Partial threadjack - you are correct :)
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.
I agree. Once that occurs, then Linux will be acceptable to most people.
Under what rock do you find a total computer newbie in 2006?
No you wont!
What about Microsoft Project files?
If you really want to get the full available power out of Linux, that's true. For many things though, a lot of the stuff works more or less like you'd expect. I saw an interesting usability study done about 6 months or so ago that had complete Linux newbies set up in two groups. This was done at a corporation that was wanting to switch over to Linux, and they were trying to find out which window manager they should roll out to newbies. One group had a default Gnome desktop, and the other had a default KDE desktop.
One of the interesting things that came out of it was that Gnome was more similar to MS-Windows for users, but it was more difficult to get used to. It seemed that because it was so similar, the small differences were more annoying to the users than those who used KDE, which has a much different look and feel. Apparently, because KDE was obviously different, users were able to more quickly learn the new ways of doing things because there was less expectation that they'd be able to do things just as they did before.
One major difference between MS-Windows and either window manager was the feature of multiple desktops. Having separate workspaces can be confusing at first, but once you get used to it, there is really no going back to a single workspace for everything. It's kind of like tabbed browsing. I can't imagine having everything in separate windows anymore. It just seems downright counter-intuitive to me now.
Not everyone is going to like doing things the Linux way. That's cool though. Those of us who do, and have found it to be a much more productive environment in which to work are just glad that we have the choice.
Well, then, Mepis is just a short drive up the road for you.
Personally, I've never needed to work with them. However, it is possible to read those files in Linux. I don't think there is any software that will produce *.mpp files.
There are project planners available for Linux, but they are not compatible with MS Project.
When I do have to run Windows, I use a neat little tray program called VirtuaWin. It allows me to have up to 9 desktops under Windows.
I have one computer that boots XP and Mepis, too. I went a little graphics crazy on the Mepis side, and now, even with 2gHz and 512 mb of ram, it's a bit slow. Of course, everything is transparent...window decorations, taskbar, terminal, etc. Even my start button now fades from black on one end to transparent on the other...
BTW, am I to assume from your nickname that you're a proud Fender owner?
XP didn't recognize and configure my wireless automatically, either. But, having done it myself on two different laptops (one with a Linksys card and one with built-in wireless) with two different operating systems, I can tell you it isn't difficult using the "ndiswrapper" program if your card is supported. Not "plug-in-and-go", but much quicker than installing device drivers in Windows.
But, I'm not making any suggestions...just saying that if it can be done relatively easy in a few minutes, it might be worth considering...once you learn how, you can install pretty much any Linux you want that has ndiswrapper and get the wireless working.
I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "go between" programs. Photoshop CS2 , I don't really know anything about it. The GIMP works fine for the graphics I need. I've recently started playing with POV though. It rocks for making realistic models using raytracing.
I've heard of that, but in those really rare instances when I must use ms-windows, i'm not in it long enough to make it useful, as I'm usually just cleaning up virus infections from someone's PC.
POV :) you should try wings3d(its free), I have Rhino 3D its pretty good, Gimp is ok in a pinch, but not a replacement for Photoshop IMHO. Don't you need like "wine" or something to run windows programs?
Industrial Light and Magic uses Film-GIMP for preprocessing, so it obviously has it's place :-)
<Joe user mode>
WTF is "ndiswrapper"? My head hurts. What to do I click to get online?
</Joe user mode>
That's my requirement. Admittedly, Windows XP really didn't do this well until SP2.
another reason I prefer Photoshop to Gimp I know it better.
No kidding! Especially since Linux resellers like IBM and Novell haven't even been able to complete their transitions yet, and refuse to even give a schedule. How many years behind is that city in Germany too? Obviously even legitimate experts in Linux can't make the transition gracefully or timely, meaning anyone recommending it for "newbies" has some sort of agenda and is limited to opinion pieces rather than facts. Kudos to the author for admitting it, since most Linux pushers won't.
Partial threadjack - you are correct :)
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