[WEB4LIB] Re: Little of GNU/Linux in Libraries (was: The beginning of the end for the

[Chris LeBlanc]

"c.murdock" wrote:
> 
> >The only thing that is
> > keeping Linux down is the user interface. People are scared of Linux
> > because t's a high intensity command line driven system that gives you
> > total control over your computer. Folks don't want to learn complicated
> > commands nor do they want complete control over their computer.
> 
> Being a Linux/OpenBSD/Windows user myself, I agree with most of what Dan has
> to say, but I really must disagree with his statement that Linux is totally
> oriented around the command line.  Well, sort of.  Linux definitely is
> command line based, which I personally think is a tremendous plus, but I
> think that the graphical interfaces and programs available have really
> matured to the point that the average Windows user would have no trouble
> doing the things they usually do, i.e., web browsing, email, word processing,
> and maybe some graphics editing.  In fact, my goal is to replace most of my
> library's staff computers with thin clients running Mandrake 8 and KDE 2.
> The problem is those few programs that don't have a viable equivalent in
> Linux, like MS Publisher.  (If someone knows of one, please tell me!)

Actually, there have been wonderful distributions that have little to no need
for an average user to go to a command line.  Two of the best (in my opinion)
have been Corel Linux 1.2, and Storm Linux.  These have both had wonderful
installation programs and setup beautifully.

RedHat, although not being the easiest to install, does get the wonderful
position of having everybody write RPM packages for it.  For those of you who
don't know, and RPM package is kind of like a ZIP/INSTALLER built into one.  You
get the package as one file, and in it is all of the files for the program to
install, along with the instructions that the package management software needs
to use to install the program.  You tell the package management program to
install the RPM file, and it goes to work.

As for the complete control part, just have them use a GUI interface, and don't
let them log in to the computer as root.  As for the nay-sayers who say that
people want to just power up the machine and not log in, because that is too
complicated, I advise you to look again at the next generation of Windows, those
all have logins screens.

The greatest problem of GNU/Linux as an alternative to MS Windows, is that
people don't like change.  They don't want to switch from one system to another.

Christopher LeBlanc
Lamar University Library
leblanc at library.lamar.edu