In your opinion what is the biggest setback that is preventing Linux to widespread?

[usfour]

Once again, you're skirting the issue.

You say the number of clicks doesn't matter--only the intuitiveness.

A few sentences later you say The bottom line is that there's nothing that Ubuntu has a graphical interface for that other distros don't also have a graphical interface for, and there are plenty of things other distros have graphical interfaces for that Ubuntu does not--mounting partitions with the correct permissions, configuring the X server, adjusting the default Grub entry, etc.

You have still yet to offer any support for this statement:

I mentioned this in another post but just to reiterate. I tried Suse and Mandrake, they're both very nice. However, there were just too many clicks to get to a feature. Again, I'm lazy, so I bailed and headed back to Redhat.

Interestingly, when we say "preventing Linux to widespread", do we mean within the Linux user world or those outside. Because, I can't imagine general users with one PC at home to want to configure the X server, mount a partition or adjust the default Grub.

[GuitarHero]

Linux is too hard to use. Ive spent 5 freaking hours today trying to figure out how to get a wireless shared network going and figuring out xserver, and i still dont have either working! All I want to do is use the internet connection from my windows pc on my ubuntu pc and install an all in wonder video card, but it seems to be an unsurmountable task. No average computer user will ever use linux as it is now. I am really good with computers when it comes to hardware and windows, but linux makes things so difficult. If all the drivers I need are supposedly already installed then why doesnt my video card work? Why is there no wireless internet window where I can view all available networks in range?

But I would like to thank the people who tried to help me today, this community is something no other OS has going for it. Good job guys.

[usfour]

Linux is too hard to use. Ive spent 5 freaking hours today trying to figure out how to get a wireless shared network going and figuring out xserver, and i still dont have either working! All I want to do is use the internet connection from my windows pc on my ubuntu pc and install an all in wonder video card, but it seems to be an unsurmountable task. No average computer user will ever use linux as it is now. I am really good with computers when it comes to hardware and windows, but linux makes things so difficult. If all the drivers I need are supposedly already installed then why doesnt my video card work? Why is there no wireless internet window where I can view all available networks in range?

But I would like to thank the people who tried to help me today, this community is something no other OS has going for it. Good job guys.

The comments you made are so true for many of us who are looking for the alternative platform. I've been in your shoes and still at times when that darn distro breaks after an update. I'm committed to CentOS (after playing with previous Redhat pre-Enterprise releases) because of their ability to provide stable updates (Redhat rebuild). I'm now enthused by Ubuntu's Dapper Drake because of their extensive testing and LTS. Not to mention their simplicity. Most distros are bloated with stuff to impress. I just want the basics to get me started and then I will add as I need it. The Linux desktop is supposed to provide me with service. Not for me to provide service for it. All the time.

And to respect the other mainstream distros, I'm sure they're all equally capable and robust. I've just not had the experience to attest to it.

[Brando569]

i'd say that its still a little hard/confusing to get certain things to work right, the average computer user (non-pc literate ppl) dont want to have to compile stuff and tweak stuff whenever they want to install something. they just want to point and click stuff and be done with it. now if everything came in debs then theyd have no excuse

[Stormy Eyes]

I am really good with computers when it comes to hardware and windows, but linux makes things so difficult.

If it helps, your difficulty isn't due to malice on the developers' part. The Linux kernel and X.org are still mainly a "by hackers, for hackers" affair. I had trouble getting things set up as well, back in 1999 when I was a newbie and had only a Red Hat 5.2 install disk and a copy of Linux for Dummies. Keep at it; it gets easier as you learn.

[emperor]

[quote=GuitarHero... install an all in wonder video card, but it seems to be an unsurmountable task.[/quote]

In the future, NEVER buy an AIW video card. ATI video cards are OK but the TV side is a non-standard (not v4l compatiable) nightmere! I too was an AIW fan a few years back but after a bad experience installing ATI's nightmere drivers in Windows 2000 (it never worked either) and the reliance on GATO's drivers for Linux - no thank-you!

I'd recommend you sell the AIW card on ebay ASAP!

BTW, the ATI remote works great with MythTV!

[Torquemada28]

The commandline only comes into play when the defaults aren't enough. My wife never touches it.

Way more often than not, a linux user will have to use the command line at some point, usually at many points to do many different things.
Your wife doesn't touch the command line because you do the things that require command line gymnastics. If you weren't there to do that, she would probably be using ******* to read her email and browse the internet.

[bruce89]

Not much needs the command line anymore.
Ubuntu - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDapper...lNeedsAConsole
Kubuntu - https://wiki.kubuntu.org/KubuntuDapp...lNeedsAConsole

[bonzodog]

Is it more unusual to find Windows harder to use & configure than Linux?
I tried windows out on my new home-built box, but I could not understand why the Hardware didn't Just Work. It didn't like either my monitor or Graphics card and took a full 5 hours of hacking to become usable. At least with Slackware, i could just Install and everything Just Worked. At least I had the monitors native resolution from starting X.
(windows was absolutely convinced my system could not do more than 1024 x 768- until I installed the monitor driver.)
Nah, I came back to linux after finding a new install of windows just too hard, and I won't troubleshoot others windows systems, as it's too complicated, and there are far too many things that can go wrong in windows, with no clue where to start looking. At least with linux, the root tree design means that in the event of a problem, you know exactly where to start.

[calande]

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