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User Friendliness

Dont get me wrong, I Love linux hence the reason I use it as my primary operating system - but some things really tick me off when using it. Today's holdup wasn't any exception. Now in windows, when you are low on disc space (like 1gb low) it will persistantly let you know, and even gives you a wizard to try and fee some space up. Not linux! I went to restart my system (thats another thing, those who say you never need to restart linux - are liars) and when it was starting back up, KDE threw at me an error saying it failed to load because the /tmp directory was full. I click ok, and it takes me to a locked up black screen. Wow, that was friendly.

Now IF I was a "normal" computer user, I would have not the slightest idea what to do other than pull out a yellow pages and start finding a computer repairman that can deal with linux. I would probably then end up spending at least $100 or more (probably $200+), plus time wasted, plus travel costs - just for the guy to clear out the log files in 5 minutes. Luckily, I knew that /var/log/ could be problematic and eat every last bit of space from experience with my web servers. And of course the computer repairman wouldn't ever tell their clients what the actual problem is or how to fix it, knowing damn well they are going to be making another quick buck (or a hundred or more of them) in a few weeks when their logs fill up again.

Windows Simply Is More User Friendly

This is just one small sliver of the reasons why windows is number one in use for desktop computers. Its not because "they are evil" or whatever idiologic reasons people come up with to justify their pointless hatred against the company, its because rather you like to accept it or not, windows is more user friendly. Until linux can be ran for years-on-end without the user having any idea what dependancies, filesystem, mount points, permissions, modules, kernel, etc is, there is no hope for linux to take over the desktop market.

Lets Come Together!

I think instead of everybody and their dog deciding to make their own linux distro, all linux contributors should put their efforts towards only two distributions. One being a non-GUI server environment, and the other - the be all end all windows replacement that even a monkey could use without asking for help.

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Comments (6)

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Digg > subgeniusd Jan 10, 2008

Every point has already been argued here 1,000 + times.

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Digg > j2002 Jan 10, 2008

I do agree with the full disk problem but that is just one thing and I've heard that the Ubuntu team are looking to make this better in Hardy Heron

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Digg > Stemp Jan 10, 2008

Maybe he is right or maybe he is wrong, I don't care.
«I Love linux hence the reason I use it as my primary operating system»
Linux is NOT my primary OS, it's my only OS. I run a business with it, I play with it, etc.
«Windows Simply Is More User Friendly»
No I'm sorry, it is NOT. Simply not
«all linux contributors should put their efforts towards only two distributions»
Contributors do what they want, not what they should. That's why Linux/BSD is better than closed sources software.

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n0xie Feb 04, 2008

Then you missed the entire point of 'free' software all together and you should probably just go back to windows.

>>I think instead of everybody and their dog deciding to make their own linux distro, all linux contributors should put their efforts towards only two distributions.

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Scott Klarr Feb 04, 2008

LOL n0xie. I don't use linux just because its free, in fact i use a distro that costs (mandriva "power pack" ). I didn't say linux developers should HAVE to work on a single distro. I simply meant that I think it would do linux a lot of good if more of the world-wide developers focused on a smaller scope of code. pfft, me go back to windows? haha! :)

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Paul M. Foster Feb 13, 2008

Supposedly, MacOS has more user-friendly than Windows forever, yes Apple owns less than 10% of the market. Point: it's not user-friendliness that keeps MS on top. It's marketing. Period. Always has been.

Now, if you could get Linux pre-installed on every PC without repercussions from Microsoft, Linux distributors would clean up these usability problems right quick, and, with the Vista disaster, Linux could go to 30% market share in months, if not more.

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