Mom Meets Linux - A Lindows 4.0 Review 565
JimLynch writes "We just put up the first review of Lindows 4.0, with a twist. I actually gave it to my Mom to see if she could use it. Find out if Lindows 4.0 passed the "Mom Test.""
I had the rare misfortune of being one of the first people to try and implement a PL/1 compiler. -- T. Cheatham
a new slogan (Score:5, Funny)
Re:a new slogan (Score:2, Funny)
Mom tested, nerd approved.
Re:a new slogan (Score:2, Funny)
Trouble brewing (Score:5, Funny)
I can foresee shortly after the first "Mom-Approved Nmap" version hits the market, any web site containing pornography, Barney, or Martha Stewart will find itself under constant attack by a wave of vigilante 'Script Mommiez'.
Re:Trouble brewing (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Trouble brewing (Score:3, Funny)
Do they? I thought they just appeared from nowhere, like mold on a loaf of old bread or toadstools in your lawn...
Re:Trouble brewing (Score:3, Funny)
Or...
Tonight we'll be discussing how you can spice up a simple little root kit and make it not only h@x0r your enemies, but also make a festive screensaver that is both malicious AND fun...
Re:a new slogan (Score:3, Funny)
Did anyone else notice (Score:5, Funny)
I wonder what those were for...
*cough* one handed surfing *cough*
Yeah, so did I (Score:4, Funny)
I gave it to your mom last night, as well.
mother test (Score:5, Funny)
Re:mother test (Score:4, Funny)
(This has been a generic "your mama" joke. Resemblance to any actual mom, living or dead, is purely coincidental.)
Re:mother test (Score:3, Funny)
It can't just be me who considers the mom joke to be the height of humor...Can it?...Anyone?
Mom jokes. Height of humor. Right, then. Now if you'll just stand there for a moment, this will be painless for the both of us.
[A gunshot strikes the damp night and its echos fade quickly.]
Move along folks, nothing to see here.
Re:mother test (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:mother test (Score:5, Insightful)
The 'Mom Test' is a serious benchmark; it's name is not to be invoked lightly. The Mom Test involves nothing less than installing an OS on your mom's home desktop and seeing if she can figure out how to do all the things she would normally do with MS-Windows. If, after a month or so, your mom hasn't called you and demanded that you return her to Microsoft-Land, then (and only then) can the OS be said to have passed the 'Mom Test'.
My mom... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:My mom... (Score:2)
Re:My mom... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:My mom... (Score:3, Interesting)
But when you said it today, it reminded me of the slashdot article a few days back about autistic savants. Remember the story said their problem was that they only recalled the exact scene. If the shadows moved then they felt disoriented like it was a new place. Whereas for most people we can pick up concepts that allow us to comprehend it as being the same location.
I wonder
Re:My mom... (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't know how many times at work I've watched people spend 5 or more minutes going slowly through all the files in Windows Explorer, reading every filename, ctrl-click selecting all the *.blah files, so they can then drag.
Re:My mom... (Score:4, Insightful)
funny... clicking on the view->details menu function and then clicking on the type tab sort's by extension for me.
click on top boob.mp3 and shift-click on the last Zeeb.mp3 drag to Jaz drive/network drive/kazaa share and it's magically done.
in fact I can do it faster than you can open a shell and type your command....
I agree, most users are so brain-dead they smell bad, but you are just as mis-informed as they seem to be.
Re:My mom... (Score:5, Insightful)
Do you realize there are now at least 5 responses telling you how to copy 'all of the *.mp3 files in a directory to a floppy'.
I realize that the mp3 format may be used for things BESIDES individual songs ripped from CDs or downloaded, but the VAST majority of mp3 files are exactly this.
So... back to the genius part - you just had some (presumably) computer gurus explain how to take a directory full of 3-4 meg (average) sized files, and copy them onto a floppy disk.
LOL!!
Oh, and to ensure I don't get a shitload of 'offtopic' mods, I'm typing this from my parent's machine... with a fresh copy of Lindows 4.0 installed... and they are already enjoying it.
Re:My mom... (Score:5, Insightful)
Do YOU realize the slight difference in wording between what he said and what all of those other responses are chastizing him for?
HE said "there's no way to sort by extension". All of the replies calling him an idiot are telling him how to "sort by 'Type'". In most cases, "file type" is unique enough that each extension has it's own file type. However, the "file type" varies depending on what software you've installed on your computer that decides to 'claim' those extensions.
If the software decides to just give multiple extensions the same file type name, you end up with multiple filename extensions that are sorted as though they are identical to each other. So in the example he gave: if you'd installed Winamp (or any number of those crap media player packages that many OEMs put on their computers before they ship them), then you COULD have multiple extensions including
So if you have a folder with lots of files in it, ending in
There ARE ways of getting a list of files that match a certain extension from within the GUI (like other people have pointed out, using the Search/Find tool), but what he actually said was correct, and does not deserve your sarcastic bashing. Your post should not have been modded 'offtopic', but rather 'flamebait'.
Most people that don't want to learn console commands aren't going to want to learn "WindowsKey+F, copy current folder location, paste in 'Look in' box, type file extension in 'Named' box, click 'Find Now' button, select all" either.
Re:My mom... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:My mom... (Score:3, Insightful)
I just had to tech someone in our marketing department on how to put a fucking file in a fucking directory. Not on the command line. Not via ftp or WebDAV. A regular Windows file into a regular Windows directory.
People who claim to know how to use Windows in fact do not. They know how to use certain Windows programs. They are program-centric, not file-centric. I want to feel sorry for them, until I realize that they put "Windows use" on their resume, which was a fucking lie. Now I can hate the
Re:My mom... (Score:5, Interesting)
She still has problems, but I suspect they're mostly pilot error. At the moment, she has a 73MB inbox, and Mozilla mail seems to be having some trouble with it. I'm not sure how you make a system proof against stuff like this. I've got it set to email the logfiles to me every week, and a few cron jobs to check the health (disk space, temperature, voltages, etc) and log that on a regular basis. I reset her Mozilla preferences every login, (in
Supporting a senior citizen on a computer from a distance can be tough. My cousin (who lives in town, and is a Win-fan) put her on Windows for a while, when she was having hardware problems, and she had an even worse time. It's hard to know how to do best, but the ability to ssh in certainly helps.
Re:My mom... (Score:3, Informative)
He failed to mention that... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:He failed to mention that... (Score:5, Funny)
And it takes a Slashdot poster to misspell the word "two".
If it passes the Mom test, (Score:2)
I agree generally, a few additions... (Score:5, Interesting)
Easy VPN setup (mentioned in the article already, but very important..PPTP and IPSec)
Start the user off as a user with sudo privelages, but not as root...touchy I know for user privs, and it starts off a whole load of but "it's not important" but "oh yes it is" all over the place. OSX manages it nicely, I see no reason why Linux can't do the same.
Bundle an office client. It's KDE...KOffice isn't there by default? ???
I think that's about it. Other than of course throwing in a dock and putty a happy mac face on it.
Re:I agree generally, a few additions... (Score:3, Informative)
No, I don't use Lindows.
The one Mom-Test failure (Score:5, Insightful)
Linux needs advertising in the popular media. Sure, I can see Linux ads in computer magazines; however, when I turn my TV on, I see ads about how much money you can save by switching to .NET. We need advertising to gain the mindshare we need to become popular. A friendly desktop is a good start; now we have something that we can advertise. Now we need to get the word out there.
Re:The one Mom-Test failure (Score:3, Interesting)
A few years ago I was contemplating a new ISP, so I called several in the DC area (Erol's, ATT, etc.) and asked the "order takers" if their systems supported UNIX and/or Linux. ALL BUT ONE asked "What version of Windows are you running?", then they asked if I was running a Mac when I said "no, not Windows, UNIX". (no, I did not go into satire mode and say "X Windows" either
The one that understood right away? AOL and
Mindshare (Score:5, Interesting)
There's very little marketing of the penguin to the general public. (Red Hat has their, well, red hat... IBM has just their logo and targets corporate users, etc.) Yet this non-techie person at NYU knew something of the mascot. With that and other stories I've been hearing I think Linux is slowly gaining some mindshare, even will little marketing.
Re:Mindshare (Score:4, Interesting)
In fact, IBM is the only company I've ever seen advertise linux in a mainstream market. This makes sense- they are the only ones in a financial position to do so.
Re:Mindshare (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The one Mom-Test failure (Score:5, Insightful)
i mean, counting eyeballs, mindshare
'mom' failing to find a way to write a document seems to me to be a failure of the program-centric interface - rather than something 'task-centric'.
why didn't they just have a 'compose' button or something on the interface?
eg compose->[email | IM | local document | code]
eg browse->[my documents | internet | network]
and then launch an app accordingly. WHAM! mindshare problem solved.
'mom' didn't even immediately assume there was a 'start' button if you notice. which should tell you that she doesn't immediately assume that's how desktops should work. she wanted/needed to write a document, and when she discovered lindows 'L' was apparently set up to mimic the windows 'start' she -then- figured that Office must have been there somewhere. because it was trying to be just like her trusty old windows box.
don't fall into the 'mindshare' trap. windows is most vulnerable -because- it takes experience and training to know how to use it and predict how new apps/features should behave.
mindshare indicates the problem is insurmountable marketing challenges (education and exposure)- and if you'll notice, the only solution to the 'mindshare' is
Re:The one Mom-Test failure (Score:5, Insightful)
A computer is a tool. It helps me get things done. I'm naturally going to use the most efficient tool I can find. If you can find a way to increase my efficiency instead of just emulating the Windows environment and adding some fancy right-click menu, then you've got yourself a convert.
Re:The one Mom-Test failure (Score:4, Insightful)
That right there is the difference between a geek and a normal computer user, no matter how experienced. To me, a computer is nothing short of the world's greatest puzzle. It's to be toyed and tinkered with. If my tinkering breaks it, that's wonderful because I then have the opportunity to fix it. You can't fix what ain't broke, and where's the fun if it isn't broken in some way?
But I understand that most people are not that way, and that's why Linux is so cool. It can be whatever you want it to be: a super easy desktop, a super powerful desktop, a server, an embedded OS - all in the same kernel, but with dfferent wrappers.
Kudos to Lindows for trying to bring Linux to the inexperienced masses.
Thanks for playing. (Score:3, Insightful)
The non-tech-savvy people, OTOH, have basic needs that can easily be addressed by Linux: e-mail, internet, instant messaging, mp3 player, p2p app, word processing. That is all they need and want. If someone will wake up and do this (I suspect
easy solution (Score:4, Interesting)
Sure, this will piss off 'lites, but so the fuck what? Elitists won't be using Lindows anyways: the person who's been using Macs and Windows all his/her life will, or who's never used an OS before.
On the desktop, put things like:
Office or Word Processor
Spreadsheet
Database
Slideshow Presentation Creator
E-Mail
Internet
Porn
Music Player
Movie Player
File Sharing
CD-Ripping/Burning
Or better yet, create a superior UI from the start. See some of my examples from my home page:
a model desktop [rr.com]
some explanation of the desktop model [rr.com]
Re:The one Mom-Test failure (Score:3, Interesting)
Mom: "I love that free office program that you put on my computer!"
Me: "OpenOffice?"
Mom: "Yeah. I was using it today. I can't believe that it's free."
Before that, she was using MS Works. She's not the kind of person that wants to spend a lot of money on new software, so I suggested OpenOffice. OpenOffice meets her needs very well, as far as I can tell. People just need a little coaching at times. Yo
Re: Mom-Test FAILED (Score:3, Insightful)
Before the Lindows bashing begins... (Score:5, Insightful)
The more the desktop market becomes fractured, them more open standards have to be. The more companies will be willing to release hardware documentation (let the community write drivers, instead of attempting to write for 8 OSes). So, even if you don't like this distro, consider that the 'the average home user' buying a distro like this might still be a good thing.
-t
Re:Before the Lindows bashing begins... (Score:5, Interesting)
If "your momma" (sorry!) wanted to keep all her favourites, e-mail address and documents, there is no way that she'd be able to migrate between the two systems. It's relatively easy if you know how, but until Lindows can do this, they are only really viable as an OS for a new PC.
The next step for Lindows would be a disk that you put in a Windows PC that does some trickery to store your set up somewhere, install Lindows, then restore it.
Re:Before the Lindows bashing begins... (Score:5, Insightful)
Huh? only windows has this problem... linux does not.
Hell I can wipe my redhat or slackware or whatever I want this week and reinstall and magically my desktop for gnome and all my mozilla favorites, emails, and documents are there...
it's called being smart and making
backing up a user completely is 100000% effortless under linux... it is a major pain in the ass that usually don't work in windows.
until windows developers pull their heads out of their asses and NOT ALLOW users to put files anywhere but their home directory as default out of the box, and make it easy to migrate user 3256897 from one laptop to another without the ownership/permissions hell and that bulls**T that is the registry, windows will be very far behind linux in that aspect.
But WHERE is the data stored (Score:3, Insightful)
In any OS it's easy to migrate personal data, if you know what you are doing and where the data is stored.
But that is the point, in windows you don't know where the #@%^^%* data is stored. In linux your data is in /home/username, and you don't have the ability to write to much else (/tmp, which could perhaps be renamed to temperary_data, but I think that is clear enough already). Unfortunatly writing to floppies isn't as easy, and syncing for a laptop users is a pain. At least the data is easy to find
Re:Before the Lindows bashing begins... (Score:3, Interesting)
Umm... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Umm... (Score:4, Funny)
4.0? (Score:2)
I hope that they are planing to slow down when the reach the same version as red hat.
Mom Meets Linux, (Score:4, Funny)
What a coincidence! (Score:2, Funny)
I gave it to your Mom, too!
I tried... (Score:2, Funny)
Mom: what's that
Me: New OS
Mom: new what?
Me: New operating system just like wind...
Mom: ZZZZZZZZZZZ
Re:I tried... (Score:3, Funny)
Mom Test? (Score:2)
Sorry, couldn't resist.
Lindows updating proceedures... (Score:4, Funny)
I see how this could be nice. Whenever I upgrade drives (hard, optical, floppy, or otherwise), it's a 5 or 6 click process... which is precicely the amount of times the screw falls off the end of the screwdriver and dissapears somewhere in the case with a metallic click, to be heard rattling around just waiting to short something.
- Akky
P.S. For the brain dead, yes, I presume that they meant drivers.
Hmmm.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Sadly, when Microsoft does this several times a year people just shrug and wait for the patch of the patch.
I just don't know if Lindows will be able to survive if they don't implement the update process in any way less than perfect - they don't have the acceptance and power of the Redmond giant.
myke
About Time! (Score:2)
Linux might or might not benefit. On one hand, this is it's chance to lose it's image as a cryptic, nerds-only OS.
On the other, this open linux to AOL people.
If this guy's mom is like my mom... (Score:5, Interesting)
My mom, about a decade ago, took a class on Word Perfect. She learned what all those F-keys do, which is really useful since nobody seems to use Word Perfect anymore Alas, she brought home one piece of information that is useful for pretty much anything having to do with computers, and only one such piece of information:
"Read the whole screen".
I never realized how much stuff I just scan through when I do something on a computer. Like, when you're installing something, it may note "This action will consume 100 megabytes of space on your hard disk drive and will take a few minutes. Continue? [Back] [OK]": My mother will specifically read the entire thing. She'll ponder on that hundred megabytes. She'll consider whether or not a storm is likely to show up in a few minutes. And as you know, no dialog box ever has that little text in it.
I see "100 meg", "few minutes", instantly click [OK] and wander off for another Coke.
My mother reads EULAs.
I click [I Agree] while crossing my fingers with the other hand.
And as such, it drives one or the other of us bonkers if I ever have to show Mom how to do something on the computer. Either she's frustrated 'cause she's not sure what's going on, even though I try to slow down, or I'm about to pull my hair out wondering why she just doesn't click something, ANYTHING, DAMMIT!!
Ahem.
Anyhow, whether or not Linux is ready for Mom, I'm not ready to try to teach Mom Linux.
-JDF
Re:If this guy's mom is like my mom... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:If this guy's mom is like my mom... (Score:3, Funny)
Computer users that HAVE to read everything and ponder over each bit will be so overloaded their brains will crash.
Re:If this guy's mom is like my mom... (Score:3, Funny)
Alas, she brought home one piece of information that is useful for pretty much anything having to do with computers, and only one such piece of information: "Read the whole screen".
My mom reads everything on the computer literally. When her Windows machine became unstable (typical Windows rot), she kept getting the requester box with "This program has performed an illegal operation.". She refused to click the "OK", and she would turn off the power. She thought clicking "OK" was an admission of breakin
Re:If this guy's mom is like my mom... (Score:4, Insightful)
PC: Press the space bar to continue... ;-)
Mom: What happened!? What do I do now?
Me: Um, did you read the screen?
Mom: Oh.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
Re:This drives me (Score:3, Interesting)
The machine took my card and went BSOD, so I just whacked a lot of buttons at the same time. This apparently made the machine reboot and spit out my card.
The ATM (SEB, Sweden) was a 233MHz P2 with 256MB RAM running Windows NT 4.0 btw. It took a looooooooong time to boot, starting about 20 pieces of security/encryption software.
What about the Dad test? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What about the Dad test? (Score:4, Funny)
I'm wondering if there are any kids out there who do similar things with
ok, confusion here. (Score:2)
I don't get it. Is debian a Linux distro or a variant of Linux? If a variant, why is it not "Mom meets Debian"?
Re:ok, confusion here. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:ok, confusion here. (Score:3, Informative)
No, all of the BSDs (FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD) have their own, self made kernel. They're all spiritual descendents from the original BSD, which itself was a fork of the original UNIX and made significant improvements to it. They now each do things in sufficiently different ways that they all have their own kernel, though a lot of things are shared when they can be.
In a way, your question isn't the right one; which BSD are you asking about? Unlike Lin
dumbing down? (Score:4, Insightful)
Ok, so Lindows can replace Windows on the desktop at home, so that the average user can be productive.
But have we really done ourselves any favors?
It seems that we have done nothing more than create a windows "clone", with a brand new feature set of security problems.
Do we really want to compete with microsoft at that level? They have far more experience in the insecurity realm than we do.
They'll beat us to death with experience.
XP Mom Test (Score:2, Interesting)
This Test seems a bit weak (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:This Test seems a bit weak (Score:3, Interesting)
Last year, I converted our home pc to RedHat. I spent about 15 minutes showing my wife how to open Word documents with OpenOffice, and how to browse with Mozilla (which wasn't a big deal, since we'd been using it on Windows previously.)
For a while I got minor questions about things she couldn't sort out on her own; but within a month, she was totally independent. Almost a year later, I'm considering asking her to let me change distros for the hell of it.
She's not a power user by any means. And
Re:This Test seems a bit weak (Score:4, Funny)
Debian Does Dallas? (Score:4, Funny)
Domesticated Pengiuns?
"The OS Your Mother Would Have Made You"
"Linux and Apple Pie"
"Linux, with extra chicken soup"
sorry... the idea of a 'mom test' blew my mind. my mom (at 65) has been using computers for more than 20 years, and i don't think there is any proof that age is a barrier to using linux. how about 'tried lindows on people with a measured IQ of one hundred'.
Can we get Consumer Reports to give it another go? (Score:3, Informative)
I'm not convinced (Score:5, Insightful)
Somehow, I think the results of the "Mom Test" will be a little different under those circumstances.
I set my parents up on Linux...not Lindows (Score:5, Interesting)
Not much of a test (Score:4, Insightful)
'Mom' as a resource - for how much longer? (Score:3, Funny)
"Hey?! Where's my big 'L'? I want to play Frozen Bubble!"
"Sorry ma, we need you to preview this new version of Trustix."
"But... But... There's no mouse pointer and the screen's all black!"
"Adjust ma, adjust!"
M0m 0wNz j00! (Score:5, Funny)
"Can I play Counter Strike on Linux?" she said.
"Counter Strike? You play that?" I'd been laboring under the impression that she was a Freecell addict.
"All the time. I love fraggin' n00bs."
"Mom!"
"And what about my pr0n? Can I use Linux to view it?"
"This isn't happening." I felt an icy ball forming in my stomach, a feeling of nausea rising in my throat.
"Don't be ghey. I have needs too, you know." She opened up her browser; the home page was set to goatse.cx! I shut my eyes and put my hands over my ears.
"LA LA LA LA I CAN'T HEAR YOU LA LA LA LA!" I felt as if my whole world was crashing down around me.
So yeah, Linux might not be the best choice for my Mom. Also, if you play CS on a low-latency East Coast server, watch out for Mom. She likes to AWP wh0r3.
k.
Mom Tests Can Be Good (Score:3, Funny)
I simply handed her my laptop, loaded with OS/2 and the normal office apps, games, etc. and told her to try it herself. (Though she was a computer novice, she never asked any other questions.)
A couple of hours later when we were finished with the upgrades, we asked her what she thought. Her summary was... "It's just like Windows, only easier." And then proceeded to show us the things that she found better/different and that she'd done.
When any version of *nix can get that kind of reaction, it'll be a good home user competition for Windows.
BTW, she and I eventually got married (perhaps she was tired of paying for her son's upgrades!) and every time her Windows machine crashes ("get's stupid" as she puts it)asks why she can't have her OS/2 back.
Not A Valid Test (Score:4, Insightful)
Mom: Hi. The power went off over here and now I can't get my computer to work.
Me: Uhm, OK. Does it do anything at all?
Mom: Well, the printer is on, and the screen says "Check connection".
Me: Hmmm. Alright. Is everything plugged in?
Mom: Yes, it looks like it. All the little doohickies are in the back of the computer.
Me: (avoiding this until the last--it just can't be the cause) Is the computer turned on?
Mom: I think so. There's something on the screen.
Me: Uhm, I meant, did you actually push the power button on the computer?
Mom: Nooo. Should I?
Me: (after a pause) Yeah, that might be a good idea.
Mom: Oh! There it is! Now it's working!
Me: (sigh) Well, there you go. Let me know if you have any other problems with it.
Now, if they'd tried their test with my mom, I don't think they would have faired quite as well.
One of the biggest stumbling blocks to the adoption of Linux on the desktop has been the nerdish nature of the whole installation, configuration and user experience. Your average PC user (and most likely non-/. reader) is doing good to figure out how to get a printer connected to their Windows machine. The typical Linux distro is a no-go for these folks. Forget configuring a NIC, modifying the defaults for Gnome or KDE, or trying to figure out how to FTP a file from an xterm shell prompt. It just won't happen. MS has made Windows what it is not on its technical merits, but because it's been dumbed-down to the point where almost anyone can make it do something useful right out of the box with only a modest amount of coaching. A while back Russ Mitchell offered this [wired.com] rather negative view of Linux's chances on the desktop. While not everything he says is golden, a lot of it does apply, and should be seriously considered by anyone with dreams of seeing MS pushed into the backseat. Apparently someone at Lindows did bother to pay attention and start to make the Linux experience less painful for those without the inclination or ability to fiddle around under the hood.
And before you poo-poo those poor sods who can't grok a regular expression or launch a background task from bash, just remember this: They're the ones with most of the disposable income, not us nerds, and Bill Gates et. al. know it.
Paper Towel Roll... Ewwwww!!!! (Score:4, Funny)
Did anybody else notice the roll of paper towels next to the computer? [extremetech.com] And to think, he let his own mother type on that keyboard.
Saw Consumer Reports report this morning... (Score:5, Informative)
Also, he plugged in a digital camera and an error message popped up. He did the same with a Windows system and it immediately started an install process. The short story: stay away from Walmart Lindows computers and buy Dell 2350.
Oh well. There are those who've used Linux and there are those who haven't learned it yet (like Windows used to be).
Lindows is... (Score:3, Informative)
Perhaps the most likely to get quick desktop realestate on common home user desktops due to its preinstalls, cheap price, etc, but it is also the most likely to ultimately give the impression that linux is not much better than windows wrt viruses and worms. The problem is the default root runlevel that lindows uses. NORMAL and proper linux users will be exactly that, USERS. Lindows users are root all the time. A proper linux user can, at worst, wreck their home directory if they are dumb enough to run an untrusted/untrustable script or application they've downloaded (at worst). A lindows user is quite possibly going to get owned like a windows user in relatively short order - and their entire system is vulnerable. Their system is rooted out of the box with full priviledges. No better, no more secure than windows.
The only thing really saving them is the lack of a macro vulnerability, activeX, and other windows-assorted crap and builtin insecurity. They are marginally safer than a windows user but only just.
Lindows should trust people to be smart enough and capable enough to deal with a separate root account. It can be simple. Have lindows setup a generic, invisable user account that anyone using the system would actually use. During startup/bootup, it would automatically start that account and take you to the GUI. During initial setup, have lindows ask for a password for root. The user never needs to use this until/unless they run a software update or install, at which point a dialog box comes up asking for a password. That's it. It would be at least minimally safe and no virus or trojan would have access to the system, only the generic system-wide user home.
how about a "mom comparison test"? (Score:3, Interesting)
Also, does anyone else note that this article was posted on Extreme Tech? Not exactly what mom would read.
I believe Consumer Reports reviewed Lindows-based computers in their latest issue, surely a rag much more likely to be read by mom. (I seem to remember it panned Lindows for anything more than web surfing.)
Mom used it, or mom installed it? (Score:3, Insightful)
Each user can then do whatever they please in their environment, as they learn it. If they screw up, replacing to defaults is as trivial as a file copy.
USING linux is NOT hard. Administering it MAY be, but I find the guesswork with configuring and installing software on Microsoft's end-user offerings to be much more painful.
Lindows Rocks (Score:3, Informative)
From Jane's Diary... (Score:5, Funny)
June 12: After ignoring the computer yesterday, she walked up to it this morning and stared vacantly at the monitor. I hope she figures out how to turn on the machine soon.
June 14: Success! The computer is on, and is currently loading Lindows. Mom seems facinated with the fsck's progress bar. The desktop is now loaded, and... what's this? A flash presentation has popped up and is explaining how to get started with using Lindows. This frightened Mom; she is currently beating the case with a large rock.
June 16: The computer has been replaced, and I took the liberty to disable the welcome presentation this time. It appears Mom is learning mouse movements fast. It took a few hours, but she managed to find and open OpenOffice.org. Her concept of written language is improving; yesterday all she could type is random garbage, but now she's at a level equivalent to an IRC user. Now that I think about it, that's a step backwards.
June 19: Like most mammals, Mom got bored of doing things like typing and playing solitaire. She found the shell and began exploring. Unfortunately, I was quite disappointed to see that the first programming language she discovered was Java, and she has also been getting attached to Emacs. How unfortunate.
June 21: Oh great, now she's starting a flame war on debian-devel. Where did I go wrong?
Dad test (Score:5, Funny)
So, I set up SANE, plug the scanner into the firewire port, it all works perfectly. Nice. Set up a minimal, Windows-styled KDE desktop with a nice friendly icon, "Scan and OCR software". All he has to do is click his name on the KDM login screen. Cool. Even he can't get this wrong. I do a few test runs. It's dead simple, even more so than his Windows setup.
So I sit him down in front of the laptop to see if he can manage this. He just about figures out the login. OK. Now we've got the KDE desktop, nothing there but a few icons. Mouse is right over the "Scan and OCR" icon. He sits there for about 20 seconds in silence before saying "which one is it?"
If there's anything getting in the way of linux on the desktop, it sure isn't linux
Re:frightening (Score:3, Interesting)
Sputtering nonsense. Linux is powerful enough and flexible enough to handle desktop and server applications. What is lost by making desktop variants available for less elite users?
Or have I just been trolled?
Re:frightening (Score:3, Insightful)
Usability and functionality don't have to be mutually exclusive, and there's nothing "elite" about a system that has such a usability barrier. Although, that might be a neat way to pawn off user requests - "oh, you don't need that mod, do you? You're such an elite user, you know..."
Re:frightening (Score:5, Interesting)
Due to the Open Source nature of Linux, it's very simple to be dumbed down. You can have "Dumbass Distro" and "Poweruser Distro". All the normal computer people buy Dumbass Distro, and it probably comes pre-installed (Lindows Boxen). All the people who feel limited by it (Err..) can go ahead and install the Poweruser Distro. Hey, and if you can't do that, then yer not ready.
Re:Of Course.... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Of Course.... (Score:3, Funny)
Let Mom Tell It. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Spam filter yes, but anti-virus??? (Score:3, Interesting)