Switching to Windows: Not as easy as you think

[piratePenguin]

http://madpenguin.org/cms/html/47/5937.html Great read.

[adiment]

I grew up on a Unix command-line. BSD, I believe.

wow.... is that even possible.

[KernelPanic]

NEWSFLASH: American student 'etement' finds a living specimen predating the GUI! Critics dispute the discovery.

[H_TeXMeX_H]

I bet if less boxes came pre-installed with Winblow$ and people actually had to install their OS maybe they would realize that linux is the way to go ... not Winblow$

[worker201]

Finally had the chance to read this article all the way through, and I thought it was kinda funny.  But dead-on balls accurate.  People who complain about Linux usually complain because it is not like Windows.  Windows is most people's frame of reference for the personal computer.  When Linux is your frame of reference, Windows is obviously the devil.  No configure files, cryptic error messages, barely supported 3rd party software, strong & constrictive branding, etc.  Those of us who come from a Windows childhood have to deal with Linux strangeness for awhile, but after that, stuff like apt, xfce, stderr, logs, and configs become normal and infinitely more useful.  At that point, we look back and notice how Windows sucks.  This article's benefit, then, is that it is written in the unique point of view of someone looking forward on Windows, and seeing very clearly how it can cripple the aware user's experience.

[Pathos]

yep Linux always gets the basics right first.

[MarathoN]

Finally had the chance to read this article all the way through, and I thought it was kinda funny.  But dead-on balls accurate.  People who complain about Linux usually complain because it is not like Windows.  Windows is most people's frame of reference for the personal computer.  When Linux is your frame of reference, Windows is obviously the devil.  No configure files, cryptic error messages, barely supported 3rd party software, strong & constrictive branding, etc.  Those of us who come from a Windows childhood have to deal with Linux strangeness for awhile, but after that, stuff like apt, xfce, stderr, logs, and configs become normal and infinitely more useful.  At that point, we look back and notice how Windows sucks.  This article's benefit, then, is that it is written in the unique point of view of someone looking forward on Windows, and seeing very clearly how it can cripple the aware user's experience.

Hmm, I feel really weird knowing that I have NEVER had a problem with Windows, (well, up until XP).

But at the same time, I feel good about not being brought up on Windows, Mac OS System 7.5 for me :p

[H_TeXMeX_H]

Hmm, I feel really weird knowing that I have NEVER had a problem with Windows, (well, up until XP).

Are you sure ? How can that be ... I know that Window$ Me was horrible ... it predictably crashed within 3 hours of booting it up ... 98 and 95 seemed to have less problems as I remember it ... but they still crashed at least once a day ... And XP, although it crashed less it was way too adware ridden ... this may also have been due to the DMR

[MarathoN]

Haha, never used ME, apart from on friends machines, same with XP, and I don't like either.

95/98 were fine though, apart from the occasional BSOD lol

[piratePenguin]

Windows 98 didn't treat me all that bad during the few months I had it running on the abandoned 233mhz and something like 300mb RAM machine almost 2 years ago. Unfortunetly for Microsoft, Mandrake was better in every conceivable way.

[Calum]

People who complain about Linux usually complain because it is not like Windows.  Windows is most people's frame of reference for the personal computer.

if people are let down that linux does not behave like windows (ie: unpredictably and incorrectly) then surely they should be happy about it?

[MarathoN]

if people are let down that linux does not behave like windows (ie: unpredictably and incorrectly) then surely they should be happy about it?

 
I think it's because there are too many naive people out there.

[GenuineAdvantage]

You give people too much credit if you actually care about the average PC user going to linux. Even the easiest flavor of linux is hard as hell to install software to when you never touched one before and there's nobody there to help you.  If you don't think this is true, you have lost touch with the outside world in that linux PC room of yours. On windows it's pretty much just "click here to install" for everything. And most PC users aren't going to bother with anything harder unless they have to. Pages and pages of bad manuals just to install an obscure driver that you need? Unless people are aspiring programers, they're never going to do that when windows is there. And one would hope that linux promoters are aware of the fact that not every PC user out there wants to be a programmer, a network guy, or anything of the sort. With that said, windows SUCKS, and as nice as linux is, I doubt will ever gain substantial ground over it. And I'm only directing this to users who imply that linux should replace windows, not the linux users who just use it and think it's better.

[Refalm]

Even the easiest flavor of linux is hard as hell to install software to when you never touched one before and there's nobody there to help you.

The easiest Linux's now are Ubuntu and Linspire, and this is how you install software on them:
Ubuntu


Linspire


And if the program you are looking for is somehow not on the list, it's common that they made a deb or rpm package, which is really easy to install.

It's safe to say that installing software on Linux is now easier then on Windows.

[piratePenguin]

Installing Software: A GNU/Linux VS. MS Windows Comparison

I had to install Firefox on a Windows machine in school today, and now I might appreciate apt-get and friends some more.

I wonder what's the average amount of times Windows users spend clicking 'Next' to accept the default installation directory every time they want to install something...