On Wed, 12 Jul 2006 08:57:56 +0200, Clive wrote:
> "Roy Schestowitz" <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:1791967.eMSD6qz1Mo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> [quoted text muted]
>
> Linux has come along way in the past five years, but I would still have
> doubts on forcing it onto a non-computer literate friend.
>
> Last night my ISP sent me a static IP address with an instruction manual on
> how to set up my computer (for MAC and Windows users) which seemed to be
> only a 5 minute job of changing network settings in the Control Panel.
>
> As usual, Linux is not so easy. GUI Yast kept crashing so I reverted to CLI
> yast. The information I needed to enter, gaterways, IP address, DNS etc all
> appear on different pages. Yast then complained that it need to install new
> software, which it couldn't do as it didn't have a network connection. As I
> was searching for my source disks I noticed that the transfer light on the
> router was flashing away and that Linux had decided it no longer needed the
> new software and was happy to connect.
>
> No major problems, but what looked like a 5 minute task in Windows/MAC
> turned into a 30minute headscratch in Linux. I wouldn't want to put someone
> without any computer background into a Linux environment to perform minor
> tasks such as this.
>
> Sure, the desktop is fine, but I do find myself spending more time on the
> command line than in the desktop.
>
> //Clive.
I think Linux is great but I agree wholeheartedly with what you say. I
have been out of the country for a few years and before I left I set my
mother up with Linux so that I knew her machine would be reliable while I
was away. I did not trust Windows to run for a few years without help.
The machine has been rock solid all this time but a couple of months ago
her ISP decided to stop supporting POP3 and told all users to start using
webmail... She does not like webmail and wants her email to be on the
machine as she uses dial up and only uses the internet to pop for mail.
This would be a trivial task if I were there but I am not so she is now
without email. Thanks to VOIP I can still call her regularly and she can
call me local rate but she has lost touch with a lot of friends. I can
only suggest that she gets a friend to install Windows as that will work.
The machine is set up to use a slave drive for her /home/documents and
that drive is formatted FAT32, so I am prepared for this eventuality. I
just wish that it was possible to have a setup file in Linux like you can
in Windows so that I could just mail her a disk and do it.
--
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