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Not Ready For Prime Time© Copyright Darrell Anderson. Recently I read a blog entry about trying to install a package within GNU/Linux. Debra is correct in her observations. Although I maintain this computer web site devoted mostly to GNU/Linux solutions, I continue to use NT4 Workstation as my primary operating system. Why? Everything there just works the way I want. I tinker a lot with GNU/Linux, specifically with Slackware, but Debra’s observations are spot on. When I want to tinker I play with my test box. When I want to work I keep the test box powered off and use NT4. Just as important, almost everything in Windows is consistent, both in look-and-feel and in the methods used to perform tasks. In GNU/Linux there is a hodge-podge of QT and GTK, third-party interfaces, etc. I very much want to see a QT-based version of Firefox. Firefox-GTK is noticeably slower than Firefox-Windows. Unlikely ever to happen although some time ago somebody did a proof-of-concept effort. GTK file picker dialog boxes are a joke and confuse just about everybody accustomed to Windows. KDE is a good desktop but tends to be slow on anything less than a P3. GNOME is designed for the dumb-downed. Xfce lacks many point-and-click features—Windows 3.11 with the Norton Desktop was more usable and faster—and ran in less than 100 MB of storage space and 16 MB of RAM. Most of what needs to be done in GNU/Linux should be a point-and-click exercise but is not. The command line is powerful, especially when writing scripts to automate chores and tasks, but the command line and script writing is not for the typical user. I use KDE as my desktop and although a good desktop, a lot of what needs attention is under the hood and requires in depth knowledge rather than point-and-click. Anybody who tries to explain to Debra how to install packages only supports her position. No how-to should be needed in any operating system to install any package. One challenge that some people in the movement are trying to remedy is to create a common package management system throughout GNU/Linux. I suspect that kind of goal will not be attained any time soon. Another significant challenge with the free software approach is that developers tend to scratch only their own itches. They are not market-driven because technically, there is no market. There is only fulfilling needs and generally, only those skilled can fulfill those needs. The majority of end-users are not programmers and never will be, but often their pleas for help and improvements go unattended. Usability is not a significant concern when skilled programmers need to only scratch their own itch. My own web site is intensely focused on the issue of usability. Philosophically free software fits me. Technologically I never yet have recommended anybody migrate to GNU/Linux because I know they will not be satisfied. The primary challenge is not that most end-users are not capable of learning, but that most have no interest or desire in becoming computer masters. Nor should they. Provide typical end-users with a point-and-click solution and they will tolerate the process. Telling people to recompile the kernel only alienates them. That latter response is, sadly, quite common in many discussion forums. And although improving much the past few years, there remains too much of an RTFM attitude among GNU/Linux users. There remains a sort of priesthood attitude toward computer novices. The bottom line is that far too much tinkering is required to obtain a comfortable and pleasantly usable operating system. Not that Windows is the greatest system, but the developers in the Windows world do seem to better understand usability better than in the GNU/Linux world. GNU/Linux is ready for the geek, but not the typical end-user. Perhaps some day, but that day is not today. That is why I continue only to tinker and have not yet fully migrated. For most people computers are tools, and when a tool is not easy to use, the tool will not be used often. Or people will seek a different tool. The name of the game is usability. Point-and-click is the way to world domination, not recompiling the kernel or writing in depth how-tos merely to install a package. Finis. |
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