"Sinister Midget" <phydeaux@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:o5o5p3-u5d.ln1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Excuse #14: "In linux you have to KNOW things." -- tab
This last one is a legitimate concern, IMHO. When you're born, you know
almost nothing. So from there, how do you get the point where you learn what
it is you need to know to use Linux?
In early days, MacOS had a tutorial to teach you how the mouse works
(anyone remember that? You had to feed the fish by clicking on the fish
food, and if you overfed it, it would die?) Around the era of Windows 95, if
you didn't know how to use a mouse, chances are someone around you did, and
you could learn from them.
In the days of DOS, if you typed "help" at the command prompt, you'd get
taken to a program with a task-oriented table of contents (e.g. "How to
delete files, how to create folders, etc.") as opposed to a command-oriented
table of contents ("what does mv do?" "what does rm do?" etc.)
Windows XP has an entry called "Help and Support" in the start menu. I
haven't used other distributions recently, but last time I checked Ubuntu
didn't. If you can't connect to the Internet, Windows XP holds your hand
through the process. Power users may be turned off by all this nursing, but
it's a real boon to new users. With Linux, in my experience, you have to
"already know" where to look for help. With the "man" or "info" command, for
example, you have to already know what command it is you want help with (as
opposed to knowing what *TASK* it is you want help with).
Perhaps more Linux distributions should, by default, be in the "treat me
like a newbie" mode, and have an obscurely documented switch to change to
"expert mode", rather than the other way around. For example, you know when
you boot up from most Linux installation media for the first time, and it
says to just press enter if you want to install? If I do just press enter,
it should try to make as many decisions as possible for me. As a newbie, I'm
not in a position to make an informed decision as to whether I want Gnome or
KDE or some other window manager. Just pick one for me. If I'm a Linux Guru,
and I want to choose, then I would have done something other than "just
press enter".
- Oliver
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