Weblog entry #5 for ajt
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#5
Debian Sarge as a home desktop system
Posted by ajt on Thu 18 Aug 2005 at 12:29
I've been running Debian Woody as a desktop system for over a year. I recently replaced two home PCs, one Woody and one Win98 with Debian Etch and Sarge.
For me upgrading from Woody to Etch, especially on a faster PC has been failry painless. For my better half the move from Win98 to Sarge/KDE has not been without it's problems.
I'm having to deal with a number of problems, and it's well worth a seasoned Unix/Linux user paying attention to new users, as I've learnt a lot in the process.
1) It's not like Windows. There isn't much I can do about this Linux isn't Windows, and there are fundamental differences.
2) It's stupid. I must admit that there are elements of the GUI that are stupid. It's nothing to do with being different from Windows, it's just lame.
3) It's inconsistent. Gnome, KDE and other apps just don't fit properly and constantly do different things. I think KDE apps are problably better than Gnome ones, but the point is really that OO.o, Firefox, KDE and Gnome all do things differently and it's a pain to learn 4 different systems at the same time.
My earlier comments on this topic http://use.perl.org/~ajt/journal/26270 generated quite an active and healthy disussion on my LUG's discussion list.
I still maintain that Linux is fine as a desktop for the new and serious, for long time Windows users I think a specialsed distro may been needed during the conversion. However it does require some thinking from the user, and I believe that training is essential for anyone to properly use a computer.
For me upgrading from Woody to Etch, especially on a faster PC has been failry painless. For my better half the move from Win98 to Sarge/KDE has not been without it's problems.
I'm having to deal with a number of problems, and it's well worth a seasoned Unix/Linux user paying attention to new users, as I've learnt a lot in the process.
1) It's not like Windows. There isn't much I can do about this Linux isn't Windows, and there are fundamental differences.
2) It's stupid. I must admit that there are elements of the GUI that are stupid. It's nothing to do with being different from Windows, it's just lame.
3) It's inconsistent. Gnome, KDE and other apps just don't fit properly and constantly do different things. I think KDE apps are problably better than Gnome ones, but the point is really that OO.o, Firefox, KDE and Gnome all do things differently and it's a pain to learn 4 different systems at the same time.
My earlier comments on this topic http://use.perl.org/~ajt/journal/26270 generated quite an active and healthy disussion on my LUG's discussion list.
I still maintain that Linux is fine as a desktop for the new and serious, for long time Windows users I think a specialsed distro may been needed during the conversion. However it does require some thinking from the user, and I believe that training is essential for anyone to properly use a computer.
Comments on this Entry
ok,
You speak about many differents think and it's totaly approximately.
First, like Jules Cesar said : "Divide to conqueror", it's exactly that Debian project do. Before making a sweety tiny interface, we make a stable system.
Secondary, sarge is not really for desktop, use testing.
Thrid, the bigest problem of the gnu world (my opinion) is the fork. So many projects are forked, and you can't put kde & gnome in the same basket.
Keep thinking.
Ps: Debian is not perfect ( X11, Locales, ... ) but i thing it's the most clearly distrib.
You speak about many differents think and it's totaly approximately.
First, like Jules Cesar said : "Divide to conqueror", it's exactly that Debian project do. Before making a sweety tiny interface, we make a stable system.
Secondary, sarge is not really for desktop, use testing.
Thrid, the bigest problem of the gnu world (my opinion) is the fork. So many projects are forked, and you can't put kde & gnome in the same basket.
Keep thinking.
Ps: Debian is not perfect ( X11, Locales, ... ) but i thing it's the most clearly distrib.
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