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Re: [News] Firm Moves to GNU/Linux on the Desktop

__/ [ Mark Kent ] on Thursday 12 April 2007 14:47 \__

> Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
>> __/ [ thad01@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ] on Wednesday 11 April 2007 18:12
>> \__
>> 
>>> Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> Because Linux is not Windows (or a clone of it). :-)
>>> 
>>> It is interesting to note that the Linux distributions that try
>>> hardest to emulate Windows are not as popular as Ubuntu (which
>>> does not).  Trying to be too much like Windows is probably a
>>> mistake, as it reinforces the false assumption that the OS should
>>> behave like Windows in every way, leading to confusion when it
>>> does not.  Ubuntu takes the correct approach by focusing on
>>> improved usability on its own terms, even doing it better than
>>> Windows in many cases.  Get the user in the mindset that they are
>>> learning something new and better, not just replacing Windows,
>>> and the whole Linux experience becomes much more rewarding.
>> 
>> Yes, clearly. I remember your recent example where you talk about
>> installing many applications in one go. I never quite thought about that.
>> I used Synaptic (though it could be any command-line utility like yum or
>> apt-get) to just get one package at a time, although clearly other things
>> are possible. Some things people just take things for granted and rely on
>> wrong assuptions... applications needn't to be fetched from some Web site,
>> then installed one at a time, with reboots in between. Linux will -- to
>> many people -- be a whole new way of thinking.
>> 
> 
> I've become so used to installing whatever I want in whatever batch
> quantity I chose, at whatever time I like, that I cannot imagine going
> back to the Microsoft Windows Serial Installation model;  aside from
> anything else, the costs of doing installation in such a fashion are
> colossal, imagine what a company of, say, 10,000 PCs spends in paying
> people to sit in front of a computer constantly installing and rebooting
> just to stick a few patches and packages on?  I've seen the vastly
> complex remote installation methods which have been invented to try to
> get around these problems in Windows, and then I look at the linux way,
> where, well, it just works.
> 
> As Thad says above, the need for retraining cannot be ignored, but at
> the same time, it should not be used as a reason alone to avoid change,
> since the benefits of moving from Windows are so great that even some
> retraining is well worthwhile.

As for the first point, that's why companies (which can _afford_ it) create
their own images. Of course, there are _MANY_ downsides to making a _static_
image like that.

-- 
                ~~ With kind regards

Roy S. Schestowitz      |    "On the eighth day, God created UNIX"
http://Schestowitz.com  |  GNU is Not UNIX  |     PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
roy      pts/0                         Wed Apr 11 09:44   still logged in   
      http://iuron.com - proposing a non-profit search engine

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