Posted on 03/07/2006 7:08:01 AM PST by N3WBI3
From our "Linux is for Total Newbies" series, courteousy of Robert Milner for reallylinux.com.
Still hesitant to try Linux? I'd like to share a revelation with you. See, for me, Linux adoption always seemed a bit of a battle to get out there on the desktop. No, I'm not talking about getting it installed. The major flavor providers have made stellar strides in set-up, making it a breeze.
Take a look for yourself at the powerful and useful features in Debian, Fedora, Mandriva, and SuSe.
There are easy to learn graphical interfaces like Gnome, KDE, or XFCE to name a few. Installation today is often simpler than any Windows full install. Therefore, no I'm not talking about installation and use. I'm talking about winning the hearts and minds of the Joe-average user.
Normally, when you mention Linux to them you get an expression on their faces as if you had asked them the square root of 232,543. They just don't know it's there. More importantly, they don't know they have a choice. Even though they are not necessarily tied to their operating system from one particular big, famous vendor.
It's with this in mind that I tackled an infected desktop PC and a laptop. In the interests of anonymity (and just to keep things exciting) I'll name the owner Jen.
Jen came to me with her desktop PC, that she had never been too happy with. She had described its erratic behaviour and instability and its growing problems. She had this machine built and installed by a self appointed expert. As 99% of you have probably guessed by now, it wasn't just infected, it was crawling with viruses and spyware. The laptop had been acquired from said expert and this time the advice was that Anti-Virus, Firewall, and Anti-Spyware measures were not necessary under Windows XP. What's that? Not necessary under XP?
If you have a similar idea, then please review a few articles like this and this to understand the dangers. And you may want to review this article to see the difference regarding Linux use.
It was at this point becoming a bit of bug-bear that I had to re-build yet another two machines that were so compromised and so infected. Besides, I had several major question marks regarding their licensing, making them pretty useless PCs. See, I'm the type of bloke that keeps my nose clean. I don't do piracy. When I told her the price of buying two replacement, properly licensed copies of Windows XP, she wasn't impressed, and suddenly much more aware of the true cost of ownership of proprietary software.
It is indeed expensive paying for your operating system in the hundreds. The point not to miss is that she did not desire to continue spending money on OS licensing and software replacements -- indefinitely.
So here was my chance to share an insight with her no one else had done. I told her about an operating system that was free, secure, and stable. One that would significantly reduce her fears of another infection and that would get the job done just as well as anything else. And she did not have to pay hundreds to own it.
I could see that I was challenging the MS comfort zone. To help reduce anxiety, I also mentioned that there was always the option to go back to what she was used to. And to her credit, she said yes, she'd try it.
For those who caution this approach, perhaps I should briefly explain. Jen is not losing access to essential files and software by making such a move. She will not lose access to her essential programs like Photoshop (Linux GiMP handles PSD files and with GimpShop you get an interface similar to Photoshop).
"Jen is not losing access to essential files and software by making such a move."
She will also have full access to all her Microsoft Office files (OpenOffice works without issue with ALL Office formats). Even if Jen were to use more extensive things like databases, OpenOffice.org includes database importing for ODBC and JDBC -- if she ever got into all that.
She doesn't throw away access to her DVD movies (a few great Linux players include MPlayer and Xine) and she doesn't lose out on access to things like her work PDF files. Moreover, there are plenty of well written beginner documents on nearly every Linux subject. Whew. Okay, hopefully the point is made. She can try it out and see whether she likes it.
So what happened? Now writing this some time after the event, I'm please to say: unabashed success! On both PCs, Jen has taken to Linux like a duck to water. Jen is now more productive, the machines are stable and have yet to let her down. She is spending more time on her computer. For me, what summed it up brilliantly was the unprompted praise as I got from her one night. She said, "That Linux thingy is much better than Windows."
The downside? I've created a Frozen Bubble addict. If you are not familiar with the game, you ought to try it. It's one of thousands (actually over 10,300) of exceptional programs that run on Linux.
And this takes me to the revelation. No, not the Frozen bubble bit. The fact that a home user who was only ever a through and through proprietary addict, so seamlessly migrated to Linux -- and enjoyed it. What does she get? Reliability. Cost saving. Security. And what do I get in return for sharing this? Less call back. Less fear of another clean-up operation. Warm cosy feeling. Linux works, even for a total newbie.
Linux. Try it. You might like it.
AUTHOR BIO: When he's not making a noise on the drums, indulging in surreal multi-media urges or helping on reallylinux.com, Manfromthezoo (Rob Milner) pays the bills by working in technical support for a U.K. Hospital, supporting thousands of users on different sites. This article comes courtesy of Robert Milner, published by reallylinux.com with permission.
This brief opinion piece should not be construed as factual information, and only contains the opinions and personal experiences of the author at the time of publication. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Microsoft, Microsoft Windows and WindowsXP are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation both in the United States and Internationally. Notations MS and XP are included and refer to Microsoft Corporation and Windows XP. All other trademarks or registered trademarks in this opinion piece belong to their respective owners.
BTW, how do you know? Have you ever tried to install commercial software on Linux? I have, and it's never been complicated.
What examples of commercial software were you referring to specifically?
Battlefield 2, or Silent Hunter 3
Battlefield 2, or Silent Hunter 3
Hey. Brain dead!
Synaptic? No command line? Sound familiar? Go ahead and tell me how many times I need to say it to make you understand, so I can go ahead and say it that many times.
Are we having trouble remembering what was said again?
One one-time click to install Cedega, and then just run the games like you would under Windows.
I do that a lot less than I used to, but you perfectly describe many an evening for me.
Ha ha! Knew this was coming! So it's Linux's fault that it's hard to install Windows apps on it?
You're really serious, aren't you? In order to show how difficult Linux installs are, you choose Windows apps? You are hilarious. Proves my point...installing Linux software is easy. If it weren't, you'd not have to throw in the whole variable of cross-platform software. Nice job. Regardless, I'll play along. If you don't mind shilling out a couple bucks, it's not that hard.
Purchase and download the Cedega Debian package from transgaming.org to your desktop and drag and drop it into KPackage. Enter password, watch package be installed automatically.
Browse to your Battlefield 2 CD, right click the setup file, choose "Open with...". In the blank, type winex, check "Remember" and hit OK. Follow directions. Remove Battlefield 2 CD. Put in Silent Hunter. Click on setup file. Follow directions. You're done.
Your turn. Since you chose Windows apps to prove how hard it was to install software in Linux, let's see if you can tell me how to install XMMS in Windows in two paragraphs or less.
Of course, you can't, and you'll ignore this post like you always do when you're pushed in the corner, and you'll change the subject, or try to make it seem like the two paragraphs above are rocket science beyond your feeble capabilities. Cheap tactic, I must say, but typical Turkey through and through.
Read this user's problems getting Silent Hunter III to install in Windows...
"The documentation that ships with Silent Hunter 3 is quite lacking. Additionally, over time players have shared many insights that are worth repeating."
So, it's poorly documented....
"I walked through installation, but was disappointed to find I was required to install Adobe Acrobat Reader 7 (I’m still happy with 5) and Windows Media Player 9 for the documentation and ingame videos, respectively. I imagine Acrobat 7 is not really necessary, but I didn’t mess with it. The installation for WMP 9 failed because I do not have IE 6 installed, or so the Silent Hunter III installation claimed. I later installed WMP 9 manually and IE 6 was not necessary."
...and has dependency problems...
Hmmm...interesting!!!
Links for the above:
http://edseek.com/archives/2005/05/04/silent-hunter-iii-survival-guide/
http://edseek.com/archives/2005/03/31/silent-hunter-iii/
Well, it might be because I just got Mepis 3.4, and I always have to go through and see what all the new apps do. The other night, I spent hours reorganizing my music collection with Amarok. Also, as I said, have done a lot of tweaking on the GUI with kbfx and mtaskbar, which both make things look very cool. And, I'm starting to play around with Kino a little to edit videos. There's enough software there to keep me busy for months.
Thought it looked neat--and appropriate for a Linux desktop...
It would also be appropriate for my screen name...
Is what you said. But when I provide the names of 2 popular commercial products, you break down in tears. Too bad, so sad.
Haha! Keep the laughs coming!
Let me explain what just happened, because you obviously don't understand. No one broke down, Turkey...I pointed out the stupid flaw in your apples to oranges comparison, then went on to blow your feeble contention out of the water, playing by your rules and beating you. Of course, you're not bright enough to realize what just happened.
But I did notice that you ignored my request for instructions to run XMMS under Windows XP. Why's that?
So you have to subscribe to Cedega, and pay a monthly surcharge back to them just to run your software? Why not just buy a decent O/S to begin with, and run everything in it's native mode? Makes too much sense?
Cedega costs a minimum of $15. No need to renew, as the software will not break.
Software run under Cedega typically runs much faster than the same software running under Windows.
"So you have to subscribe to Cedega, and pay a monthly surcharge back to them just to run your software?"
You're the one who, earlier on this thread, was condemning me for not paying for my software, saying I "sold out capitalism". Why the sudden change of heart?
"Why not just buy a decent O/S to begin with, and run everything in it's native mode? "
Oh, yeah, like the fellow did in post 109? It ran GREAT in native mode...after he resolved all his dependencies and added third party resource managers and the like. Moron.
"Makes too much sense?"
Nothing you say makes too much sense.
XMMS? Why in the world would I want to slow my computer down with that junk?
Quit hiding from the discussion, that being your claim Linux is easy to use, while I continue to prove it's not, whether it be a beginner being unable to find proper install procedures, to Linux vendors themselves being unable to convert their own systems. "Linux" is all one big confusing mess. Just as Michael Dell keeps saying, for years now.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1935309,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594
"People are always asking us to support Linux on the desktop, but the question is, 'Which Linux are you talking about?'" Dell asked.
"If we say we like Ubuntu, then people will say we picked the wrong one. If we say we like and support Ubuntu, Novell, Red Hat and Xandros, then someone would ask us, 'Why don't you support Mandriva?'
"It's not that there are too many Linux desktop distributions," Dell said, "it's that they're all different, they all have supporters and none of them can claim a majority of the market.
"If you look at DistroWatch, you'll see zillions of these distributions. Which one should we do?"
XMMS under Windows XP? Hello?
HA HA, sure it does! Why wouldn't it, since it would be running natively! /IGNORANCE
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