On Thu, 2003-09-04 at 04:00, Colin Watson wrote: > On Thu, Sep 04, 2003 at 01:01:19AM +0300, Micha Feigin wrote: > > Second is the fact that most people just use the OS they get with their > > computer and are afraid to try and replace it. Plus, they already paid > > for the M$ license (even if forcefully/unknowingly) so why switch to a > > free one after you already paid for something. Same thing with macs/osX, > > where its even harder to get linux to work. > > Linux need to change its public image and start coming pre-installed. > > You're aware that this has already started to happen, right? Lindows > are/were doing exactly this with cheap PCs sold by Wal-Mart in the US. > > > There is also the problem of too much options. Unlike M$ where people > > exactly what program does a given job, on linux there are 10, and when > > there are so many its actually sometimes harder finding the right one > > for you or even finding what programs there are to do a given job. > > Too much choice can sometime be as much a liability as not enough (as > > much as I like the options). > > My impression of Lindows has been that they're presenting single > applications for each niche, fixing this problem for their target > audience. I'm quite sure others will follow. > > As far as Debian is concerned, we have our niche of providing maximal > choice and power and I think it's right that we stay there. Many of the > early contributors to and leaders of Debian wanted to make it something > that could work well as a base for more customized distributions, and > that seems to be succeeding quite nicely. To those who say that Debian > has too much flexibility and choice for Mr. Average, I say: that's OK. > Not everything has to cater for Mr. Average, and that still doesn't stop > us doing useful things one level back and catering for the people who > cater for Mr. Average. > > > Don't take from this that I don't like linux. I think its much better > > then M$ and there are no alternatives for me for some of the things that > > it offer, but its exactly those things that make, at list for the > > moment, to be a non-option for the Joe-Public m$ user. > > I think there's a lot of work to do before we're ready to replace the > major proprietary operating systems completely, but the situation is > improving year by year so I don't see any grounds for despair. The > balance is still swinging Microsoft's way, but is beginning to tip with > news of organizations like the city government of Munich and major banks > switching over, which erode the document format lock-in that Microsoft > Office has had for many years. Once organizations are no longer locked > in to what the organizations they deal with use, the balance can only > tip further. > > In my opinion, it's only after that happens when we need to be ready for > home users. Office use leads this kind of thing, and is easier because > businesses can afford to hire sysadmins and provide basic training to > smooth over the wrinkles. Only after that happens on a large scale do > you start getting lots of office workers thinking "hey, I wonder if I > could use this to handle things at home?", and so on. > > So I don't think it's necessary to prophesy doom because there are still > problems that would confuse those who aren't so technically literate. > We've got time to work on these, and it makes sense to be realistic > about our audience in the meantime so that we don't do a disservice to > those who are already interested and capable. >
I completely agree to you comments, I was just trying to point where are the problems with hitting the home niche. I never said that linux has arrived at a point that it ready to solve those problems. Even when it finally is it will probably be distributions like lindows providing customized distributions. I quite like the options debian give me and I try to start up m$ on my computer as little as possible, usually just to keep a backup of my girlfriends files in case she may want to work on them away from home. On that note, the debian package tree could be organized a little better it order to help finding the alternative programs for performing given tasks. This could be done with a field in the deb file linking it into some virtual tree. The problem with the current state is that its not always clear where to look for a given program. For example you may look for a sound editing program in any of kde/gnome/x11/sound. Also, the current implementation allows for only one value, where sometimes several are applicable. I am aware that this can be mostly done using search terms, but this method has its advantages, since searches to produce too many/little results, depending on the terms and description included. Also, sometimes you just have an idea of what to look for but you don't know exactly the term defining it. > Cheers, > > -- > Colin Watson [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Micha Feigin [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
