Linux is still not ready for the masses
Found on The Inquirer on Tuesday, 12 August 2008
Those of us who are a little less biased, and have a chunk of common-sense, realise it simply isn't user-friendly enough to provoke a mass move from the much friendlier Microsoft Windows.
Like it or not, eye candy, special effects, translucent windows, etc, are inevitably going to attract 'normal' PC users.
Seriously, installing applications on Linux is awful. Don't flame me or berate me with examples of how easy it is - it's not.
Half the time it's full of trials, tribulations, problems, and manual hacks - this is simply not good enough for a simple non-technical user.
The Linux distributors could at least focus on supporting the major OEM product lines with installs that work correctly out of the box.
Worst article ever. Dean Pullen obviously hasn't touched something else than his beloved Windows for years (or was he paid to write the article MS friendly?). Want eyecandy? Install a desktop you like, or Beryl or Compiz. Vista looks, but far less resource hungry. Installing? I don't know what's so complicated when you have to select the application and click install. Windows software is half baked as well; just use your brain to figure out if there's another more stable software doing what you need. And hardware? Funny, I had less hardware problems with Linux than with Windows. If you want to talk about working out of the box, replace the mainboard in your PC with another one and try to boot your beloved Windows. It will bail out with a BSOD. Linux just boots. How come uninformed journalists are allowed to write articles like this? Or it might just be trolling...