Thank you for your reply and for not dismissing my arguments without any reflection.
I think your view of the ideal operating system is somewhat of an utopy (sp?). To my knowledge there is no consumer OS that will work out of the box on all hardware, except maybe Apple OS, but their hardware-range is very limited.
Maybe you were lucky to get Ubuntu installed on all pc's you threw at it, but I have had one 'failure' with Ubuntu - admittedly not that necessary: a friend of mine wanted to try out linux/Ubuntu, but on the precondition that I could get his dual monitor-setup working AND I got the fancy Compiz-effects working.
I had a hard time, but in the end I wiped linux and said to him to wait 1 year, because dual monitor-support is something that is still being worked on in linux and because of the sorry state of Ati-drivers at that time, I couldn't get Compiz working without crashing.
Anyhow, you still needed to know how to configure the /etc/X11/xorg.conf or how to install xinerama through synaptic or apt-get, stuff a regular user doesn't intuitively know when switching on a computer.
So, to summarize, I don't think there's an OS that is perfect. The best you can get is IMHO a linux distro that is installed by someone knowledgeable and that is prepared to assist you when necessary (I have two partners at the same desk who are close to pc-illiterate and still they made the switch to Debian in mere days - I made sure that everything just worked for them.
IMHO there are many ways to review an OS, but you cannot take the complete ignorance of a user as a premisse. As a computer user, you have to at least get the basics of computing. You have to know your browser won't work if your networkcable is unplugged. You have to know you cannot read your email if you didn't fill in your password somewhere. You have to know you need software to edit an image instead of just viewing it, etc. And stuff like this you have to learn, by reading manuals or listening to someone. Knowing you need a videocodec to play certain movies belongs in that list.
How good my partners can handle office documents, emails, calendars and addresses, I cannot tell them 'oh, just install msttcorefonts through synaptic' or 'set your umask in .bashrc to 002' to solve that problem we are having. That's part of the installation and they will never be able to do that - they just don't care.
You obviously care and know how to get stuff working, but you are playing several roles at once in your review: the regular user that will only change wallpapers from time to time and the advanced user that will install an OS from time to time, just for the kicks of it.
That being said, I appreciate very much the time you took to write a review for the world to read (I like to read things like this to know which distro to use in the unlikely event I ever get bored with Archlinux) and the time you took to answer my comment. I also like your style, but I think I wouldn't like it that much if I was a dev at Foresight :) - maybe I'm just being a little defensive here - I don't know... All the best!
Submitted by zenlord (not verified) on Fri, 03/21/2008 - 14:01.
Thank you for your reply and for not dismissing my arguments without any reflection.
I think your view of the ideal operating system is somewhat of an utopy (sp?). To my knowledge there is no consumer OS that will work out of the box on all hardware, except maybe Apple OS, but their hardware-range is very limited.
Maybe you were lucky to get Ubuntu installed on all pc's you threw at it, but I have had one 'failure' with Ubuntu - admittedly not that necessary: a friend of mine wanted to try out linux/Ubuntu, but on the precondition that I could get his dual monitor-setup working AND I got the fancy Compiz-effects working.
I had a hard time, but in the end I wiped linux and said to him to wait 1 year, because dual monitor-support is something that is still being worked on in linux and because of the sorry state of Ati-drivers at that time, I couldn't get Compiz working without crashing.
Anyhow, you still needed to know how to configure the /etc/X11/xorg.conf or how to install xinerama through synaptic or apt-get, stuff a regular user doesn't intuitively know when switching on a computer.
So, to summarize, I don't think there's an OS that is perfect. The best you can get is IMHO a linux distro that is installed by someone knowledgeable and that is prepared to assist you when necessary (I have two partners at the same desk who are close to pc-illiterate and still they made the switch to Debian in mere days - I made sure that everything just worked for them.
IMHO there are many ways to review an OS, but you cannot take the complete ignorance of a user as a premisse. As a computer user, you have to at least get the basics of computing. You have to know your browser won't work if your networkcable is unplugged. You have to know you cannot read your email if you didn't fill in your password somewhere. You have to know you need software to edit an image instead of just viewing it, etc. And stuff like this you have to learn, by reading manuals or listening to someone. Knowing you need a videocodec to play certain movies belongs in that list.
How good my partners can handle office documents, emails, calendars and addresses, I cannot tell them 'oh, just install msttcorefonts through synaptic' or 'set your umask in .bashrc to 002' to solve that problem we are having. That's part of the installation and they will never be able to do that - they just don't care.
You obviously care and know how to get stuff working, but you are playing several roles at once in your review: the regular user that will only change wallpapers from time to time and the advanced user that will install an OS from time to time, just for the kicks of it.
That being said, I appreciate very much the time you took to write a review for the world to read (I like to read things like this to know which distro to use in the unlikely event I ever get bored with Archlinux) and the time you took to answer my comment. I also like your style, but I think I wouldn't like it that much if I was a dev at Foresight :) - maybe I'm just being a little defensive here - I don't know... All the best!
Submitted by zenlord (not verified) on Fri, 03/21/2008 - 14:01.