early impressions

[max_reason]

Hi everyone. Reactions from a new user to ubuntu. I love the philosophy of Linux open software, by the people for the people, freedom, choice and no corporate agenda controlling us. I especially hate for instance apples agenda, to control, snoop and profit, creepy.

I want Linux to take over the world, but feel there are some issues that need to be tweaked. For the general public and myself, a simpler user experience would help. I spend to much time searching and reading up to do simple tasks i.e. permissions for HD/usb flash is confusing, tasks need babysitting and can't be left, constant password needs, grub duel boot reliability, learning tech jargon/tasks, reliability/stability issues.
It is so nearly there and the choice is amazing, but also such hard work at times. Do you feel there is still an element of obsessive nerdy enjoyment with a need to attend to Linux at times?

max

[GNU-Fan]

"Constant password needs"? What do you mean?

[Freston]

Hi and welcome to the forums!

Do you feel there is still an element of obsessive nerdy enjoyment with a need to attend to Linux at times?

Not really. My mother has been running Linux for years and she doesn't know any of the 'difficult' things you just mentioned. Her computer was a complete nightmare to her when it was still running XP, what with the antivirus, constant pop ups and messages, crashes and all my warnings about virii and malware.

I spend to much time searching and reading up to do simple tasks i.e. permissions for HD/usb flash is confusing

I think you forget that it has taken you years and years to become as proficient as you are now in other proprietary computer platforms *cough*Redmond*cough*, you just can't expect to switch like that *snaps finger* to a very different platform with a very different philosophy both ideologically and technically. It takes some getting used to.

Not everything found in your Linux distro have an equivalent in other operating systems. And vice versa. Or the same is there, but works very different. What about 'drives'? A very basic concept, visual and simple. But we don't have that. No C:, no D: and certainly no F:\\share

On the other hand, we have everything embedded in one filesystem. Done.

I don't know if you have ever trained groups of ten computer illiterate people how to use your companies machines, but I'm telling you, explaining them that 'their files' are on H:, their department files are on G: and the company wide files are on F: (knowing fully well that all files are on D: of the fileserver, and that D: is a RAID array... but I digress). Suffice to say, it's neigh impossible for it's abstraction and complexity.

And that is not criticism. I have criticism, just not that. Computers are highly complex. They can often only be understood through complex and abstract concepts. If you want to make them more easy, you have to take away their complexity, create a sort of toys that only do particular tasks. Like Apple is doing with things like the iPad. Like I did with my mothers PC. Make a device that only does a very limited range of tasks. It can do A and B but nothing else. Period. Then it's easy.

I want Linux to take over the world

That, my friend, is a phase

I want there to be the choice. I want to be able to use open standards, agnostic protocols and share information and resources independent of platform. Compatibility. The irony of course is that I have much less compatibility issues on Linux than that I have on certain other platforms. I can mount their shares, read their documents, use their printers and all. Vice versa is the problem.

[oz]

early impressions

Hello and welcome to the forums!

Early impressions are often based on inexperience, so quite often they turn out to be an inaccurate assessment of the subject at hand. My guess is that Linux will make more sense to you once you've used it for a while. Of course, that is not to say that Linux is perfect, but show me the OS that all of us would agree is perfect and I'll gladly jump right into the middle of it.

Best of luck to you with it, or any other operating system of your choice!

[MASONTX]

I agree with both sides. There is a small learning curve to just be a user, as opposed to being a hacker, but some things could be made simpler for the newbie. For example, as a newbie I had no idea of what the different file systems were, some distro's made it easy by showing what could be used, but flagging the default recommended file system. That is newbie friendly, as opposed to the ones that give you a menu of file systems, but no clue as to what is recommended. Screen resolution is another issue I've run into, most distro's correctly recognize the screen resolution and set it properly, but when you get an oddball screen (like I have), you need to be able to manually set the resolution, not just pick from a list.

[Dave68]

Take a Gander at this. Some people move into Linux slowly, whereas others Jump in with both Feet.

This is a dated article, but the points are still pertinent to the Linux of today.

linux(dot)oneandoneis2(dot)org/LNW(dot) Linux is NOT Windows

(I wish they would fix this blooming counter)

Enjoy,
It is A Good Read,
Dave

[elija]

If you mean the posts counter then posts in here don't count.

[Dave68]

That would make sense. The majority of my Posts have been in here.

Thanks for the Info,
Dave

[Bemk]

I am one of the people who took a slow learning curve. I installed Ubuntu, and it took me a while to figure it out.

Now I'm playing around with things like Gentoo, and I love it.

I have to agree with Ozar, on the fact that there is no universally perfect system out there. However there is a best system for a specific person. In my case it's Linux, in my fathers case it's Windows. In my mothers case I think it's pen and paper. In her case that still works best.