user friendly please
To have a long term future Linux has to overcome the perception that is not user friendly and move away from the "for geeks only" perception. Simplicity is the key to winning the masses.
For starters, software purchase and installation must become super simple. A single click download that results in an installed application - nothing to know. This would be even better if it was serviced from a single online graphical store - click, buy, download, install. Xandros shipped with a version of this years ago. I do this on a mobile phone every day! Yet there are still Linux distros that require me to have intricate knowledge of FTP repositories and to download and install several to a dozen packages to get a single application running.
Linux no more needs to run Windows applications than Windows needs to run Linux applications. Wine is a pointless waste of time. If I want Windows on my Linux desktop, Virualisation will fix that problem. All that is necessary is an ability to exchange files as is achieved between Open office and MS Office. I just need to be able to open the file on my Linux desktop, move it in and out of the cloud to my tablet, or my mobile phone and or my Windows desktop in the workplace - regardless of OS/Application mix - or quickly move it from my PC desktop to my virtual desktop if needs be. The emphasis should be on the development of open file formats for a wide range of applications.
I am convinced there are many in Linux Land that just don't get User Friendly. I want my Desktop Users to be able to do their work in a simple, intuitive, attractive, customizable GUI that seamlessly presents them with the necessary tools to be interconnect, communicate, share and work in a productive manner.
Linux developers could well do with taking a closer look at modern Windows OS help. Linux help, while not exactly an oxymoron, is a long way short of User Friendly.
From a management point of view I want a desktop that can seamlessly join my workplace network, integrate fully into my domain, connect to the workplace peripherals as part of an interconnected SOE. Yes, be part of what I am doing, not attempt to present some want-to-be alternative way of working.
So I would simply ask the Linux community to stop being precious about the OS and understand that it is simply a means to an end, not the end itself. Every time I notice the OS between me and my job, it is failing the User Friendly test.
I will download the latest Ubuntu incarnation, install it onto the VB on my desktop and see if it presents as an alternative User Friendly work tool.
