tienshiao.org

On Linux: I’ve bit the bullet, and installed Linux on my desktop. I’ve used Linux (and BSD) in the past on my servers, and have had no problems there. I’ve always felt that Linux was not ready for the desktop…. and I still it isn’t quite ready for the desktop. I’m running Gnome 2.2. I think the big problem is it’s just not cohesive enough. The programs just don’t work quite the same, nor do they look and feel the same. And it also isn’t quite as responsive as a Windows desktop. Maybe I should renice X. And maybe try KDE.

So why did I switch? Well, it seemed like a good time. I did not have any heavy dependencies on Windows, and felt that it was a good time to experiment. I figured it would be easier to switch from Linux back to Windows, than the opposite. I don’t have much need for Office applications, so OpenOffice should suffice. Mozilla is good but a bit of a pig, and I can’t use the HTMLArea feature of my “New Blog Entry”. I’m mostly doing development stuff, so Linux is fine (though Eclipse is a bit of a pig too under Linux).

On Installing Software: My girlfriend was trying to install some program today. She is by no means computer illiterate (in fact in many ways, she is more capable than I am). Now this program is a “small” (maybe quaint is a better word) little utility/server that the author claims to be the best thing since sliced bread. Err… well that may be true, but if the installation procedure requires an Act of God, nobody will ever know. She gave up after a couple of minutes. I didn’t even bother to try after flipping through the many pages of the installation guide. Users in the forums posted their “success” stories that detailed their 3 hours of work. Granted the program is a server, but if it is targeting the end user, nobody is going to use the program if it requires 3 hours of work to install.

Installation programs should be really simple, and largely self documenting. The default values should also be reasonable, as many people will not bother to change them.

Another thing.. I had a hard time grasping what exactly it did. I read some things, but some good concrete examples would have been helpful.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 8th, 2003 at 5:35 pm and is filed under Computers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.