Linux Desktop Initiative

Sat May 1 11:19:02 2004

There are some valid points made there. There are people that would move 
over to an Open Source machine but they shy away because they are afraid 
that it would be too complex for casual use such as surfing the web and 
sending photographs via email attachments to their friends. If things 
like that can be easily done by an average user, then Linux will really 
catch on.

The article cites the Mac OS X as being intuitive and I have to differ 
on this, I deal with people that can't figure out how to simply install 
a driver for their printer and I've managed to get free meals out of 
them by simply showing up and installing the driver for them. Apple has 
done a horrible job of making the software easily understood by the 
average end user. For example, I've come across some old PM 6100s that 
had little notes printed over the floppy drive to explain that in order 
to get the disk ejected, you had to drag the disk icon to the trash.

Now I ask you; is this an intuitive thing to do at all? Would you first 
take a book off your office desk and throw it in the garbage before you 
took it home to read? Just because it makes sense to a programmer does 
not mean it will make sense to anyone else. The Mac OS is not a good 
example of always being a user freindly interface.

What Open Source needs is to make it easily accesed to an average end 
user. What this means is that it needs to be easily installed and once 
installed the user needs to be able to get on the web, browse around, 
listen to music and mail their friends from the machine. What I belive 
this mean is that the installtion needs to be pared down somewhat in 
that some things need to be dropped. The sheer size of the OS is 
something that needs to be dealt with. There are many things that do not 
need to be there for the average user surfing the web. The office 
installation can be pared down to simply having a word processor and not 
a spreadsheet or anything else on a basic installation. The average user 
does not need or want a password either before they can get into the 
works of the machine and see how it behaves for them, a machine that is 
too secure can make it unusable for casual use. Linux is not alone in 
this problem as I have just recently been dealing with a wireless Cisco 
VPN problem and it's obvious that there are a few bugs to be worked out 
with our wireless network here at the university (some PCMCIA cards 
simply will not work and oddly, this includes some made by Cisco)

At any rate, the average user needs a streamlined package that has 
easily found and followed instructions for use, those simplified 
instructions need to be placed front and center such that they are found 
before anything else, They also need to be concerned with the 
applications that the average user will want to use fisrst and they also 
need to avoid the use of terms like "documentation" or "application" or 
"extension" or "driver" or even "Graphic User Interface" In other words, 
if you are going to use jargon, you will lose 90% of the end users right 
there. The text needs to be written not so that it can be understood, it 
needs to be written so it can't be misunderstood.

This is a great idea and the fact that the question is being asked is a 
step in the right direction. I have found my YDL to be very nice and am 
generally happy with it. I have had a bit of a challenge in convincing 
people that it is a very nice and smooth OS with a very nice 
interface...give me a few months though and it should change here. BTW, 
this is being written from my G3 with the 3.01 installed, if I can do 
it, anyone can. :-P

Regards,

Mark

Francis X. Maier wrote:

>
>
> Check this out. Very insightful. The problem is not restricted to the 
> Mac hardware environment:
>
> http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue9_4/levesque/index.html
>
> Fran Maier
>
>
> On May 1, 2004, at 8:13 AM, Robert Lewis wrote:
>
>>
>> On Saturday, May 1, 2004, at 09:56 AM, Ed Sutherland wrote:
>>
>>> After several months of complaints and concerns regarding the 
>>> complexity of
>>> using a Linux distribution as a desktop alternative to the two major 
>>> options
>>> -- Windows or Mac -- I've concluded it is time we, the users, 
>>> contribute to our own computing environment and make Gnome or KDE 
>>> more hospitable to the
>>> average user.
>>>
>>> To that end, I'd like to compile a series of FAQs written for the 
>>> average user
>>> in everyday language addresses the most pressing issues: making Linux
>>> productive for the average person. While their is a plethora of 
>>> tips, hints
>>> and clues now available, they are often hidden in out-of-the-way 
>>> locations,
>>> written in engineering language or spend inordinate time on obscure 
>>> points....
>>
>>
>>
>> This is a great idea. The most important thing for me is that it 
>> install effortlessly on ALL Mac platforms, at least all those 
>> produced in the last, say, three years.
>>
>> I bought yellowdog linux last fall to use on my shiny new G4. 
>> Installation was a nightmare and I eventually just got sick of it. 
>> I've never yet got it done. The lack of professionalism is 
>> mind-boggling. This is in marked contrast to the linux I put on a 
>> Dell, SUSe.
>>
>> Repeat: EFFORTLESS -- ALL RECENT PLATFORMS.
>>
>> Bob Lewis
>>
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>
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