On Sun, 2003-11-09 at 00:18, Craig Brooksby wrote:
> > Face it - most people just want to use a computer 
> > that works - they aren't interested in the economics, 
> > politics unless/until they are forced to.
> 
> 1) Can't back up my files -- image creation chokes on symbolic links.  
> 2) Unable to get my palm pilot to sync since moving to Linux.  
> 3) (Forget my digital camera)
> 4) Installing a new font takes two pages of instructions.  
> 5) Samba is opaque to me. The Win boxes were networked up in 10 minutes.
> 
> 6) Rpms: dependency hell.  Solution:  "ignore warnings." 
> 7) Mozilla arbitrarily stops communicating with the web.
> 8) I keep System Monitor running so I can kill Nautilus when it hangs. 
> 9) I need deep knowledge of the filesystem in order to install anything.
> 10) If I upgrade GNOME to the latest release, would my system get more
> stable or less?  Any bets?
----
Items 1 -5 are easily solvable - help is available on this list but if
you make the effort to learn these things on your own, you will actually
learn enough to do them without help in the future.

Item 6 - ignore warnings - never a good idea. Dependency problems are
solved by seeing what's needed and installing it at the same time if
necessary. Apt / Yum are now available for RH 8/9/Fedora and will
eliminate the dependency issues. Fedora has made apt/yum part of the
distro.

Item 7 - Mozilla ? I haven't any problems with it. Sounds more like an
internet problem or perhaps an agressive update/install with ignore
warnings mentality.

Item 8 - Gnome / Nautilus is in throws of upgrading - What version of
Linux / errata are you using?

Item 9 - deep knowledge of file system to install anything. I suppose it
depends upon what you are trying to install and whether you are
installing something 'pre-packaged' for your appropriate distro.

Item 10 - don't upgrade Gnome with your attitude on ignoring dependency
problems - it will be one of the more frustrating experiences that you
ever go through.
----
> 
> 11) Open Office is cheaper -- I'll say that for it.
> 12) Formulas in Calc sometimes just refuse to calculate.  Unlike their
> more compliant neighbor cells, these prefer staying text.  Deal with it.
> 13) Python IDEs are better on Windows.
> 14) How many variations on "cut and paste" do I need to learn? Answer: 1
> (until I moved to Linux). 
> 
> "Most people aren't interested...until they are forced to be" could
> easily be interpreted as imputing laziness to people like me.  I think
> that is too simple an interpretation.  Why blame anyone for picking up
> the tools they need to get their work done?
----
All that glitters isn't gold. Certainly Linux has some very distinct
minuses. As a desktop OS, it lacks still and interestingly enough, the
twice annual distro upgrade patterns of Red Hat/Mandrake/SuSE/etc.
brings more features, upgraded versions of Gnome/KDE/OpenOffice and such
with the pains of upgrading. With each version comes support for a wider
variety of hardware/accessories as well.

You should never forget to be thankful for the choice, even if it isn't
currently your first choice. As for imputing laziness...why not? I am
lazy and would gladly use the path of least resistance myself. The thing
that has driven me to persevere through some Linux shortcomings is the
knowledge that benefits me. 

As for being forced to examine computer choices/upgrades...I was happy
with Word 5.1a on the Mac. Then came 6, Office 98, Office 2001 and now
their Office.X - all with a feature set that I didn't need. Likewise,
the Windows copy of Office 97, Office 2K, Office XP and now Office 2003.
I don't make use of all of the added features and I know of few who do.
The price of admission has become too steep for my home computers.

Craig