However, this point isn't that relevant for the same reason I described in my previous reply to this thread -- focusing on the idealized hacker misses the importance of corporate sponsership. The Linux desktop is just becoming a viable business model (e.g. Sun signed a deal last year to put it on millions of Chinese government desktops) and so the usability will follow. Red Hat, Sun, Novell/Suse, among others, all have dedicated usability engineers working on this and so expect the situation to change in the next year or two.
-- adam
On Apr 2, 2005 9:52 AM, T Fast <tfast at yorku.ca> wrote:
> >
> > 10 minutes? 30 minutes? It takes about 2 minutes to set up filesharing
> > with networked Macs.
> >
> > Doug
>
> Yah it takes about two minutes on MS if all computers are running 2000 or
> above. And ON DIY OS installs you configure it in the setup so really no
> time at all.
>
> To accomplish the same basic functionality on a Linux LAN takes considerably
> more time in part because it is a more robust platform. But the front end
> GUI for Samba is anything but intuitive, the help files almost useless, the
> advanced guides read like a commitment to mastering the first three chapters
> of Capital. There are no setup wizards which translate what the user wants
> into settings. So the Linux community can keep telling itself it is
> superior to MS or even MAC at the back end but the issue for the average
> user is not the sophistication of the back end but the ease of use on the
> front end. It is going to take a real revolution in the Linux culture to
> change this.
>
> Travis
>
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