Food for thought on Turkey day

[Zenmind]

Just food for thought and yes take the double entendre! I see many new people struggling - I am one of them about to make the leap. I see many more skilled and knowledgeable people here on the forum state - if you want point and click get windows. Well most of the people in the real linux community keep talking about the ease of use and that the 'everman' can use linux it has become that easy - yet this is far from the case. You have to make it more point and click if you want real everyday people to use linux. I am not against learning. I have a Ph.D.; however, my time is very limited and I do not have the luxury to learn linux at the level that most of you do. I am on Macs and I love it - but I am also very interested for the last 7-8 years in linux. Yet not being a command line junkie I am hesitant, also no extra windows machines to put it on or even an extra mac to put it on. But there seems to be a dichotomy between the ease of use that some of the linux people speak of and want for 'everday Joe' to use, and the geekier dude who knows a decent amount of linux who send out the tough love attitude to newbies that really do want to convert 100%.

As I said - just a bit of food for thought!

[tocleora]

I've considered writing this message for a few days seeing the amount of support this group provides to newbies... When I first decided to dive into Linux was back in Red Hat 5. Back then the linux community did *not* give support to newbies, I'd send an e-mail or post on a forum and usually got a "go research it and leave us alone, we're too l337 for you" attitude. I can easily say this is the most supportive forum I've ever seen, not only do these people give you answers but they do it quickly. It makes me want to be more helpful as well and I've started frequenting this web site more often. So don't be afraid to try it, if you have a question you'll either find it on this forum or you can in most cases ask and get a response same day.

In regards to "more point and click", in most cases I could point and click but sometimes it's easier/faster just to use the terminal. I prefer apt-get (terminal) over synaptic (point and click) because I can just type and hit enter. But if/when I do need synaptic for any reason it's very easy to use. Are there specific things you are concerned about? It sounds like you haven't even installed it and played with it yet. You should at least do that, or better yet, download and burn the cd, put it in, boot to it without installing anything, and play around with it. I think you'll see it's more point and click than you think. And if you have questions, ask here, we'll respond! :)

[taurus]

Move to Cafe.

[tocleora]

To clarify (reading your thread more closely) you can boot to the CD without having to install anything to your hard drive. I was able to set up my network card, surf the 'net and play games before I ever installed anything, and *all point and click*. Just download the ISO, create the CD and boot to it. Try it that way and let us know what you think or if you need any help.

[fuscia]

it can be both point and clicky and hardcore cl, depending on the distro and what you're trying to do with it. for me, just a humble end user, ubuntu is mostly point and clicky, unless i feel adventurous. when i get in trouble, there's always someone to help me. no one's ever given me a hard time or been impatient with me. try the live cd and maybe you'll get a better sense for yourself what it's all about.