the viewpoint of a single newbie

[Brian Densmore]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Duston, Hal [mailto:hdusto01 at sprintspectrum.com]
> 
> Eric Gilliland [mailto:jegilliland at hotmail.com] wrote:
> > 
[snip]
> > I completely agree with his views on software 
> > installation.  I want Linux to gain more marked share 
> > as much as anyone.  However, this will NEVER happen 
> > until software installation is greatly simplified, 
> > IMHO.  For Linux to become popular, there will have 
> > to be a simple, "a few mouse clicks" type of software 
> > installation.  The RPM stuff is a good start, but 
> > does not go far enough.
> 
You should all really take a look at Mandrake's software manager! It
works very well. 
Not quite finished though. I have problems upgrading over the internet
with it, 
but if I download the software RPM I want it works fine. This is partly
my fault, 
because I screwed up the first time running the software. (but that's
another story)

[snip]
> 
> The "ease-of-use" nut is hard to crack, since it is 
> actually quite difficult to even define what it _is_.
> The are Windows applications that _I_ find difficult 
> to use, since I have to go digging through menus to 
> find the right dialog box that has the tab the 
> contains the button that pops up the other 
> dialog box that has the option I need to change.
[rant]
I took me ten minutes this morning to modify my Outlook signature file! 
Why because they bury it deep in some strange black hole in Outlook! 
Can you get to it from inside an email message? No! You can pull it up,
but No 
you can't edit it here! It's under some stupid "mail format tab" in the
main window only
you get to from the options pull down! Not under general preferences or
...
[/rant]
Grrrr!

By the Way I use Linux exclusively at home on the desktop and on my
server. 
I have used Windoze for one thing in the past year, to create business
cards. 
Only because one I paid for a Windoze DTP several years back that did
what I needed, 
and two I couldn't figure it out on Linux in the time I allotted myself.
Yes, there 
is still much that Linux needs to be truly "user friendly". That is
again the 
chicken/egg problem. No one wants to write it until there is a base for
it, and there is
no base for it because no one has written it. 

HSFYA,
Brian