Re: SEUL: What's so hard about Linux...

["Aldo-Pier Solari" <solaris@fobos.ulpgc.es>]

On 23 Aug 97,  Jay Bloodworth <seul-project@seul.org>  wrote:

> but I haven't heard any convincing statements of what exactly is so hard.  

Well, just look at the subject field of the N*10^5 of messages 
floating around in Linux related traffic: It'll give you an insight
of what problems are related to Linux installtion. You can even talk
to people who either use or have attempted to use the OS. A flood of
information is telling you what the convincing arguments are :-).
Just type LILO at Altavista's engine and watch :-) --> This very 
'simple' issue alone has gotten people to dismiss Linux.

> What's so hard about installing Linux?

New nomenclature, new parameters, new HD partitioning, new 
military-like names on applications, documentation written for 
unixoid people who average users will not understand (there's a lot 
of an elitistic thinking in that and don't tell me people who don't 
understand unix documentation are idiots, please), etc.

> you've got to either make the decisions
> about how to repartition for him or force him to figure it how for
> himself.  

Why ? Is it impossible for a coder to implement an algorithm to 
figure out HD partitioning based upon HD features and the packages 
and needs the user has ?. I bet it is possible to do. The problem is 
that you have to look at these issues not as an experimented Linux 
user but as novice.

> What's so hard about using Linux?

You have to listen and watch what *other* users say about it not what 
you as a 'geek' will say about it. SEUL, as I understand it, is not 
for 'geeks': The bottleneck here is not a technically oriented 
computer science student but the non-technically oriented user (who 
do not know anything about hardware, cumputer jargon, OSes ... etc.).
That's the challenge for the project.

Cheers,

	APS
----
Aldo-Pier Solari <solaris@searn.sunet.se>, Fish.Res.Gr./ULP
Home: http://segate.sunet.se/fish-ecology/aps/index.html
Oath:          'I will not fail those with whom I serve'
----
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