How can Linux be improved for newbie support?

[carlosponti]

me too i had a dual cpu system for a while and i decided to put in a raid drive. the raid drive was on the same irq as the integrated motherboard so then i had to install a supplementary sound card. i didnt find out about that until i was running the raid card for a month. then i decided i wanted more memory. after that i wanted a bigger hard drive. all of this in a year. i just cant leave well enough alone. i also took my case apart to put wheels and a set of handles on it. and i cut a hole in the top for a blowhole fan. then i put in a dvd burner. all in the same year btw. then i had to put in a new power supply. again same year. then i was gaming so i decided to abandon the raid card and get a new motherboard and cpu. well that was a year later but of course there were a couple of re-installs of windows all among that time.

[Vergil83]

However looking at the big picture, people are generally more aware of computers/operating systems/Microsoft, therefore I wonder if in say 10 years time, whether Microsoft will have much competition, in the o/s front, and given the way things are going, controlling and governing exactly what data the computer holds and what you do with it.

That’s what scares me. (I think its something destined for vista)

I don't buy the "chicken little" line of thinking when it comes to Microsoft. Just like the RIAA/MPAA, Microsoft sells a product. They (MSFT/RIAA/MPAA) seem to have lost track of the idea that if you piss off enough consumers they'll stop buying your product. I think well before we end up in a Microsoft-controlled police state the consumers will decide they would rather spend their hard-earned cash on something other than a Microsoft/MPAA/RIAA product, causing a loss in revenue for these entities that will finally force them to reconsider ideas like DRM.

Power to the consumer.

My problem with that it is assuming everyone is like you, namely intelligent/informed. That fact is most people aren't Homo economicus. This is especially true in the case of new technology.

Sure we think that it is stupid that a person should have to call MS everytime they change more than 3 pieces of hardware (or whatever the # is), but for people that have no other experience, it seems (or will become) normal. Sure everyone *****es about it, but have that many people really refused to never purchase an MS product? No, everyone just grumbles and does it. And who knows what will be in the Vista. Perhpas mandatory registration (rather than just activation). People will be mad, but 99% will do it.

[jimbaloo]

I think that the Linux community in general is doing a great job of improving newby support, forums like this are a fine example. The first time I looked at linux no-one I knew could tell me anything about it, if they had even heard of it. Now, it's not uncommon to meet people who use linux, and they were all newbies at one time.

[budman7]

There are many distros out there that have very easy installers.
Mepis, just click on the install icon on the desktop of thelivecd, answer a few questions. And away you go.
Suse, answer a few questions, make sure that everything is just the way you want it, click "Accept", away you go.
Any distro that uses the "Anaconda installer, almost the same as the Suse installer.
And for ease of use, most distros will supply you with kde or gnome,(both good gui's) which makes things easy.

If people were still stuck with just command line or that awful TWM(tabbed window manager). I could see how there could be many problems.

As somebody said earlier, "if you have a problem with Windows, you can just call Microsoft".
Has anybody(not in a corporate environment) had success calling MS for support?

[chopin1810]

There are many distros out there that have very easy installers.
Mepis, just click on the install icon on the desktop of thelivecd, answer a few questions. And away you go.
Suse, answer a few questions, make sure that everything is just the way you want it, click "Accept", away you go.
Any distro that uses the "Anaconda installer, almost the same as the Suse installer.
And for ease of use, most distros will supply you with kde or gnome,(both good gui's) which makes things easy.

If people were still stuck with just command line or that awful TWM(tabbed window manager). I could see how there could be many problems.

As somebody said earlier, "if you have a problem with Windows, you can just call Microsoft".
Has anybody(not in a corporate environment) had success calling MS for support?

I sure haven't... if you have an IQ higher than negative ten thousand you'll go to a forum like this one... whenever people call Microshit all they get is a moron in India who just passed a "certification test"... personally I don't care about those tests, I just want to see how they can do in the REAL WORLD, 'cause most people just study hard for those tests and forget everything afterwards.

[carlosponti]

However looking at the big picture, people are generally more aware of computers/operating systems/Microsoft, therefore I wonder if in say 10 years time, whether Microsoft will have much competition, in the o/s front, and given the way things are going, controlling and governing exactly what data the computer holds and what you do with it.

That’s what scares me. (I think its something destined for vista)

I don't buy the "chicken little" line of thinking when it comes to Microsoft. Just like the RIAA/MPAA, Microsoft sells a product. They (MSFT/RIAA/MPAA) seem to have lost track of the idea that if you piss off enough consumers they'll stop buying your product. I think well before we end up in a Microsoft-controlled police state the consumers will decide they would rather spend their hard-earned cash on something other than a Microsoft/MPAA/RIAA product, causing a loss in revenue for these entities that will finally force them to reconsider ideas like DRM.

Power to the consumer.

My problem with that it is assuming everyone is like you, namely intelligent/informed. That fact is most people aren't Homo economicus. This is especially true in the case of new technology.

Sure we think that it is stupid that a person should have to call MS everytime they change more than 3 pieces of hardware (or whatever the # is), but for people that have no other experience, it seems (or will become) normal. Sure everyone b*****s about it, but have that many people really refused to never purchase an MS product? No, everyone just grumbles and does it. And who knows what will be in the Vista. Perhpas mandatory registration (rather than just activation). People will be mad, but 99% will do it.

i wouldnt say everyone does it, i havent bought a copy yet but now microsoft knows that.

[a thing]

Two words: free drivers.

[chopin1810]

Private industry will be able to do it better. Again, free is not always good.

[a thing]

/me tries to avoid flame war...

If the drivers were free, everything could easily work out of the box, including 3D, on every distro.

[chopin1810]

And what makes you think that they will ever become free?