On 12/26/2011 05:17 PM, Swapnil Bhartiya wrote:
Sorry for the sweeping generalizations, but:
Your last couple posts ar saying, in effect, "in Ubuntu, I used $METHOD
to accomplish $USER_TASK. How can Fedora replicate the $METHOD I used
in Ubuntu? "
Hi Pete,
You might run into some trouble, because the two distributions have
different $METHODS. There is an important distinction to be made
between the end goal (putting videos on a tablet) and the method used to
do it (installing Miro, for example.) I'm concerned that instead of
reviewing Fedora, you will end up reviewing your ability to turn Fedora
into Ubuntu. Your struggle with the apparently unneeded fedora-utils
and proprietary nvidia drivers are evidence of the kind of bias I hope
your writing doesn't include.
I totally understand and admit that coming for Ubuntu I have migrated
quite a lot of users from Windows to GNU/Linux. These are average
users who don't know much about computers and don't need to. So, I am
looking for ways how to help them and help me in using Fedora. I am
trying to avoid every possible scope for any flameware here as that's
not the goal. I am new to fedora and of course I will look at it from
the point I am familiar with.
I am learning every day. For example now I managed to make my dual
monitor work without installing Nvidia drivers.
I also understand that Fedora's audience may be different than the
Ubuntu's audience. This is an area where I am confused. I think Fedora
is targeted at more advanced users, so I will refrain from
recommending it to average users. I was under impression that may be
due to recent marketing on fedora home page the target audience
changed. I have not spoken with any Fedora guy for ages ever since I
stopped working for the LFY magazine.
I don't want to put words in your mouth, but :
Instead of saying "installing nvidia drivers was very difficult, and
broke my installation so badly I had to reinstall" one could say "fedora
doesn't package drivers, such as the proprietary Nvidia binaries, that
it does not have the rights to redistribute, but the default open source
driver worked well for me."
Instead if saying "I had to use a 3rd party utility to install flash"
you could say "Fedora doesn't include flash, but after a week I found I
was glad to be rid of it."
See the difference?
That's interesting as I wrote a piece about how to install flash in
Fedora.
http://www.muktware.com/articles/2917
I'm going to assume that your impression of Fedora has been impacted by
this list as well. I hope the list members are aware they are
representing our community here, and I hope that you, Swampil, realize
that you have not been providing enough information in your postings to
receive the full benefit of support the knowledgeable list members here
have to offer.
I will improve and try my best to polish my queries before posting.
Thanks for your suggestions. Will keep in mind.
Swapnil
Hey Swapnil,
I understand you are writing for a specific audience, and you want to be
able to offer them a 'vanilla' impression of Fedora, how it works out of
the box. I commend and appreciate your conversion efforts, and I'm sure
you have plenty of experience explaining that things aren't the same in
linux as they were in Windows.
I don't agree that fedora is only for advanced users, however, because
most things just work out of the box. There is an assumption that a
user is willing to skim/search http://docs.fedoraproject.org - a
resource that is seldom referred with the old, rude acronym - and users
are generally encouraged to contribute bug reports, and follow up on
them (read: help (us help) themselves.) Now, my idea of the 'generic
end user' is someone who needs an operating system to support a browser,
and perhaps a media player or printer. These things are pretty easy to
set up in Fedora. What I'd refer to as 'special case' software CAN be
hard to find - Fedora's software GUI isn't nearly as approachable as
Ubuntu's - but thankfully we have people such as yourself to assist the
masses for the time being.
While I'm pondering my words, I am skimming over some of your articles.
The one titled "Fedora 16 Review: When An Ubuntu User Tries Fedora" in
particular has me reconsidering my suggestion of bias, as it seems that
you are very open about your perspective. I was under the impression
from your postings that you had yet to get to a working Fedora desktop,
but I see that you have done so and are moving on to the next tier of
desktop configuration tasks.
I've probably editorialized enough, and I'm sorry for hijacking your
support thread. I hope you continue to use and enjoy Fedora.
Pete
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