[Sussex] Noob

[Richie Jarvis]

Angelo Servini wrote:
> The fact is that the majority of users (I believe) fall into this 
> category - they are not techies, and never will be.  Quite a formidable 
> barrier to overcome.  I really dont know the answer to this one.  I 
> won't give up though.  I still believe that she should have given linux 
> a go, especially as her computing needs are so few - she would have had 
> a very stable system and missed out on all the crashes, viruses, 
> trojans, ad-ware etc. etc.

I 100% agree with your friend Angelo.  Although it would be nice to 
convert everybody to Linux, that is only going to happen once M$ users 
are happy working in a Linux environment, and unfortuantly, that means 
making Linux look, behave and be supported like Windoze.

In my situation, I would love to run Linux on my desktop, however, I 
don't believe that it is yet feasible for me to do so (talk about 
throwing down a gauntlet!) - I am not saying that I can't run it 
remember, just that it isn't feasible.

I'll explain my reasoning:

At Home - I run Windoze XP on my laptop, workstation, and my son's 
machine.  The fileserver and mythtv boxes are all Linux.

What would happen if I ran Linux permanently on my home machines?
1. My son would complain, as he would no longer be able to play all his 
games, or surf all the dodgy sites that don't support anything but IE.
2. I would spend a hell of alot more time that I currently do trying to 
support it
3. I couldn't easily control my telescope from the laptop without 
rebooting to Windoze
4. I couldn't play the latest games on my workstation
5. I couldn't interface with complex M$ office documents (such as we use 
in our company - OpenOffice is fine at simple things however)
6. I would have to spend alot of time getting my devices working:
	Palm Treo 600
	Creative Jukebox Zen
	Logitech Webcam
	Logitech Joystick
	Canon Scanner
	Firewire Video connection
	Meade ETX telescope
	Meade LPI Imager
	Netgear Wireless PCMCIA card
7. My wife would complain, because she is used to windoze, and would 
have to learn something new (believe me, this alone would stop me 
converting!)

Bear in mind here, I am not saying it is not possible - just 		that it 
would take alot of time and effort!

At Work - I run Windoze XP on my workstation, and 90% of the other 
workstations and laptops in the company.  My 2 NAS units run Windoze 
2000 (yes, I know - wasn't my choice at all!)  All the other heavy 
processing and fileservers run Linux - including the Oracle 9i DB server.

What would happen if I switched to Linux on my workstation at work? 
(This is from experience, I used to do so!)
1. I cannot support my staff easily, as walking them through menus over 
the phone is very difficult when not seeing them myself.
2. I cannot open the myriad of Word documents required for day to day 
usage in the company - and all the quotes from Dell, Nildram, etc which 
I have to deal with and read.
3. Getting devices working in Linux (such as the Palm Treo 600) takes a 
   while (did it before.)

So, I suppose what I am trying to say is that Linux is wonderful, 
however, until it is fully capable of running everything as easily and 
quickly (and is supported by manufacturers) as Windoze, then it is not 
really suitable for people who do not have alot of time on their hands 
to tinker with.

3 of my developers here at work run Linux on their machines, and 
wouldn't change - thats great - they don't have to interface with Word, 
or other M$ products (aren't Wiki's wonderful!) - but for my role, and 
my time, I cannot run anything other than windoze.

The sooner this changes, the better though!

Cheers,

Richie