User friendly Free Software Desktops (was: Very Worried at MS .net)

[MJ Ray]

OK, we're probably getting far off-topic here, so I'm trimming
heavily.

Josef Dalcolmo <dalcolmo at vh-s.de> writes:

> using Debian, and I am not a programmer. I spend about 10 times as
> much time on figuring out how to configure something in Debian than
> in Windows (X setup, networking even, PCMCIA, printing to name a
> few).

I think debian are starting to address this with debconf?  Other
distributions have other solutions, like YaST or LinuxConf.

> I had to back down from trying to install Woody twice, because
> the new XFree4 server doesn't support my video card yet (Rage
> mobility P). That backing down was all but simple.

Well, trying to back down from a Beta of any operating system to a
previous stable release is never simple, I think.

> When installing Debian, I never know which packages of many equally
> appealing ones I should use. [...]

This is why we have reviews sites.  There is a reason to
freshmeat.net, you see.  It would be nice to see more competition for
it.  Asking your LUG can also help and help you know that you can find
later help.

> incompatible system references etc. Compared to Win2000, there is a world of 
> difference!. The Help system there is really good, and points you as a 
> non-programmer user rather quickly to the solution.

I've never got a useful answer out of that damn thing!  And what's all
this "optimise for speed or size" crap?  Why do I care?  Do whatever
is best...

> As a user I am also forced to use MS Word files, because my
> colleagues use it.  So, rather than telling them: use Tex, I need to
> run that other OS in parallel

We can load their files.  How well depends on what software (some
non-free software is ahead of the free for now) and how good a
solution it is depends on how much you have to use that damned format.

It seems the FHS (and so the LSB) don't tie down documentation
location very strongly, with /usr/share/doc being "optional".  That's
probably a missed opportunity.  Do we need a better documentation
tool?  What's out there at the minute?  I think this would a good
topic for a usability mailing list to discuss.

> 2.2R3 uses a lot of rather old libraries already, and the newer ones are not 
> necessarily compatible with my system. Again, OK for an expert, but far from 
> it for a normal user.

Normal users don't care how old the software is, as long as it's
stable and does the job they need...

MJR