It will never be "painless" to switch from Windows to Linux

Story: Colorwheel 1.1.1 Screenshot TourTotal Replies: 8
Author Content
caitlyn

Jan 23, 2013
12:43 PM EDT
Linus Torvalds once compared changing OS to performing brain surgery on yourself. The underlying concepts behind Windows and Linux are different. Yes, a lot of things are just point and click. There still is a significant learning curve and it's not painless for those who are technically adept no matter how user friendly the distro.

What makes things better is that people who use Android and MacOS are now somewhat used to Linux concepts. An app store is just a GUI front end to a package manager tied to a distro repository, with the exception of the fact that an app store charges you for some downloads and a distro package manager generally does not. However, the first Windows to use that concept is Windows 8 and most Windows users aren't used to that at all.

The screenshots don't look like things a Windows user will find painless: a mix of XFCE (Xubuntu) and LXDE (Lubuntu) with the old distro branding still in place, a terminal window, GIMP (which definitely has a steep learning curve), etc... Sorry, you can call it somewhat user friendly, designed to ease the transition, etc... Painless? It's far from that. I also don't see how this is easier than vanilla (X)(L)Ubuntu but maybe I'd actually have to use the distro a bunch for that to become clear.

So... we have another distro setting unrealistic expectations, which is never good for Linux.
BernardSwiss

Jan 23, 2013
1:46 PM EDT
But if /when people switch/are switched from a PC running Windows to a Mac running OSX, or from Mac OSX to Windows, the transition/re-orientation is not considered to be nearly as much of an issue... There might be still be some "issues" to be kept in mind in some cases, but a lot less question of whether it might be worth it, at all...

(Not that I'm disagreeing with Caitlyn, but Linux is held to a higher standard in this regard).
notbob

Jan 23, 2013
4:47 PM EDT
caitlyn wrote:The underlying concepts behind Windows and Linux are different.


Only in the sense of how the provider sees the user. M$ wants total control over the user. Linux typically want the user to have total control. Other than that, I don't see that many differences. Both have similar file systems. My slack desktop could look like XP if I wanted it to. I learned on DOS and Unix, so Linux was no great shock. I keep an XP box around to avoid losing total touch and to watch Netflix. Otherwise it gathers dust. The only time I was totally flustered was when I hadda use a Mac for a week. I couldn't find/do anything, no matter how many times I pushed the single button! ;)

gus3

Jan 23, 2013
6:29 PM EDT
"What can your PC do that my Mac can't?"

"Right-click."
jdixon

Jan 23, 2013
9:03 PM EDT
> "What can your PC do that my Mac can't?"

Cost <$500.
r_a_trip

Jan 24, 2013
4:50 AM EDT
>> "What can your PC do that my Mac can't?"

Be ugly and still deliver value.
caitlyn

Jan 24, 2013
10:39 PM EDT
Actually, the filesystems between Windows and Linux are organized completely differently and I find that is one of the things that gives people fits. I also don't think any OS change (including Windows <-> MacOS) is painless.
tracyanne

Jan 24, 2013
10:42 PM EDT
I can't find the C Drive, help, panic, headless chook mode
cr

Jan 24, 2013
11:45 PM EDT
Quoting: I can't find the C Drive, help, panic, headless chook mode


Nonsense, look around you, it's all written in C.

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