[TriLUG] Where is Linux today?

Owen oberry at trilug.org
Wed Jun 18 11:32:29 EDT 2008


On Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 12:56:16PM -0400, Maxwell Spangler wrote:
> I don't recommend Linux.  Why would I recommend Linux to a typical user
> who wants to do simple tasks that OS X and Vista both do so well and
> require no specialized training or support with?  I especially don't
> want everybody's brother calling *me* personally to support their Linux
> system when it can't get on the net or "runs really slow" (as every
> computer seems to do over time.)

I know this is different to installing Linux as a primary OS for a
novice user, but for the past few years when family come to visit for
extended periods, I set them up to login to my Linux box rather than
dual booting into Windows, and they have had 0 (as in zero) problems so
far.  And that is a Gentoo box, not your super friendly latest Ubuntu or
Fedora release. It started because I had no time to sit and install
updates for Windows and all the little bits of related software that get
installed to make it useful, rebooting countless times along the way ...
I just setup my desktop to log them automatically, started a browser,
pointed them to the computer and ran out the door to work. No questions,
no problems.  Seems like progress from a few years ago to me.

> If you put your personal politics and preferences aside, you have to
> admit that Linux, Mac OS X and Vista are all very powerful and capable
> operating systems.

Hmmm ... that must be why my wife is almost begging me to replace Vista
with XP on her new Dell laptop. And I get the feeling that her Vista
laptop with a more powerful processor, more memory and newer components
runs noticeably slower than my older laptop running XP. Seems like
progress to me. :-)

Owen



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