RE: Explaining Linux

[(Ted Harding) <nospam [at] nessie.mcc.ac.uk>]

On 29-Feb-00 R.A.Fletcher wrote:
> My friends and I have been talking lately about Linux, and it has 
> lead to some pretty heated debates. Simply put, they have never 
> used linux, they are used to Windows and see no reason why they 
> should change, and hence anyone else like them.

> They presume that Linux only has advantages for the technically
> minded

Not So -- many reasons.

>  and will be useless to the average user.

Not So -- again many reasons.

> They accuse Linux of being harder to use,

Depending on the _type_ of use the user needs, valid responses to
this range from "Linux is MUCH easier" to "Linux is MUCH harder".

> having less software

True in many respects, though not in all. Again, there is a mass
of software available for Windows which you simply can't find
the equivalent of for Linux (OCR, anyone? Parallel Port scanners?
WebCam cameras? Encyclopedia Britannica? ... ? Games?)

There's quite a lot either available for Linux but not Windows,
or which works better on Linux than on Windows.

> and being less dependable as, since  its free, there is no
> accountability like there is with Micro$ofts products.

This represents a confusion between dependability (reliability,
i.e. will it keep going?), accountability (Whom can we sue
because it keeps going wrong?) and availability of user support.

As I've said elsewhere: when it comes to getting faults fixed,
with Windows you can expect everything (they do claim they're
selling a commercially supported product) but look forward to
nothing (in practice you'll be lucky). With Linux you can expect
nothing (why should any of these volunteer developers bother
with this bug?), but look forward to everything (at least within
a few weeks, sometimes overnight).


> How can I explain that when I tell someone about Linux its 
> because I think it may benefit them, if not educationally then 
> financially?

It's horses for courses. If you can show them that the sort of jobs
they need to do (or some of them) can be done better, easier,
quicker, more reliably and cheaper on Linux (as many can), then
they may see the point. If they can show you jobs where Windows
suits them better, then Linux has got some way to go on those
fronts.

(I remember when I started using Linux, back in '93, showing
it to a colleague, whose response was "Very nice, but where's
the word-processor? Where's the spreadsheet? Where's the database?"
Spot-on comments in those days, and Linux has since filled much
of the gap; but it's still far from complete.)

One of the bugbears with Linux in a Windows world is interchange
of data. For instance, there is only _one_ way to reliably exchange
Word documents with someone using Word, and that is to yourself
use Word (and preferably the same version as they use, with
the same add-ons). VMWare has gone a long way to bridging the
chasm, but it still means you have to install a valid copy of
Win-95/98/NT and use it.

Ted.

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E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding [at] nessie.mcc.ac.uk>
Date: 29-Feb-00                                       Time: 16:14:49
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