Failed Migration to Linux

[Joe Zeff]

On 08/13/2012 11:46 AM, Mark Haney wrote:
> I think you would agree that there's a big difference 'not working' and
> 'not working for me'.  Not working generally means broken.  It works for
> no one.  Not working for me could mean it's broken, it could also be
> lack of user experience.

One thing that can cause this is an unexpected major change in the UI. 
As an example, imagine somebody with years of experience using Windows 
who gets handed a new computer running Linux, with the Gnome Shell, and 
no explanation of how to use it.[1]  Or, for that matter, gets put down 
in front of Xfce, where whoever set it up removed the menu from the 
panel, because he prefers to bring it up by right-clicking on the 
desktop.  Unless somebody tells the new user about it, he's almost 
helpless.  This isn't to say that the GUI must never change, but it does 
show, I hope, how much trouble it can be to a new user unless there's 
some sort of training and/or tutorial available.  And, getting back to 
my original point, most users would feel justified in saying that their 
new computer is broken in the sense of "doesn't work" when "I can't make 
it work" would be more accurate.

[1]Let's not start any arguments about Gnome 3/Gnome Shell again.  I'm 
just reminding people of the fact that it does have a learning curve, 
and not all of the new techniques are intuitively obvious to somebody 
who's never even heard of it before, let alone read about how it works.