Oh, behave. ;-)
Amazing << Hear this. Feel this, and tell me that this isn't music.
Posted on 12/18/2008 5:54:37 PM PST by Halfmanhalfamazing
Windows users have a real problem when it comes to updates. Sure they have Microsoft Update and certainly many applications include their own update mechanisms. Yet despite that, there seems to be a problem with Windows users actually updating.
So allow me to make a suggestion. Microsoft (or a really smart ISV) should build a full application manager for Windows, similar to what most Linux distributions do today.
For the non-Linux users out there - what Linux distros typically do is have a package management utility of some sort that pulls updates from a package repository (or repositories). Those updates could be for the core operating system but also could include updates for any application package in a repository. So if for example Mozilla Firefox is updated, you don't necessary have to go to Mozilla to update. Instead if its in your Linux distro's repository when an update is issued you'll get an update as part of your existing unified update process.
Small caveat though - there can sometimes be a delay between the time an application has an update upstream and the time an update actually appears in a particular Linux repository.
Overall though, the general idea of one unified approach through a master application package updating tool is one that in my view keeps Linux users (relatively speaking) up to date (and no pun intended on the old Red Hat Up2date command). Wouldn't that type of system be a good one for Windows too? Wouldn't you rather have one update process instead of many?
^^^^^^^^^^Yeah, like the average American wants to be a geeky dork that gets off on configuring their computers all day. No thanks. I’d rather be busy configuring my wife’s bra.^^^^^^^^^^
Yeah, being as my linux has a one stop shop to get it all done, I configure that bra a lot more often since going with linux.
:-)
Apple/mac software could benefit from a repository as well.
See post five, and read it through the lenses of a mac user.
What I wrote isn’t limitted to Windows, it very well applies to the mac experience as well.
If anything, given Apple’s long history of ‘ease of use’ you’d think they would’ve been the first company to come up with the idea of a repository. :-P
Let there be.....ISUSPM. There, all better now.
Linux: repository
Microsoft: suppository
Grab the ankles!
ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!
Hmm, well that's only slightly creepy...
In any event, a Windows user is obligated to spend much more time configuring their system that a Linux user, and thats just to keep it running. There's the regular virus scanning, spyware scanning, defragging and Windows Updating including the check by Windows Genuine Advantage to "protect you" from running a pirated Windows. Then you have to keep the virus and spyware signatures up to date and re-buy if needed, and reinstall a new version of the virus scanner when it expires. Remember to keep that thing running in the background at all times, them viruses and rootkits are nasty. Then go to the respective web sites of your firewall and other commonly used software to download the updates. Install each of them.
Whew! It hardly leaves enough time for you to awkwardly tell us how much of a man you are.
Oh, behave. ;-)
Amazing << Hear this. Feel this, and tell me that this isn't music.
“In any event, a Windows user is obligated to spend much more time configuring their system that a Linux user, and thats just to keep it running. “
Really, I do all that? Didn’t know. My XP box has been running just fine for several years and my servers even longer. No problems. Unlike Linux, I’ve never even had to enter a single single command line.
“No thanks. I’d rather be busy configuring my wife’s bra.
Hmm, well that’s only slightly creepy...
“
Bras are creepy? I can see why you like Linux. lol.
No it doesn’t.
The WORST thing about Linux for the average user is the package manager and the repository. 90% of the stuff available is arcane stuff only a Linux geek would know or understand. Honestly, how many regular users are going to install libgalago-gtk-dev? Yet it’s right there among tens of thousands of choices. Too much choice is not good.
Maybe there should be a few modes: user, administrator and developer. Hide most of the stuff for user, show all but dev tools for administrator, and the dev tools for developers. If what a user downloads needs some libraries, install them silently behind the main download. You’ll need a notification like “Support files will be installed with this package” and a non-intrusive button to view a list of the files.
You get kind of the same thing by installing MacPorts.
I used to use update expert to update Windows servers, not just the O/S updates but any software that you could build a package for. Now Shavlik bought UE and is killing it off for their own crappy product which I’ve heard they actually approved using UE functions so I’ll probably download it to test it.
Now we use MS WUS, I mean WSUS, it seems to work well for MS products but updating say, Adobe, good luck, if anyone knows how to do it, I’d greatly appreciate it. The other option is SMS or whatever they call it this week.
approved=improved, idiot!
You either have a LOT of GUI-overlay tools or don't get too into it. Do you do any networking? Ping, tracert, netstat, ipconfig and nslookup are the best ways to find out what's going on. Some things are just done better though the command line, no matter what OS you're on.
I recently converted an old Win98 machine to Xubuntu. The Windows WiFi driver was a pain to set up and use. Xubuntu saw the card and just set it up (it may have helped that it had a common chipset).
Me neither, in PCLinuxOS.
Linux will never be ready for the masses unless someone comes up with a way to add/update software that is closer to the Windows model. The Linux way scares off way too many average users. For most who would even bother to read a thread like this, the process isn't all that hard. But if Mona in Pamona ever even thought of dumping Winders for Linux she'd run screaming at the first sight of a command line.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^Unlike Linux, I’ve never even had to enter a single single command line.^^^^^^^^^^^^^
That linux has been dead for a long time.
Commands aren’t required any more for linux than for windows or mac.
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