Linux Desktop for university staff

akonstam at trinity.edu akonstam at trinity.edu
Wed Feb 16 11:24:16 UTC 2005


On Tue, Feb 15, 2005 at 08:37:48PM -0600, Les Mikesell wrote:
> On Tue, 2005-02-15 at 19:48, David Curry wrote:
> 
> > You make good points, Les.  I think there is another basic hurdle Linux 
> > must clear before wide spread use is realized in a university 
> > environment or elsewhere.  That hurdle is user friendliness (read 
> > operates like an automobile, i.e. - the user can turn the key, put it in 
> > gear, step on the gas and go without having to know anything at all 
> > about what is going on under the hood) and independence in use 
> > comparable to that made available by a standalone desktop running 
> > DOS/Windows plus apps.
> 
> That's an illusion provided by pre-installed software and
> vast armies of IT staff maintaining, updating and adding
> 3rd party virus and spyware protection on those MS desktops.
> 
> The worst problem with Linux these days is the number of
> choices in desktops and applications Since they are mostly
> free you can kill a lot of time trying them all out, but
> you do get to pick the best for each type of use.
> 
> -- 
>   Les Mikesell
>    les at futuresource.com
I have thought about this question a great deal since Fedora first
came out. To me a really big problem of having to mount and unmount
removable media. We have got the mounting mostly automated and
invisible but remembering to unmount a floppy let us say before you
remove it or wondering why you CD can't be ejected by pushing the
button on the CD drive without unmounting is something that people from
the Windows world would have to get used to.
-- 

=======================================================================
One friend in a lifetime is much; two are many; three are hardly possible.
Friendship needs a certain parallelism of life, a community of thought,
a rivalry of aim.  -- Henry Brook Adams
-------------------------------------------
Aaron Konstam
Computer Science
Trinity University
One Trinity Place.
San Antonio, TX 78212-7200

telephone: (210)-999-7484
email:akonstam at trinity.edu




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