Posted by: Anonymous
[ip: 69.21.147.105]
on May 18, 2008 03:24 PM
Of course it is time to retire "ready for the desktop". The question has already been answered.
It is more of a question of whether users are ready for Linux or any other OS, for that matter. Some people will just never "get" computing as it is today.
Windows 3.11 was "ready for the desktop". Yet I remember people messing with IRQs and memory management to get it to work. Even then, it crashed and people lost data. Yet it was sold and used by many people. It was deemed to be "ready for the desktop". Today's Linux is far easier than that and just as easy to use as any modern version of Windows. It is just slightly different.
It has to do with users. People who use Windows want to use a Windows clone and will only learn something even slightly different if there is some overwhelming motivating factor. They want to memorize a sequence of mouse clicks to perform a particular task. It doesn't even have to be the "right" sequence of mouse clicks.
Case in point: I encountered a Windows user in a corporate setting once that only knew how to open a new Word document by closing the program with the window close button and restarting the program. This person did not close the old file and use the drop-down menu to open another. She was not interested in learning a "new" way, either.
I agree that unless and until a "mind-reading" interface is used, some people will never feel comfortable in front of a computer. So in one sense, every OS is "ready for the desktop", it's just that the users are not ready for the OS. Some will never be, simply because they don't want to be.
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It's time to retire "ready for the desktop"
Posted by: Anonymous [ip: 69.21.147.105] on May 18, 2008 03:24 PMIt is more of a question of whether users are ready for Linux or any other OS, for that matter. Some people will just never "get" computing as it is today.
Windows 3.11 was "ready for the desktop". Yet I remember people messing with IRQs and memory management to get it to work. Even then, it crashed and people lost data. Yet it was sold and used by many people. It was deemed to be "ready for the desktop". Today's Linux is far easier than that and just as easy to use as any modern version of Windows. It is just slightly different.
It has to do with users. People who use Windows want to use a Windows clone and will only learn something even slightly different if there is some overwhelming motivating factor. They want to memorize a sequence of mouse clicks to perform a particular task. It doesn't even have to be the "right" sequence of mouse clicks.
Case in point: I encountered a Windows user in a corporate setting once that only knew how to open a new Word document by closing the program with the window close button and restarting the program. This person did not close the old file and use the drop-down menu to open another. She was not interested in learning a "new" way, either.
I agree that unless and until a "mind-reading" interface is used, some people will never feel comfortable in front of a computer. So in one sense, every OS is "ready for the desktop", it's just that the users are not ready for the OS. Some will never be, simply because they don't want to be.
--kb9aln
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