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posted by
Dopefish
on Wednesday March 05 2014, @07:30PM
from the no-need-to-join-the-microsoft-collective dept.
from the no-need-to-join-the-microsoft-collective dept.
resignator writes:
"'Arm yourself with the information needed before telling someone to install such and such distro because it's great,' warned blogger Ken Starks in his recent FOSS Force post. 'It might be great for you, but maybe not so much with my hardware choices.'
What considerations do SoylentNews readers have when recommending an OS? What OS do you recommend the most or least? How far would you go to 'tailor' a Linux distro to a potential adopter before recommending something that will work out of the box but lack non-essential features?"
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I'm not a robot like you. I don't like having disks crammed into me... unless they're Oreos, and then only in the mouth.
-- Fry
(Score: 3, Insightful) by prospectacle on Wednesday March 05 2014, @08:40PM
Short answer if they asked: Linux Mint Live CD, then dual boot if they like it.
Most people don't like even minor interface changes, let alone major ones, let alone new ways of thinking about personal folders, application installation, etc.
I'll happily talk for as long as anyone is interested about the virtues and glorious history of free software in general, and specific free programs and operating systems. I wouldn't recommend to my friends or family to switch, though*. They need to get their on their own.
If they already decided to try something new, then they'll be willing to get over the interface and paradigm changes.
If they only switch because for some strange reason they trust me, then all the difficulty and frustration they encounter will reflect on the reputation of free software, and on the trustworthiness of my advice.
*Except maybe firefox, since web-pages will still look the same.
If a plan isn't flexible it isn't realistic
(Score: 5, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Wednesday March 05 2014, @08:51PM
What frustrates me to no end is how people simply memorize a limited set of operations, but don't think to generalize or explore. The idea of exploring the computer is totally foreign and any simple changes stumps so many people. Just like if one program has the an option for "save", and another has an option for "save file" -- people will get confused because they refuse to apply concepts to menus or operations. It's as if they go into a new house and the drawer pulls are made of brass instead of the stainless steel they're used to -- if people treated drawers like the do computers, they'd call up a carpenter and ask if they can pull the brass knobs to open the drawer before even trying.
(Score: 5, Funny) by prospectacle on Wednesday March 05 2014, @09:03PM
I think the difference is that you and I are just as familiar with various menus, buttons, dialog boxes, etc as we are with various drawers, doors, and cupboards. Many people aren't even close.
To extend your analogy, it's like you once opened a drawer with a funny handle while looking for a can opener, and you were suddenly transported you to a new room without warning. Looking down, you see the can in your hand has turned from spaghetti to spam, and you don't know how to turn it back, or which door takes you back to the other room.
After that you'd start to be wary of any drawers that you weren't familiar with.
If a plan isn't flexible it isn't realistic
(Score: 1) by jasassin on Friday March 07 2014, @06:52PM
Wow. You just blew my mind.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Wednesday March 05 2014, @10:18PM
You don't want the type you described exploring, you want to slap a Firefox shortcut on their desktop and rename it "Internet Explorer" and while you're at it slap shortcuts to their media folders on the desktop as well, naming the shortcuts likewise with Windows terminology ("My music, My Pictures, My downloads, etc."). They won't bother to understand the concept of /home, all they want is to check e-mail and browse porn and Facebook.
The ones like us who go into it ourselves are a whole different breed. We want to experience for ourselves why Linux is better by exploring the increased freedom we have, often having borked our installs back in the day when manually editing config files was "elite hacking." The majority of us installed it ourselves out of curiosity and/or practicality, not because our grandkids gave us an ultimatum after having reinstalled our Windows for the fiftieth time.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 06 2014, @08:58AM
naming the shortcuts likewise with Windows terminology
Ken Starks has a story about that too: 84-year-old with a stubborn streak [googleusercontent.com]. (orig) [fossforce.com]
-- gewg_
(Score: 1) by dvorak on Thursday March 06 2014, @04:21AM
I think at least some of that lack of generalization is due to variance in behaviors between software. There are certain things whose consistency is enforced by the operating system, but in some cases an application can take what seems like a generalized concept and apply it in a different way. Imagine that saving from one program emptied that program's undo stack. That would be abnormal, potentially destructive if I lost work in an old,version of a file, and would make me think twice about clicking save.