Linux for the Technically Proficient
Microsoft has made a huge profit off of people who don’t consider themselves to be technically proficient. That particular demographic tends to be afraid of downloading and installing new software. Why do they surf the web with Internet Explorer? Because it’s the web browser that was pre-installed with their OS. Case in point- a relative of mine told me about a month ago that my freelance web design site appeared funny to her.
I asked her the first obvious troubleshooting question, “Which browser are you using?”
“Huh? I just click on ‘Internet’! Browser? What’s that?”
Cue my ‘face palm’ moment.
And why is IE the browser that was pre-installed with their OS?
Because Microsoft Windows OSes have had OEM distribution on the vast majority of PCs since the early 1990s.
If installing a new web browser is intimidating to most newbies, they’ll never in a million years try to install a new OS, even in a dual boot configuration.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t hate Microsoft. Microsoft does a number of things right, such as their NTFS file system that debuted with Windows NT many years ago. Microsoft Zune media players are a lot less restrictive than iPods. Xbox Live on my Xbox 360 works like a dream, and often blows the PlayStation network out of the water. But a large number of Microsoft’s customers aren’t customers because Microsoft makes good products, but because Microsoft products are default and a lot of people are afraid to delete those apps and OSes and try something different.
If there is someone in your life who uses computers, but is not very computer literate, you can help wean them off of Microsoft’s bloated OSes and change-resistant user apps.
The open source and Linux communities appeal to techies who are opinionated about computer technology, and want to have the best of everything. But the GUIs with Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu and Kubuntu, are no less user friendly than recent Microsoft OS GUIs. There is also a huge library of open source apps that require no programming/IT knowledge to make the most of.
Internet Explorer 9 has a lot weaker support for HTML5 than all of the other major browsers, despite all of the hype. Now that more and more web developers are doing more and more with HTML5, do you want your loved ones to be using a web browser that can’t keep up? My brand new net-book was preloaded with Windows 7 Starter edition, like most netbooks are these days. Now that I wiped it right off and replaced it with Ubuntu Netbook Edition (Maverick Meerkat), I can easily change the damn desktop wallpaper, among other things!
Even if your loved one is running a much better version of Windows 7, it was probably loaded with all kinds of apps they’ll never use. You can hold their hand, and start them slowly. If there’s already an extra partition on their master hard disk that isn’t running another OS, it’ll be easy to install a Linux based OS to create a dual boot system.
“See, Uncle John… Now when you turn the computer on, you get this screen asking if you want to run Windows 7, or Ubuntu 10.10. You may go back to your old Windows 7 whenever you need to!”
Ask your loved one what kind of apps they want or need. Finding an open source equivalent for everything they’re used to, and everything they want, should be a piece of cake. Be patient with them while they begin to learn how to do things differently.
And there you go! You’ve now begun to make the world a better place.
Our complete set of test kings test questions and 642-974 exam study guides you in exact way so you will pass your real 1z0-451 exam & ccia with flying colors of PMI-001.
The Linux Programming Interface: A Linux and UNIX System Programming Handbook
- $99.95 List Price
- $59.97 at Amazon.com
No related posts.
One of the many hindrances to Linux really taking off in the market is the lack of games & applications available for the general user. I had a hard time finding apps for my Macbook, and even harder when I experimented to install Linux on my dual-boot desktop.
- spam
- offensive
- disagree
- off topic
Like