Old Weird Ward
Unless otherwise noted, that which is posted here is opinion, which is protected by the First Amendment to the US Constitution. If you don't like my opinions, go somewhere else. Nobody is forcing you to actually read this drivel.
The presumption exists that you can read at all.
That may be a large assumption.
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Thursday, March 18, 2004
- - - - - Linux and it's Applications - - - - -
Linux the operating system is pretty solid, and relatively free of the BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death) that can ruin a Windows person's day.
Applications for Linux, particularly "Office"-type applications suck stale owl snot. I tried living with Linux and Open Office for more than a month, and I'm telling you, the applications side of Linux just ain't ready for prime time.
I include in the applications side of things those applications and utilities necessary to manage a computer. Things like adding a printer, managing a modem, installing and configuring a sound card. Things that should be simple are not, especially for Aunt Tilly, who just wants the damned thing to work, not drive her mad with cryptic messages and obscure choices.
Living with Linux is something that I do once a year. I want an alternative to Microsoft. Microsoft charges the prices they do because they have a monopoly in fact. Microsoft ships the OS with security holes in it because they can get away with it, because they have that monopoly. Microsoft needs competetition, otherwise they will always be sloppy. But boy, do they have the User Interface thing down. MS software is EASY to use. The most common stuff, like adding or managing a printer is mostly automatic, and that which isn't automatic is accessible and easy. Why can't the Linux community manage the UI side of things?
Now, no less a personage than Eric S. Raymond, Despiser-In-Chief of Microsoft, comes out with the same view about Linux applications' usability that I have. See his articles HERE andHERE.
In reference to a previous article of his: I was expecting a fair amount of feedback (and maybe pushback). But the volume of community reaction that thundered into my mailbox far surpassed what I had been expecting ? and the dominant theme, too, was a bit of a surprise. Not the hundreds of iterations of "Tell it, brother!", nor the handful of people who excoriated me as an arrogant twerp; those are both normal features of the response when I fire a broadside. No, the really interesting part was how many of the letters said. in effect, "Gee. And all this time I thought it was just me..."
I spent eight years doing telephone tech support for a database application. When the app transitioned from DOS to Windows 3.1/95/NT, and later to Windows 2000, managing devices connected to the customer's PC wasn't something I had to fuss with much, because even back in Windows 3.1 days, the Windows User Interface was oriented towards the Naive User, not toward the technically sophisticated Power User. That meant that I was troubleshooting problems with our application, not problems relating to the computer or to the OS.
And that's the big thing, here. If the Linux community wants to push Microsoft, the Linux community must get better, much better, at thinking of and designing for the end user of the software.
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