164 lines
7.9 KiB
HTML
164 lines
7.9 KiB
HTML
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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
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<HTML><HEAD>
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<title>Linux Is Not For You LG #46</title>
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<H4>
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"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
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</H4>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<center>
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<H1><font color="maroon">Linux Is Not For You</font></H1>
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<H4>By <a href="mailto:nod@film-review.co.uk">nod</a></H4>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<p align=center><font size=5><STRONG>
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Linux is not for you<BR>
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(if you are a normal everyday Joe)
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</STRONG></FONT></P>
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<p>Okay, you've got a home computer, most likely a PC. You've been surfing the
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net for six months to a year, so you reckon you are pretty wired. But you've
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been hearing a rumour, a little whisper, a voice in the back of your head that
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states, "There is another operating system and it's cool and funky, free,
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stable, powerful and fast". Memories flash up of the time you were working on
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that really important letter and the system suddenly locked, the day that you
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finally found an interesting web site then the screen went blue, and you never
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found that site again. This hint "at a better way" plays on your doubts and
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suspicions, and after a little surfing you come across the holy grail of Operating
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Systems, <i>Linux</i>. Perhaps you found it through a document like <A
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HREF=http://www.linuxdoc.org/LDP/gs/node3.html>this one</A> which states,
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"Linux is no longer only for UNIX wizards who sit for hours in front of a
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glowing console".
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<p>Okay, Sparky, stop right there. Linux is not for you. I really should add
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"currently" to that statement, for there does remain hope for the future. But
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for the moment, Linux is out of most people's league.
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<P> Let me introduce myself. I am the guy that your Uncle Bob calls when his
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computer crashes, the knowledgeable friend of the family, the man that can sort
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things out. Self-taught, I don't know everything, but when it comes to the
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home computer I can sort out most things. Generally this means Windows 95. The
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faults that I find with most people's systems are extremely easy to rectify,
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but working on them does give some insight into "the average user": what they
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want, what they can and cannot do. Also, I myself have been 100% conned by
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<i>the Myth</i>, and indeed have over the last five days I have installed Linux
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three times all with varying degrees of success. So I now have a pretty good
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idea of what is wrong with it in reference to using it for the first time.
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<p>Sad but true, Linux is moving rapidly away from being usable by
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"the average user". People may choose to argue that with the latest major
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distributions including Partition Magic and Boot Magic, things are getting
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simpler, but this is not the case. Look at what the distributions come with:
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four to six cd-roms, big manuals, yet hardly any help unless one is prepared to
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search for it. Give me a single Windows 95 CD-ROM and a boot floppy, and I can
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install an operating system that will have a nice friendly interface, where
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most people will be able to work out where their hard drive is. It will have a
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printer installed, and will attempt to sense any other devices.
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<p>With the KDE install that Caldera ships, I was pleasantly surprised to see
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that on the desktop was my CD-ROM and floppy, but where was my hard drive?
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What about that ATAPI Zip drive? Why is my printer not working? Eventually
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after searching the internet (through Windows because there is no obvious quick
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way of installing an internet connection on Linux), I find out how in theory to
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install the zip drive. Imagine my surprise when I type in:
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<pre>
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# dmesg | less
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</pre>
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<p>and see that somewhere, somehow, my computer already knows that it has a
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zip drive. It just didn't put an icon anywhere for it or indeed even mount the
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drive. So I have to do this by <b>typing stuff in</b>: arrgh, horror of
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horrors. I am not even going to go into the problems I had with the sound card
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which resulted in severe feedback and waking up the neighbours. I have not even
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attempted to install a printer yet, because quite honestly my nerves aren't
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quite up to it.
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<p>Now that deals with the installation problems, no visible hard drive.
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Although with a little bit of guesswork you could probably work out that it is
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/, that's not really as intuitive as a Hard Drive Icon. As for finding the
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other partitions on the drive, well I can do it and am feeling pretty damn
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pleased with myself, but the average person could not, even though the
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operating system is perfectly aware (just like with the Zip) that these exist.
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<p>Now let's deal with the issue of Linux moving rapidly away from what the user
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wants. One of the first things I did was click on the big K. I see a wealth
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of software: games, text editors (both advanced and normal), and various things
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that I don't know what they do. I'm going to click on them anyway, but the
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question is, do I need this stuff? Of course not; the installation does not
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provide what I need. A good example would be SANE, which apparently is scanner
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software. This I know, because I already knew what the KRPM did. I look to
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see whether SANE is installed on my system. Apparently it is. I can even
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uninstall it by clicking on the button in KRPM. But I can't find any way to run
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the program. I look in the manual. It tells me to do various things. While
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this may be good for a UNIX guru, it doesn't help me, because I don't
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understand what the words refer to.
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<p>This is a plea on behalf of the home user. Companies, stop concentrating
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on adding as much software as possible! Instead, redirect your effort into
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producing a sound, simple, base installation! Take a good look at Microsoft's
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products. Study what they install and how the user navigates around. Microsoft
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may be despised by the Linux community but it would be best if one were to
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study the enemy and exploit their strengths as well as their weaknesses. The
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home user doesn't care about open source codes, they don't program. They want
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to get a system up and running that they can use, and where they can then
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install any additional components, preferably without having to type anything
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in. Keep it simple, concentrate on wizards rather than adding features. I've
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tested out the speed of Linux using my dual booting system these were the
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results :
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<p>Copying a folder containing 4 files totalling 149 megabytes to another
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partition on the same hard drive:
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<PRE>
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Linux: 1 minute 47 seconds
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Windows: 2 minutes 37 seconds
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</PRE>
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<p>Now I have no idea how or why etc., but Linux seems faster so I am keeping
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it. I know that at some point it could be the OS of the future, and would like
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to discuss with anyone that is interested, what form the perfect, simple base
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installation could take. One of the fundamentals was that Linux was for the
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good of everyone, and as I'm a newbie I figure that I'm the perfect idiot to
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test it on.
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<!-- BEGIN copyright ==================================================-->
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<H5 ALIGN=center>
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Copyright © 1999, nod <BR>
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Published in Issue 46 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, October 1999</H5>
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<!-- END copyright ===================================================-->
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