One poss. scenario

Post #21,627 by tjsinclair 12/16/01 10:22:45 AM Reply	One poss. scenario After reading your response, I got to thinking that one of the things that makes a Linux install more (ahem) "hands-on" than a Windows install is the amount of choices the user has to make. For example: - How do you want your disk(s) partitioned? ("Partitions? What?") - Would you like to do a server install? A workstation Install? Custom? ("Hey, I just want this thing to work!") - What packages would you like to install? So forth and so on.... Granted, this kind of flexibility and power is great for the sysadmin setting up a server (or even their own workstation) but for the user who just wants to get e-mail, Web and do a little word processing, it's (and I hate to say this) too much choice. Now, I like choice. In fact, I prefer having lots of choice so I can put together a solution that does exactly what I want. But I'm not like a lot of typical end users. The best NIX desktop install I've every seen: Mac OS X. You boot off the CD, answer a couple of questions to customize your setup and you're done. (It even looks pretty.) Need developer tools? Insert the CD, double-click on DevTools.pkg and you're done. Now, I like Linux/UNIX/BSD a lot. (I have NIX machines at home and teach a Linux admin course.) But I don't use it as a desktop because OS X is so much more hassle-free. (Whatever else you may think of Apple, they do have some expertise in crafting a good user experience.) Tom Sinclair Speaker-to-Suits "Of course, just because we've heard a spine-chilling, blood-curdling scream of the sort to make your very marrow freeze in your bones doesn't automatically mean there's anything wrong." -- (Terry Pratchett, Soul Music)
Post #21,631 by Ric Locke 12/16/01 10:33:46 AM Reply	Precisely. ...partioned? "Uh, Ethel, do you know what a partition is?" "Sure, Bob, this [knocks on cubicle wall] right here..." Yeah. ONE choice, right at the beginning: 1) Basic install for normal use 2) Power install for developers, with all tools 3) Geek install, with millions of hard choices Number 1 is the default. If you pick it (or let it time out) the computer just trundles away and comes up asking for your Internet phone number, username, and password. Works for me (or rather, it doesn't, but I wish it did) Regards, Ric
Post #21,633 by a6l6e6x 12/16/01 12:35:21 PM Reply	Nice summation, Ric. Send suggestion to Red Hat. Or, the Linux distributor of your choice. Seriously, you show insight into the situation. Alex Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. -- Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
Post #21,652 by Ashton 12/16/01 6:04:06 PM Reply	Amen, brother - second the suggestion: Tell RH! Please. Seriously. Your credentials might be enought to get it read. (They don't care about my otherworldly experience with Big Science 'systems', I suspect.) Precisam\ufffdnte: after time-out, implement the Mac OS-X scenario (if RH et al are smart enough .?.) And that IS the proper order for any new OS IMnsHO: FIRST get the $&(#$ Thing UP. Next, as you learn what Else you need, or think might be kewl: ADD that. Modularly. [the FATAL flaw in all Billy n'Bally thought from the first, and ongoing. May it lead them to the earliest possible grave - if all goes well soon.] Couple this philosophy with the hiring of several very good* technical writers - documenting all the add-in modules, why you'd want them, where their .inis are yada yada. (And a few portals - ALSO written by English-speakers and not 'computer science' drop-outs. [Hah! talk boutcher oxymorons] Let these handle links, mirror-sites maintained du jour - for the aforementioned add-on bits & pieces.) Then you'd have actually have: Tyro, Intermediate, Pro levels - and without stepping on the peculiar talents of anyone. Is this kinda stuff particularly hard for folks to grok, after they've run C++ for a while? Does something in that experience.. break certain neuronal common-sense connections - after too much exposure to, say jump indirect to self ? (and other brain loops) {sheesh} .. at least in octal, ya could memorize the mnemonics - but ya sure wouldn't expecta a &#$ User to do that. Well, These 'marketers' Would. They think their customers all long to compile; what most want is to surf and generate illegible e-mails, to make the office-time pass less agonizingly slowly. Ashton Marketing Dumbth R'Us Ltd. Like too: the PHB illusion of having Done something! - goes to the heart of modern Murican sinecures for the Suited set.
Post #21,808 by Ashton 12/18/01 6:22:13 AM Reply	Reg. gives Mandrake the nod - this week Handles however you likes yer CDROM select set: over-easy or sunny-side up. RH gets an F.. for not even knowing that was a question, and not telling you why it broke. SuSE at least offered a safe-mode SYA. {sigh}\ufffd [link\|http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/23436.html\|Why it even.. beats XP install! ] ...even if it missed the chance to show everybody, back when it mattered - like, when they might have noticed? Well.. maybe just in time for .NET then? Ashton
Post #22,004 by n3jja 12/19/01 4:37:52 PM Reply	I have always had good experiences with Mandrake. While I haven't bothered to install 8.1 on any of my machines here, I have to say that Mandrake 7.2 and Mandrake 8.0 are great at detecting hardware. On both my Compaq M700 lappy and my home-brewed Athlon system I have only seen Mandrake get the video card wrong during the install on the laptop. Fortunately, I knew what the correct card was and corrected it before it became an issue. As our "old friend" Brett G. would say, YMMV.

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