Linux vs Windows and why win is winning!

[John Heryer]

> John, I do think the Linux Learning Curve is real and does exist.  Windows _IS_
> easier to do for a lot of common tasks, especially something like dial-up
> networking.  It was moderately difficult the first time I set up PPP on my
> slackware box.  Many of us Linux users like the OS because it is powerful,
> exteremly powerful.  Where a young child can master much of the basic user
> parts of Windows, that child probably could not do this with Linux.  Since
> windows is simpler, it isn't as flexible and extensible.  Linux on the other
> hand can be very complex and the complexity allows for the great flexibility
> for whatever the application.  One can think of windows has a hammer -- easy to
> use, useful as tool but not very good for all jobs.  Linux is the swiss army
> knife or the leatherman's tool, versitile, can be used for many jobs very well
> and more difficult to use (in simple terms here).  This makes it a more powerful
> tool.  Just my two honest two cents here...

The reason why people get frustrated with using Linux is because when they
run into a problem, they have no clue how to solve it.
The command `rpm -Uvh mypackage.rpm` is just as intuitive as My
Computer*doubleclick*<insert cdrom drive mapping
here>*doubleclick*setup.exe*doubleclick* . Just like Windows, an average
user can install an rpm on a RedHat Linux system, using the command line
if they are told or they read how to do it. (even young children) The
problem does not lie in the operating system, it is in users who jump into
Linux, and get frustrated because A) they have not found the proper
documentation or B) Did not read the proper documentation. Like I said
before, we have memorized trivial facts all of our lives. Hense, the
"learning curve" is mearly the lack of know-how. Linux isn't complicated,
it just requires some basic knowledge to use properly, just like anything
else.

There, now you have four of my cents, don't spend it all in one place. :-)

-- 
John Heryer
jheryer at jayhawks.net

"It is easy to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to
live after your own; but the great man is he, in the midst of the crowd,
keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson