OS differences (Was: Re: My experience with Ubuntu...not great)

[George Patterson]

2009/11/9 Daniel Mons <daniel.mons at iinet.net.au>:
> Microbe wrote:
>> I have no problem with Ubuntu or Linux as such, my issue was that
>> Ubuntu in particular is being touted as a windows replacement.
>
> By whom?
>

Good question...

> Ubuntu is not designed to "replace Windows".  No Linux distribution is.
>  I think you'll find that when it comes to development of Linux, the
> people actually writing the code generally aren't doing it to replace
> some other bit of software, but rather just because they are interested
> in developing their own system for their own needs.
>

The often touted "Year of the Linux desktop" is not the right phrase
as it depends on who's desktop are we talking about. In the past I
have been involved with a non-profit organisation that refurbished
computers and gave them to consession card holders and those that
could not afford them.

Linux desktop for
- Technical Support Help Line:  possibly if they also have access to a
Windows machine for replicating faults.
- Accounts department in a largish company:  only if they can get
obtain accounting software that complies with the taxation laws.
- The CEO - Unless demanded, I'd say heck no as a new tools and
workflow needs to be learned.

We noted that those that would accept the Linux desktop the quickest
were those that had not used a computer before. It partly comes down
to preconceptions of where something can be found and how do do
something. Some things are too hard, different to what you have learnt
before or back to front from you knew from before.

Part of the exercise of learning a new OS (or even differences between
distributions) is putting aside some of what you learned before and
learning with a new slate of curiosity. I find that it can be helpful
to have a table of common tasks and the steps required or the location
in the GUI.

Certainly if something is broken, then report it on Launchpad. If
something could be better documented, edit the wiki or blog about it.
With any system sometimes the worst people to ask for documentation
are the developers themselves as they are seeing the system from the
code perspective and not the ends users.

Regards


George