Google Chrome help questions, or why Linux will never be popular

[phaed]

The Google OS blog posted the following questions from the Google Chrome Help Forum:

"I want the old Google search engine, not Google Chrome. How do I go back to regular old Google? I want to change my default search engine from Chrome to Google. The tools don't help me," asks Orville.

"If I change from Outlook Express to Chrome browser does my E Mail address have to be changed to a G Mail address?" wants to know Haljoan.

"I don't like the design of the Google Chrome.page. All of the toolbars I'm familiar with are missing, and I don't even know how i got it. If I uninstall it, will I be able to get just plain Google?" wonders Stellar.

"Should I remove my original Google now that I have installed Google Chrome?" That's a very difficult question and I don't think that Chrome's developers anticipated how difficult is to launch an alternative browser. Maybe Google should first explain [to] users what's a browser.

"The biggest challenge all [browsers] face is that most people don't even know what a browser is or that there's choice," [said] Brian Rakowski, director of product management at Google.

I've argued for a long time that a computer is just a tool, a means to an end, for most people. It's not about Mac or Windows or Linux, it's about writing email, instant messaging, and making spreadsheets. Polls show that most people are completely agnostic about the software brands they use.

History also shows that people react to change with a lot of psychological inertia. Using Google Chrome or Firefox isn't harder that Internet Explorer, but where's the Blue E that gets you to the internet? Using Ubuntu isn't harder than Windows, but where's the Start button? Where are My Documents? Re-learning these things is actually hard for many people.

[Gilabuugs]

Yes but as time goes on the younger generations become more technically inclined you can give a phone to someone who is 15-25 and theyll be able to find a large number of features quickly and be much more efficient than if you gave it to someone who was over 40.

You probably could put the starting age around 12 and get the same results, sure some people might not know what a browser is or what documents are but many people can now adapt to new tech environments quickly.

So, heres hoping.

[3rdalbum]

More user education needed.

[Icehuck]

More user education needed.

You can educate them all you want, but they don't want to learn what you are teaching. Take the Excel shortcut off from the desktop and I bet you 90% of the Office users wouldn't know how to find Excel. Even after you show them how to find it on the start menu.

[aysiu]

I used to agree with you, but lately (just in the past six months) I've noticed more and more afraid-of-computers people not only using Firefox but actively preferring it to IE. Of course, they don't call it Firefox. They call it "Modzilla" (sort of like a freaky Godzilla pronunciation).

It's not that people don't prefer certain tools to other tools. It's that right now it's still okay for people to be afraid of computers. Can you imagine a carpenter who is afraid of saws? Or a dentist afraid of drills? And yet millions of office workers around the world are afraid of the computers they have to use for 40 or 50 hours a week.

[Methuselah]

The availability of visibile alternatives is part of the education process.
The ubiquity of windows and it's associated tools has really limited most computer users.
One could shake his head in horror at the misconceptions that exist; but look at the bright side, when each of those questions is answered that user will come away so much wiser.
The opportunity to ask those questions would never have arisen if they had just continued on autopilot with what their computer came with and nobody bothered to offer anything different to them.