Scoble and Sascha talk Netbooks.

Posted on 11 January 2009 by Chippy

4 Comments For This Post

1. animatio says:
   January 11th, 2009 at 3:37 am

   well, besides that sascha is right in many aspects …. in my opinion the real “canossa” of linux is that the guys are not able to explain newbies how easy it is to instal programs and how to do it the simple, easy way. instaed they all agree that it is complicated, difficult and so on.

   the simple basic rules are the same as with windows:
   1. choose your distribution and version
   2. stick to the coresponding repositories for programs, applications
   3. use the implemented tools (installers) e.g synaptic.
   4. look out for the coresponding program libraries

   nobody nowadays has to fuzz around e.g with a console for standard applications or even to compile them from zero anymore. that is bare nonsense.

   if you do it this way - no problems with asus xandros, the ubuntu family and other distros.

   the real problem for the naive consumer is that neither the manufacturers, like asus, acer and co, nor the cummunity nor press tells people, that e.g debian or ubuntu have large libraries of deb-pakages ready for download and installation as easy as it is with windows programs.

   Reply (threaded)

   Chippy Reply:
   January 11th, 2009 at 5:04 am

   My immediate thoughts are that your 1-4 approach is just too much for the consumer.
   It needs to be far simpler. The old ‘wrong distro’ argument doesn’t work in the consumer world. They want to buy a product. A complete product.
   There should be not ‘explanation’ stage for Linux.
   Same applies to XP and Vista dont you think?

   S.

   Reply (threaded)

   anon Reply:
   January 11th, 2009 at 5:46 am

   Installing new programs in any modern linux distribution can be either a lot easier or a lot harder than in Windows.

   IF the program happens to be in the distro’s repository (there are a lot!) you only need to select it for installation in the package manager and from thereon even all the updates for it are installed along any patches to the system itself.

   WHEN you want to try out some latest version or a completely new program outside the included offerings, things can get hairy very fast. At that point the user must face the dreaded console voodoo with dependency troubles and troubleshooting with only the help of his peers, often at internet forums.

   Linux works very well if one of the developers of your distro owns the specific hardware you’ve got and you use software offered in the standard repositories. If you need more than that or something else, you face a very steep learning curve.

   In short, linux is excellent for the office and most well-established use cases like browsing the Internet, communicating with standard apps etc. etc. Its greatest weakness is extreme disarray outside well-trodden paths where the user is on his own. Manufacturers and consumer products can’t ask that from their clients and cannot afford supporting each one.

   That is why Windows maintains its position as it is well known, quite uniform software platform and has endless developers making easy to use, well-enough-designed products for it.

   Reply (threaded)

2. Sean Brady says:
   January 11th, 2009 at 8:13 am

   It was an awesome video. As for Linux software installs, it is not the same as it is on Windows. Until it is, software installs will be to hard. Needs to work the same to be easy enough.

   Reply (threaded)

3. animatio says:
   January 11th, 2009 at 10:10 am

   again: it is as easy as it is under windows. the point (my point) is: the consumer has ONLY ONE WINDOWS AT A TIME! whereas linux is not THE LINUX but a family of distros at THE SAME TIME to choose from. …. this would have to be explained to consumers .. that is in my humble opinion the task of media who still fail in doing this …because they form the important interface of orientation for the naive consumer (instead they follow this fatal and dark trail of complication).

   by the way: it took the imperium some 10 - to 20 years too, to make consumers learn or adopt to windows. as fora are still full of complaints of lost users with their windows system crashes. its a whole secondary market for a lot of participants to publish for some 20 years now all the time the same stuff how to make windos faster, sleeker, more stable, how to “selfrepair” and so on and on. just to say - 20 years since now allways the same stories.

   i am shure - after the actual win7 hype is hstory it will begin all over again with win7 as before with it’s precedecors.

   Reply (threaded)

4. Sam says:
   January 11th, 2009 at 12:04 pm

   Hey Chippy

   Can you make your Podcasts easily downloadable? Mevio just says ‘loading’ forever and doesn’t work, for me.

   Thanks

   Reply (threaded)

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