Originally Posted by
maynoth
well.. from my perspective as an end user (I am new to linux and only starting to understand the cli):
There are a lot of rough edges for new users. Lots of little annoyances, ones that never seem to get addressed, then thrown on the back burner and never properly addressed.
You can voice your opinion or ask for help but most of the time you are met with sarcastic flames from the gurus. "Get your money back if you not happy", "If you need a newer version of a program to fix a bug wait six months or switch to gentoo", "linux isn't windows stop relying solely on gui and learn the cli".
For the most part the opinions of the end users, the new users to linux are often thrown out the window and disregarded, if not at times met with hostility.
I myself use automatix2, and have installed it along with edgy on about 20 computers for friends and family. I have never run into any issues using it but if I were to mention this fact I would get flamed into submission about how I was encouraging people to blow up their computers. I have never actually heard of anyone blowing up their system with the newest version of automatix2, and it seems to me more like FUD(fear uncertainty and doubt). A lot of the more technical users need to be honest with themselves and ask why such a project even exits and is so popular if the opinions of the end users were actually being met with the current feedback model.
I think Dell's ideastorm model is near perfect for non-technical users to post their suggestions, ideas, opinions, annoyances, etc. I feel this model most accurately represents the philosophy of Ubuntu itself as a feedback mechanism.