Windows User

[tomg35]

Hi

I've always wondered about Linux - the attractiveness of the price, getting an all in one package but as everywhere I've worked has used windows thats what I've been brought up on and what I use at home. I tried installing a linux system (distro?) - sorry cannot remember which one, a few years ago and it was a complete disaster so I thought blow that.
So when I got a copy of VMware workstation I thought I'd have a go again knowing that if it mucked up no harm done, so i picked up a copy of Linux Format and installed SUSE 10.1 - Very Good!

Admittedly the file format and navigating around is still a bit of a mystery but I'm getting there. So I thought if its this easy and cheap (magazine cover price of £6.49 gets me an operating system, office suite etc etc) why wasn't windows dumped years ago?

Then I think i've found the stumbling block for newbie users like me (good with Micro(makeloadsofmoney)soft but other OSs ...), I tried to install the Hex Editor Bless from the disk on Linux Format issue 85 - reading the write up sounded good but then I read "as its written in C# youll need mono and the Gt# bindings" - WOT!!
If you want to convert the likes of me to linux (admittedly half way there - building up courage to install SUSE on my laptop) then sorry you will need to do better than that. Looking at windows magazines they tell you how to install the programs (and if you want to install a program generally its all in one package), but this article left me cold - do I hunt round the internet trying to find out what the author was on about? Do I post a question on a web forum - no, I'll look for a windows product.
Come on - please spare a bit of space in the magazine for new users who have no idea what a distro is and thought a gnome belonged in the garden.
Don't get me wrong I'm not knocking Linux - I'm impressed by SUSE and will endevour to put it on my laptop, but the magazine really should do better than this for people new to Linux.
I suppose I may get replies that I'm a luddite etc etc but I'm not - youre just missing a golden oppurtunity (wheres the spell checker???

[Dark_Stang]

Hey, guess what?

Linux isn't windows.

[gtmtnbiker98]

So, I'm a bit confused, what's the point of this forum?

[tomg35]

Sorry - I know linux isn't windows? I'm just pointing out that your'e missing a golden chance to attract/convert windows users.

[techieMoe]

What "golden opportunity" are you referring to? All I was able to pull out of your original post is that you had some trouble installing a C# application in Linux. No one here is responsible for C#, which by the way is a proprietary language designed by Microsoft. The language itself is OS-agnostic but the runtimes to use it effectively only exist in Windows at the moment, and Microsoft isn't exactly jumping at the chance to help Linux or Apple developers come up with a way to run C# in other competing OSes.

What would you like us to try and do for you?

[tomg35]

Simple really - Pick up a windows magazine - step by step instruction how to do something, pick up a linux magazine - all techie acronims/abbreviations.

If Linux authors just want to ignore the lucrative market of home users who just want a reliable system with no hassle then keep it a secret club

[smolloy]

I understand the problem you are referring to, but I really don't think it's a problem that should be fixed. Linux users use linux because of the power it gives them in controlling their own machines -- but in order to have that power you have to understand a lot of technical details. If all linux magasines were "dumbed down" in order to cater for new converts, then what should experienced users read?

Maybe you need to think of getting a magasine designed specifically for new users in mind. That way you can begin to learn the details of using Linux, and begin to become a "power user" yourself.

[carlosponti]

even if linux was stupid simple there wouldnt be anymore converts due to overwhelming market dominance and user ignorance. if you have a problem with linux you should post your problem and maybe we can help fix it. C# applications are able to run if you go through mono however the gui libraries are different from windows to linux.

if you have a need to install a hex editor you should be more app to understand that C# is a programming language that compiles and needs a CLI to run which is what Mono is. GT# is a set of GUI libraries that C# under mono needs to display things like menus, buttons and other graphic items for a gui.

i frankly havent found windows magazines to be all that more helpful.

[bigtomrodney]

Linux is not difficult. What it is is different.

I'm sure you would have as much difficulty with the underlying components of Apple Mac OS, or of the OS on your phone. Jargon and acronyms exist in the Microsoft world, you just already know what they mean. 'Outlook' for instance. You know it's email, but how? "Just run the.exe" - Again how do you know what this means?

The package difficulties you speak of, are non existant in most systems. Trying to install single packages directly interfacing with rpm or deb can be difficult but these are the base package management systems.

Ubuntu - the most common system for new users installs anything you want from a menu and resolves its own dependencies. As is the case in Red Hat, Fedora, Mandriva, Suse, Debian....the list goes on.

The information you have given us is not new to any of us. But let's just remember something. We are not linux. We are linux users. We are people who started using the system and liked it enough to learn and pass on the knowledge we have gained. What you have said reminds me of a slashdot article a few months back.

It basically complained that with Open Source software, when a user complains about a missing feature that they are often pointed to a later release in which it has already been fixed. Apparently this was a problem? The person who wrote the article thought this was the wrong answer. But the problem they had was fixed, and was ready to use. The answer was right here and right now.

The answer to your problem is right here and right now. I can appreciate why you might think otherwise, but as I said the problem is not that Linux is broken, it is that it is not Windows and as such works differently. We who use it think it is better.
...

[tomg35]

sorry chaps - dumb down a magazine? I'm talking about a couple of pages! If the attraction of linux is its ability to be flexible to the user then surely that's a selling point, new linux users are not born experienced and wise in matters linux they learn from a source e.g. a magazine about a topic they are interested in.
As for what would would experienced readers read - they read the same sort of magazine as techie windows and mac users read. I apprecite the offer of posting the problem to this forum but couldn't the article i used as an example just said - oh and for new users you do the following.