On Tue, Nov 04, 2003 at 06:30:57AM -0800, Richard S. Crawford wrote: > On Tue, 2003-11-04 at 03:24, Michael Schwendt wrote: > > > Do *you* disagree? Go back a couple years from now and Linux is clearly not a good idea for naive users. Go forward a couple years from now and I expect it will be. So when is the point in between when it becomes worthwhile? Possibly now (with Suse?), possibly not yet. I vote "not yet". Yes, I have just recently set up my mother-in-law with RH 9--but I can ssh into her box (static IP address on DSL) and manage things, and I can even do that nifty VCN screen sharing that just got a lot easier in RH 9. Oh, and though I wasn't able to fly from here (Boston) to there (LA) to set it up, my wife was and she did a fine job. (My mother-in-law even hooked up the Cambridge Soundworks speakers we later sent, all by herself--with a litte phone support.) My mother-in-law is clearly having a better time of it than she would on MS Windows--but it is because I am doing good hand-holding. Were she to attempt either Linux or Windows on her own I doubt she would be so happy. > I think Windows can be an acceptable solution for the home user, as long > as the following conditions are met: It depends upon the meaning of "acceptable". Microsoft has a monopoly, there is a lot of lore surrounding how to survive their products, and there is a blind assumption by most of the world that "computer" means "computer running lots of Microsoft products". It is a terrible state of affairs, but as so few even question it, it clearly appears to be "acceptable". Enter Linux. I like Linux better. I think it *is* better. I want it to succeed. I want the results to be better. But for Linux to compete with a ruthless and entrenched monolopy--one that gets to set standards--Linux will have to be a LOT better than Microsoft's level of "acceptable". For most computer users Linux is still worse than Microsoft. If for no other reason that is is different from what they know and different from what hardware and software manufacturers know. One still needs to be a pioneer to use Linux. Linux is getting better, Bill finally noticed, and he has reason to be scared, but Linux distributions are still weak enough, and the cost of being a pioneer is still high enough, that I don't recommend civilians plunge forth on their own. If people are going to have a bitter computer experience, I want it to be with Windows. Save Linux a bit longer, wait until it is better. -kb, the Kent who is much more encouraging to those who on their own think Linux is the thing to try, but that is different from "recommending". -- redhat-list mailing list unsubscribe mailto:redhat-list-request@xxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-list
