Re: Experience the New Windows

[Nick Hill <nikhilwiz@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, Feb 21, 2001 at 07:22:54PM +0530, Ravikant K. Rao wrote:
> true. While it is very real that Linux surpasses other OS-es on many
> fronts, it is also true that it lacks on certain fronts.(eg. MS Word
> is "more user-friendly" (tm) [ I gauge this with how the older
> generation people - 50+ year olds that I know tackle MS Word, and
> *EFFECTIVELY* generate a .doc as opposed to running Star Office, and
> generating docs which aren't compatible with the rest of the universe,

Most of the 50+ year olds that I know, heck not even 50+, even some 10+
year olds go to the local computer institute, fill up an application
form and register for a "MS Office Fast Track" course, only to be seen
by me typing their accounts in Word. The problem here is not
user-friendliness. There are a lot of applications in Linux which cater
to that very aspect, and are doing mighty well, if u ask me. The point
here which is often missed is that most of these 50+ year olds u refer
to are, or have, seen others working on MS Word, at some point of time,
and put 2 and 2 together. For whatever StarOffice's worth, Sun's put up a
good try in it. How come no one blames M$ for inventing the
format-of-the-day for .doc files for the "rest of the universe"? 

I've said this a zillion times on ILUG-HYD, and I'll say it here also.
Its not that there's a dearth of "more user-friendly" (tm if u like)
apps for Linux, its just that none of the major distros makes that a
priority, except maybe for Mandrake, which atleast goes a minute way.
Has anyone actually gone and a given a go at finding what is the most
user-friendly app for a given task? PC, and even Mac, magazines do this
regularly, which u're average Joe Ramakrishnan must be reading. I really
dont mind u comparing text editors and OSen, but saying "Windows is more
user friendly" really puts me off. Its the distro-maker's problem to get
the "user-friendly" stuff in. Linux doesn't figure anywhere. 

Disclaimer: I dont use StarOffice.

Nikhil.

-- 
Nikhil Shankar (nikhilwiz at yahoo.com)

Linux is an OSOS and NT is just SoSo.