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- knight666, on 04/28/2008, -14/+442This is an EXCELLENT article.
I remember reading that it wasn't the dads that are lagging behind technology wise, it's the moms.
For Linux to truly become a desktop alternative, it needs to pass the "girlfriend-test". - akkibaba, on 04/28/2008, -5/+246Absolutely brilliant article.
It's these little annoyances that make switching from Windows to Linux so difficult. We already have the major software in place, we just need to clean up and polish the GUI. The vast majority of people look at computers as tools equivalent to refrigerators or lawn mowers. They should not have to Google their way around these simple tasks. - lilbugleboy09, on 04/28/2008, -7/+175I think I need an article on getting a girlfriend before this can apply...
- wigren, on 04/28/2008, -8/+160While my wife doesn't do most of the things listed in the article, she's fine with any OS as long as she can find the Firefox icon.
- amdforever, on 04/28/2008, -11/+108In other news:
SOMEONE WHO USES LINUX HAS A GIRLFRIEND !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - inspecality, on 04/28/2008, -4/+94I wish I could pass the "girlfriend test".
- 3242130193, on 04/28/2008, -9/+88I had a bitch of a time learning how to install programs in Ubuntu when I first got it but after googling around for a while and learning how to use apt-get (I suppose the same could go for synaptic), it became easy. Plus it's just so much more organized than double-clicking an executable.
- DrCalculus, on 04/28/2008, -4/+78Installed Ubuntu Hardy two days ago on my laptop. I have never used linux before so I know where the article is coming from but I am very tech savy. I have used windows since v2.0 on my 286.
Initially, everything seemed to work except my broadcom wireless card. After a few hours of searching, I found a great guide to build my own driver or some such thing using ndiswrapper. The guide was well written and I got my wireless working right away.
I wanted to use winamp for music but they don't have a linux release. So, I decided to use amarok. I tried to set it up to use mysql for the database but couldn't figure this out either. Again, googled and found a nice guide. The average user won't know to apt-get mysql-server mysql-client and do all the crap to get it working.
Overall, I think i am going to love my Ubuntu box, but the transition was a little rough. The average user isn't going to know how to get things up and running like their windows box was running. It's getting close but it's not there yet. - sloppychris, on 04/28/2008, -6/+80Installing flash would have been easier if Adobe provided a .deb.
That said, it's a bit outrageous to ask software developers to provide executables for all these different distributions. The community needs to work together to make life easier for everyone on this one. - colincornaby, on 04/28/2008, -14/+85No.
I did a fresh install of Ubuntu a few weeks ago for Postgresql. Yesterday I tell the package manager to upgrade to 8.04. It starts just fine, but about 3/4 of the way through installing all the stuff it downloads, everything starts to fail, and I start to get a series of error dialogs, telling me my system might be unusable (keep in mind this is a pretty fresh install). Now for me, that's not so scary. But if I was just joe six pack, I would be freaking out. - FaithclubDotNet, on 04/28/2008, -5/+74If you aren't sure if you're going to keep your girlfriend, make sure you install Linux on her computer because she'll have to keep coming to you for tech support.
- wispygalaxy, on 04/28/2008, -3/+66I installed Ubuntu by myself, and I'm a girl. Whenever I have problems, I usually google for solutions or head over to ubuntuforums.org. Ubuntu is not too difficult, and I have been using Linux for six months. Linux Mint may be easier for some people because it comes with a lot of codecs. Linux is getting much easier to use, so don't give up on it if you think it's too hard.
- Falldog, on 04/28/2008, -4/+67Unfortunately they author was later forced to take her shopping.
- ileftfark, on 04/28/2008, -5/+59I dove into Ubuntu about a year ago, just because I'd read good things, and I did *not* want Vista. I did not know anyone close to me that was using it at the time (but they're coming around now) ;). I encountered many of the same problems. I could never figure out where my apps ended up once I installed them, and to this day, I sometimes have to grep or whereis a file I've compiled from sources. If installing from a package manager or .deb file, things tend to show up *somewhere*, but many of the programs that haven't been packaged sometimes have a mind of their own (I've learned to check /usr/bin first). As a new user, codecs were a pain, and Kubuntu Feisty (what I started on), wasn't very helpful in directing me in the right direction. Who the hell would just know installing ubuntu-restricted-extras in a terminal would provide the solution? I relied heavily on Automatix2 (yeah, I know better now), but so much was still a pain. And permissions? Coming from Windows XP, where I was God, I was getting frustrated as *****: "Whaddya mean I can't edit a text file in my root folder? WTF?" I actually reverted back to XP for a week or two.
But then a weird thing happened: When I was bored at work, I started googling around about many of the issues I had, and *huzzah*, there were tons of places and people with answers. Every question I had was either answered by a google search, one forum or another, or (especially helpful), the guys on IRC. I went back to Kubuntu, fixed what I had broken (almost anything's fixable in Ubuntu), and started making my computer my bitch again, but this time, in a safe way. The best thing about Ubuntu- the community. - dirtman777, on 04/28/2008, -4/+55If she could handle all those assignments under Windows, and handled most of them under Ubuntu without knowing the system, then I would say she is pretty tech savy.
- stubear, on 04/28/2008, -37/+83Why not let her use whatever the ***** she wants to use and quit being a dick? Instead of doing the Wubi install on her, perhaps you should pay more attention to meaningful relationship things like doing the ":wubi install" on her. If you're going to insist onmaking her use a variant of UNIX, get her a Mac Mini or MacBook and let her use OS X. It's the most humane thing to do.
- wispygalaxy, on 04/28/2008, -3/+47Ubuntu passes for me, and I'm a girl. However, I'm more geeky than the average girl. I think that Compiz Fusion should be advertised more. I hear girls all of the time saying that they love pretty themes. Wait until they see what Compiz Fusion can do! One of my friends said that Linux was boring and only for geeks after I told her that I use it. I quickly changed her mind by showing her a YouTube video of Compiz Fusion in action. She had no idea that Linux was that cool. You won't believe how much Linux is misunderstood. Girls go for aesthetics, trust me. I grew up with two sisters who whine about not having the coolest purse.
- trogdoor, on 04/28/2008, -2/+45"Why doesn’t Firefox tell her to do this, or do it automatically like Rhythmbox does with codecs? Ubuntu ship Firefox with their own special modifications, couldn’t this be one of them?"
Actually Firefox DOES offer to install flash if a page tries to present flash content, it's just that youtube is too "smart" and won't even try to present flash content until after checking to see if the plugin is installed via javascript, and if it's not it links directly to adobe.com without Firefox ever knowing that the user needs a plugin. I am not sure if / how this could be fixed in Firefox but it is definitely a problem as youtube is generally the first place people will encounter flash.
"There’s no way I can see of being able to change the resolution using that menu when you’re on a small resoltion – without tabbing to invisible options that you don’t know are there. Maybe I’m just missing something, I’d be happy to be enlightened."
You could alt + drag the window past the top of the screen but this is none the less unacceptable in a *resolution switching applet*, in previous versions of Ubuntu they have had the same problem with ubiquity ( the LiveCD installer ) can anyone report whether that has been fixed to be usable at lower resolutions? - vroom101, on 04/28/2008, -7/+50Sobering. Excellent. Required reading.
- inactive, on 04/28/2008, -13/+5513th task: play crysis
- Brainmodder, on 04/28/2008, -10/+50Ubuntu and girlfriend are 2 words seldom used in the same sentence.
- Johnny1337h4x0r, on 04/28/2008, -4/+41you're ***** hilarious
/ sarcasm - weizbox, on 04/28/2008, -6/+42It would easily take less than two minutes if you already knew how to do it, but we're not talking about people that already know about it... we're talking about people trying to do it for the first time without much/any knowledge of the process.
Did you not read the article? I would hope so since you already had made the 4th comment two hours ago.
Check the article again...'Second task: Watch a video on YouTube.'
It seems like it took her quite a while.. and ultimately didn't get it working due to giving up. I personally would have kept going till I got it.. but you can't expect everyone to do that. A Google search would have certainly helped her go in the right direction, but generally Windows users don't need to Google HowTos on installing something as simple as Flash. - trogdoor, on 04/28/2008, -1/+35Firefox will give you the option of installing flash if you go to a website that tries to display flash content BUT youtube is "smart" enough to not try to present you with flash content until they have done a javascript test to see if you have the flash plugin installed, if you do not they link you to the flash download page @ adobe.com and never attempt to display any flash content, so Firefox stays ignorant of your flash needs :(
- akkibaba, on 04/28/2008, -8/+38You're blaming the user for not having the patience or the energy to learn all about Linux. It's an already difficult to get users to let go of their familiar Windows and try out any flavor of Linux. The problem is that GNOME does not exist in a vaccum, people bring with them their familiarity with Windows when trying out Linux.
Because of that, we have to make the transition as smooth as possible. GNOME does not have to be equivalent to Windows, however there must not be a drop of ease-of-use in GNOME. The examples he gave, like how it is unnecessarily difficult to install Flash, or how Pidgin setup is a little confusing , need to be fixed. - badenglishihave, on 04/28/2008, -1/+29That's impossible on any platform without quad-SLI and 100,000 monkeys pedaling to power your 128-core system.
- SpeedSteamBoat, on 04/28/2008, -1/+27My only gripe about this is that it's only taking into account the initial learning curve. How difficult was Windows to use the first time we all tried it? I bet most people here can barely remember a time when they had absolutely no understanding of computers at all. Learning anything new to you is going to be difficult. I really don't think that most people would notice a big difference between GNU/Linux and Windows once they became acclimated to both. Everything in this article was either an initial system setup issue (getting flash installed, finding codecs etc.) or a basic learning curve issue (not knowing Transmission is a BT client or that Pidgin reduced to the taskbar, realizing OOo Draw isn't paint, understanding the difference between PS and the GIMP interfaces [which, for the MILLIONTH time is the way it is for a good reason. Mostly because it doesn't have to fight with a crappy window manager like Windows and it also has multiple moniters in mind. Shoving everything into one window IS A BAD THING. Don't believe me? Look at PS on the Mac, and feel free to call Adobe and let them know they don't know how to design a UI]). And, honestly, how many common computer users even know what a partition is?
The point I'm making is that most of these are one time issues. Once you know Transmission is your BitTorrent client, you know. Once you have your codecs and flash installed, they are there. And of course once you know the package manager exists your PC life will be transformed. Very little of this dealt with actual usability. In fact, real usability issues (knowing where applications/preferences/etc are, accomplishing simple tasks like searching for files, using a flash drive, accessing a person audio/data CD), many of which are easily simpler in Gnome than in Windows, either were not tested or eluded the testers consideration because they are so transparent coming from a Windows perspective. One omission that really caught my attention was not telling her to listen to some music stored on the computer. Even my mom does that!
I'm not saying there isn't plenty of room for improvement. Getting a hold of codecs and But I don't believe in gauging the ease of something as major as switching to an entirely new operating system based on the first hour or so of use. Would you conclude that manual transmissions are simply harder to drive than automatics just because you stalled out a few times on your first try? Well, you shouldn't, because once you get the basics and spend some time with it things start happening without your even thinking. The same goes for all learned systems. Give it a week or two and see how much trouble someone is having and has had by then. That is the real test in my mind. - katie10, on 04/28/2008, -1/+26Hey, now. They've got to be tech-ignorant girls between the ages of 13 and 21. Be more specific, please. :)
- synystar, on 04/28/2008, -8/+33No really. This ought to be a standard test for all software interfaces and not just OS. Get a couple hundred girls between the ages of 13 and 21 to test the basics. If they have the attention span to make it work then you are so golden.
- ileftfark, on 04/28/2008, -3/+28Did you actually read the article?
- lumpyup, on 04/28/2008, -0/+23My boyfriend won't switch to Ubuntu. So there's a "boyfriend test" too, and he failed it.
- cave, on 04/28/2008, -13/+36Wow, incredibly insightful article. Hopefully Canonical will take notice.
- VIrus9, on 04/28/2008, -17/+38I did the Wubi install on my girlfriends machine last night and left the DVD in the drive with specific instructions for her to remove it. The first thing I hear from her today was, "There's this menu on the screen I've never seen before."
Sure enough, it was the DVD menu.
I'm starting to think the only way I'll get her to convert is to take away her anti-virus software and spyware blocker. - wphj, on 04/28/2008, -5/+25Linux isn't misunderstood.
People would need to have heard of it first... - mrsteveman1, on 04/28/2008, -1/+21Flashy for the sake of flashy isn't cool
Functional flashy is cool - theenginedriver, on 04/28/2008, -0/+20Someone took their ***** pill this morning.
- HaloZero, on 04/28/2008, -11/+30WTF, if your gf wants to use windows then let her use windows. Sheesh.
- barius, on 04/28/2008, -0/+19I've had that happen too, and it's scary but it's fairly easy to fix. However, I don't think I would consider this a task for the 'average' user. When was the last time your girlfriend (the average user) upgraded from one version of Windows to the next? I bet she's never even upgraded MS Office. The fact is, the average user will likely buy a computer with the current LTS release and not upgrade it again until she wants a faster computer. Frankly, I think that's exactly the way it should work for 'average' users.
- Tenoq, on 04/28/2008, -0/+19TBH, a lot of the tasks are a bit silly - in that if you weren't familar with Windows, they would be equally difficult. The bit that made me laugh though was the conclusion:
"...what chance to the elderly or at least the middle-aged stand?"
Well if you've actually tried to teach an elderly person to use a PC (a Windows one) they learn everything by wrote anyway - none of it is by intuition. Most of them write down the methods to do certain tasks because they can't (or won't) look at a computer logically. In fact that problem extends to many, many PC users. For some reason people seem to think computers are mystical, magical creatures with a will of their own. NO. They are logic boxes that do what you tell them. 90% of the time, if you take a step back and look at what's on the screen with reason and logic, you can find your way. But most people just don't do that. I'm buggered if I know why. - VinnieDaMac, on 04/28/2008, -0/+18It's not really about gender, it's about people who have been Windows users for theirs whole lives. If I wasn't allowed to use Google, I doubt I'd be able to complete all of those tasks.
- PHiZ187, on 04/28/2008, -2/+20This is a valuable case study, demonstrating what how a typical/ordinary user thinks. I think the best bit of information was about naming the icons with both the name of the program and their functionality. I.e. Firefox web-browser.
Thanks Erin! - mediaphile, on 04/28/2008, -12/+30And yet she still had problems with Ubuntu.
- mrsteveman1, on 04/28/2008, -1/+19wtf is wrong with you
- KloroFormd, on 04/28/2008, -1/+19Show me a virus that can flash itself into the BIOS, and I'll show you a load of BS.
- inspecality, on 04/28/2008, -0/+18Both. :(
- Burn, on 04/28/2008, -0/+17Which part are you failing, the 'girlfriend' part or the 'test' part?
:P - GabooGaboo, on 04/28/2008, -0/+16I think there's a problem when your grandpa's a she. ;)
- QurrUm, on 04/28/2008, -0/+16What? He wasn't talking about fonts, he was talking about the little things, like the filesystem issue mentioned in the article.
- thinkalone, on 04/28/2008, -0/+16the phrase "ready for the desktop" bothers me as well. evaluating the difficulty of a transition from Windows to Linux is one thing; declaring something as not being ready for desktop/home use just because it involves learning to do tasks in a different way is a strange conclusion. when i switched to Ubuntu i found it very confusing to start using the command line and trying to compile/install programs, but that doesn't mean that Linux isn't "ready for the desktop." if you install a new lock and deadbolt on your front door, it doesn't make your house less secure just because you have to use a new set of keys.
not to be a Windows-basher, but looking at it from the opposite direction (a user comfortable and used to Linux switching to Windows) it would be even more confusing and Windows certainly wouldn't pass the "ready for the desktop" test. - InferiorWang, on 04/28/2008, -3/+19Good thing they included a package manager with a gui.
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