a time when I was into being a computer guru (DOS 3.3). Now though I look at a computer as a tool to help me get things done in engineering/design and to get on the internet to communicate and research.
If the Linux community wants to spread linux, we need to accept that most people don't want to mess with thier OS. They just want to get, process, and send information. Sure the pioneers shouldn't have to do all their OS work for free but we're kinda stuck with that situation with Microsoft's strangle hold on the OS market.
Look at the bottom line of switching to Linux instead of upgrading to windows XP. It takes a lot of time to solve the issues involved in converting over to Linux, in my case I have spent over 100 hours researching, learning, and solving problems. It only costs $100 to upgrade to Win XP. So I took 100 hours to save $100 and still have nothing close to the capabilities of win XP. The mainstream computer user, even a techie type, is not going to look favorably on working for one-dollar-an-hour wages...
MY PERSONAL SOLUTION WAS TO BUY ANOTHER COMPUTER WITH WINDOWS TO BE SURE I COULD HAVE A WORKING SYSTEM AND THEN KEEP TRYING TO GET A USABLE LINUX SYSTEM SET UP ON THE OTHER ONE.
I now have 4 computers
Windows XP, Sempron 2600, 512Meg, 40Gig
Linux, Sempron 2600, 1Gb ram , 80Gig +2x200Gig raid HD
DSL PII-450, 512MB, 128Mb pendrive
Win 98, Celeron 466, 192Mb, 30Gig
I'd love to go all the way in linux but it's just not practical for me to put in the hundreds of hours it takes to make it all work well in linux. The big Linux box tends to just sit there. The DSL system is most used and when I want to work on spreadsheets I have to go to the windows box for Excel (I use a lot of matrix math..linux ss dont support this even though they say they do)
So me, a techie kinda of guy willing to keep trying is one thing. Getting more mainstream techies with even less time to mess with the OS issues is another. Iif we want to attract those Orphans from Win 98 and ME we have to make it just as easy as Win 98 and ME plus have an advantage like the virus protection etc.
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