Date: Sun, 11 Apr 1999 14:05:52 +0300 (IDT) From: Eli Zaretskii X-Sender: eliz AT is To: Arron Shutt cc: djgpp AT delorie DOT com Subject: Re: DJGPP: the future is... ? In-Reply-To: <006001be8319$d6ee11e0$af52989e@default> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com X-Mailing-List: djgpp AT delorie DOT com X-Unsubscribes-To: listserv AT delorie DOT com Precedence: bulk On Sat, 10 Apr 1999, Arron Shutt wrote: > I've lost count the number of people saying that Linux is hard to use, No offense, but IMHO this is a baloney. Linux *installation* might need some improvements, especially if you happen to own some obscure hardware in your box, but that's about all. After Linux is installed, it is as user-friendly (or user-unfriendly) as Windows. The GUI is there for those who need it. So where's the problem? Some say that solving problems is hard. But it is also hard with Windows: Linux is about as complex as Windows is, so solving problems is also about as hard. The difference is that while with Linux you can dig deep enough to find out everything (since the sources are there to look and hack), with Windows you are stuck, unless you have some friendly guru around (I know: people from the entire department run to me when they have any problems ;-). Some say that Linux comes without tech support, so if you have an unsolvable problem, you have nobody to turn to. Now, *that's* a joke! I would really like to know what people do when they have unsolvable problems with Windows. Do they sue Microsoft? The truth is that with Linux, you will probably have a work-around by the end of the day, and a bugfix by the end of the week. This forum is an apt example of the *true* tech support in the free software world. So I really am at a loss why people keep saying that Linux is user-unfriendly. I guess somebody will have to explain this to me. > Since DJ was interesting > in selling a package to schools, then making Linux easier to use will > obviously do nothing but make that task easier. Would you please explain why do you think schools need Linux? Why isn't it enough to have DJGPP on DOS or Windows? I don't think schools go as far as writing GUI programs, so it shouldn't matter which interface they have. > An on-line tutorial. If this is a part of the ``Linux is not user-friendly'' argument, I would ask where's the tutorial for Windows? There aren't any. > Disk tools similar to PC-Tools or such. Linux already has several of these, like the Midnight Commander (available in DJGPP port as well, btw). And Emacs includes a built-in file manager. > The only problem I can see is that some companies tend to go for a > 'Total Microsoft Solution' (as has my own office) The real problem with the Microsoft influence is that people are required to produce files that are compatible with Microsoft products. For example, Word file format is quickly becoming the de-facto standard for exchanging documents, at least in large corporations. Since applications is the key to success, any solution that wants to replace Microsoft's bug-ware needs to address this issue. For example, if you come up with a better word processor, you must to be able to import Word documents and export files in format that Word can import (not necessarily the Word .doc format). *This* is (IMHO) the real challenge for those who want to promote free software.