RE: Explaining Linux

["Paul Sims" <nospam [at] lombard.co.uk>]

If your friends don't perceive a need to try linux, so be it. If they are 
happy with the way Windows works, know how to configure it & have the apps 
& games to go with it there's no point to moving over for the sake of it.

Until "better" consumer apps than StarOffice come along, which despite much 
evengelising is a behemoth consuming even more system resources than a 
fully-loaded MS Office installation, that's probably the way things will 
stay. If M$ do decide to port Office to Linux then watch out - the stampede 
to Linux will really start. No-one really wants to run an OS for the sake 
of it outside the techie/geek sphere, most people want the computer to help 
them do something useful.

Let's face it, would you expect someone who has no idea how to turn off 
that frigging paperclip to run a Linux box? Corel & Caldera have tried, 
with varying degrees of success, to produce a true desktop linux, but to my 
mind this is still only a halfway house to a real consumer-level  system 
like win9x.

Linux evangelising needs to steer a fine line between quasi-religious dogma 
and not giving enough information to be useful. If, given enough 
information, the user decides that linux is not for them, don't push it 
further.

On Tuesday, February 29, 2000 11:04 AM, R.A.Fletcher 
[SMTP:PMA99RAF [at] sheffield.ac.uk] wrote:
> My friends and I have been talking lately about Linux, and it has
> lead to some pretty heated debates. Simply put, they have never
> used linux, they are used to Windows and see no reason why they
> should change, and hence anyone else like them. They presume
> that Linux only has advantages for the technically minded and will
> be useless to the average user. They accuse Linux of being harder
> to use, having less software and being less dependable as, since
> its free, there is no accountability like there is with Micro$ofts
> products.
>
> What do the list think of this? There are certainly many advantages
> to Linux, and many disadvantages, the amount of problems
> experienced by the members of this list makes this clar, although I
> do have to say most of the problems are of a nature which would
> not interest the average computer user. Im thinking of Richards
> ISDN troubles at the moment.
>
> How can I explain that when I tell someone about Linux its
> because I think it may benefit them, if not educationally then
> financially?
>
> Comments appreciated.
> _oOO-Richard Fletcher-OOo_
> 

"WorldSecure Server <lombard.co.uk>" made the following
 annotations on 02/29/00 11:45:10
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