[Nottingham] My fedora 9 experience (vent/rant included)

[David Aldred]

On Thursday 10 July 2008, john doe wrote:
> > Sure but thats why people hate Linux cos its too hard.
>
> GNU/Linux is not hard, it's just different.  They hate it because they're
> too damn lazy to use their brain.

Well, and because they don't expect to have to use their brains, or not in the 
same way.   People don't expect to have to understand how a brking circuit 
works on a car; that doesn't make them lazy - it's just that the ease of use 
of cars has moved on from the days when it was a real advantage to have that 
sort of knowledge.

> > We know how to do
> > it cos we've been using Linux for a while. HOW is a newbie going to
> > cope. Easy, they'll install Windows!
>
> Any newbie that seriously wants to try GNU/Linux will not be deterred by
> the failings of one 

One would hope not, but if they were really just too lazy, they wouldn't 
bother to try another distro either!  Perhaps all distros should come with 
the suggestion that if this one doesn't suit, try another.   

My last Sidux installation took 12 minutes to deliver a fully working system 
with all hardware configured correctly - except the printer (which I should 
have known to switch on before starting), and that took another ten minutes 
or so using a GUI tool.  Why use Windows after something like that?

However, I'm not sure I'd recommend it for newbies (it is, after all, Debian 
Sid underneath, and may occasionally break toys!); as several others have 
said, I'd start a newbie on [K]ubuntu.

-- 
David Aldred