[in the news] Review: 3 top Linux distros go for different users

[Nicu Buculei]

On 12/16/2009 05:49 PM, Paul W. Frields wrote:
>> Review: 3 top Linux distros go for different users
>> By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
>>
>> [clip]
>>
>> Paul Frields, Red Hat's Fedora Project Leader, described Fedora to
>> me as being "first and foremost for users interested in and capable
>> of contributing to open source." So if you're a Linux power user,
>> you're going to love Fedora. If you're not, this probably isn't the
>> distro for you.
>
>> It's not that Fedora is hard to use. While it's not as
>> beginner-friendly as Ubuntu, most Linux users shouldn't have any
>> trouble working with Fedora even if they're not developers.
>
> Well, that's nice to hear in any case!  Does it partially contradict
> the assertions above though?

No, I think his idea is something like: if you are a Linux user, you 
will find Fedora familiar, if you are a Linux *power* user, you will 
*love* it.

> There are a couple of puzzlers in this article, such as the
> implication that being able to find lesser-known utilities makes a
> distribution more suitable for the masses.  I would argue that the
> masses don't care about such things.  What's most important is a
> working set of well-integrated functionality that behaves consistently
> and predictably.  The ability to fine tune that later is certainly
> great, but the average user isn't interested in spending time finding
> and learning new, off-the-beaten-path utilities.

Trying to decipher, I think the meaning here is: an user who know little 
stuff and want to learn as little as possible, will do a Google search, 
end on some forum, copy/paste a few commands he does not understand and 
bang! everything is working.
I am not sure we want to paint such image about ourselves.

-- 
nicu :: http://nicubunu.ro :: http://nicubunu.blogspot.com/