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Tell me why linux wouldn't work for a large majority of residential users
Posted on 8/14/14 at 5:30 pm
Posted on 8/14/14 at 5:30 pm
I'm assuming most people just use web, email, printing? Some .doc creation/editing and spreadsheets?
What does your average user at home need that linux couldn't easily handle?
There must be something I'm overlooking.
What does your average user at home need that linux couldn't easily handle?
There must be something I'm overlooking.
6
Posted on 8/14/14 at 5:34 pm to Casty McBoozer
It would be great if you never, ever, had to fool with anything under the hood. Installing/uninstalling software, drivers, customizing things, etc is more of a "hands on" experience than a lot of people would be willing to learn. Say what you will about Windows, if you can click on a dialog box you can do just about anything that needs doing.
I'm not cracking on Linux, I'm running Mint right now. I love Linux, but doing what should be mundane things can be frustrating if you're not a guru with terminal commands.
ETA: It's worth it to me not to have to worry about malware, and to have nearly the Mac experience without paying Mac prices.
I'm not cracking on Linux, I'm running Mint right now. I love Linux, but doing what should be mundane things can be frustrating if you're not a guru with terminal commands.
ETA: It's worth it to me not to have to worry about malware, and to have nearly the Mac experience without paying Mac prices.
This post was edited on 8/14/14 at 5:36 pm
Posted on 8/14/14 at 7:20 pm to Casty McBoozer
The vast majority of residential users would be absolutely terrified to perform actions in the command prompt.
Posted on 8/15/14 at 6:16 am to Casty McBoozer
quote:
There must be something I'm overlooking.
The fact that Windows costs less than $100 and is rolled into the price of the computer they buy anyway. We aren't talking about major savings here.
Posted on 8/15/14 at 8:45 am to Casty McBoozer
quote:
Tell me why linux wouldn't work for a large majority of residential users
An easy out of the box (computer box) set up? Most people don't buy OSes, they buy computers. You get Dell to start shipping boxes with Ubuntu or whatever the most consumer friendly version is and then it might start making it's way into the home. I guess to a certain extent Chromebooks are the first iteration of "linux" for the consumer.
quote:
What does your average user at home need that linux couldn't easily handle?
This might be a bit above the "average users" head, but one advantage I've always found with Windows vs. Linux is that if I have a problem it's very easy to find a wealth of documentation and solutions online for Windows, this is not the case for Linux, at least not the command line varieties I deal with for web serving.
This post was edited on 8/15/14 at 8:47 am
Posted on 8/15/14 at 9:47 am to Casty McBoozer
Its not designed to be a desktop OS. Even the best Linux distro is no where near as good as Mac OSX or Windows for desktop work. To hard for the average user to get apps working...
Posted on 8/15/14 at 10:31 am to Casty McBoozer
quote:
I'm assuming most people just use web, email, printing? Some .doc creation/editing and spreadsheets?
What does your average user at home need that linux couldn't easily handle?
I deal with a metric shite-ton of "average users" every day, people that have used computers in an office environment for over a decade. These people still get amazed when I can so quickly set their default printer.
When I did call center work for an ISP we had some software for our dialup users (back in the day) and we even went so far as to put a giant STOP sign in the tutorial that said "this is NOT your actual username nor password, you will need to call our helpdesk to get that information before you proceed any further" (or something along those lines).
Every damned day I would field calls from multiple people who typed the example username/password in then wondered why they couldn't get online (error 691 for you DUN old-schoolers ;) ).
These are the "average user". They have other priorities than to learn terminal codes or compiling. They want it as intuitively simple as possible.
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