$100
Sunday, 20. November 2005, 17:11:52
There was some excitement a few days ago when the $100 Laptop project was unveiled: a small machine with limited resources (500MHz, 1GB, flash memory instead of HDD, four USB ports and wifi), a novel dual-mode LCD display, running Linux (given that Red Hat is one of the founders of the OLPC association, it isn't unlikely they will run some kind of modified Red Hat).
One of the main points in setting up the operating system was to keep the number of packages/applications as small as possible:
[…] we will get the fat out of the systems. Today's laptops have become obese. Two-thirds of their software is used to manage the other third, which mostly does the same functions nine different ways.
This quotation would be worth being kept in mind by everybody setting up a distro, but alas few only follow a similar guideline. It is one of the more confusing points for a Linux beginner to have to learn that there are several applications for one and the same job, and answering the most obvious question ("so - which one should I use?") is often more an issue of, shall I dare saying, quasi-religious belief than anything the new user could grasp rationally. Sure, it is fun to discover the differences between applications handling the one task in different ways, and some do certain things better than others - but this is a matter for the more skilled users and for those that intend to explore the available applications, not for the end user that just wants one specific task to be accomplished. Having this sorted out at distro level would already be one step, but it takes the question just one step higher: "so - which distro should I use?".
In short, as long as this is not sorted out, Linux is not ready for the mass-market user.
Disclaimer: I do not have a solution.
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The things that did confuse me were indeed the options to do the same task in different ways (i.e. more than one text editor, more than one media player - I have that on Windows too but somehow it's different when you're trying to understand a new environment) and - more important - how to find where things are stored and vice versa: how to store things that you have found (in other words, where do I install a program that I've downloaded? Is there an equivalent of Windows' Program Files?) People have tried to explain it to me (in these forums), but I'm still a bit lost.
By scipio, # 18. December 2005, 23:29:31
The filesystem on Linux is very different from the Windows hierarchy, and files belonging to one application are not stored all in the same location. Rather than grouping by application, files are sorted by their function. The best place where to start is the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard, also known as FHS. For the novice this is quite confusing, as it assumes you known which files are used in which way by an application in order to determine where stuff should go.
In order to avoid trouble it is advisable to start off with accepting the default location an application wants to install to: just install it through your packet manager, or accept the output the `./configure' script offers. Only once you have a specific reason to put it somewhere else I would start fiddling around with installation locations.
By csant, # 20. December 2005, 07:48:51
The Filesystem Hierarchy Standard, though quite ugly and confusing looking for a newbie, actually simplifies things greatly. Since they don't have write access to 99% of it, the only thing the user has to worry about in a modern Linux distro is the contents of their /home/username directory. Any programs worth using (from a newbies pov, of course) are automagically put on the "applications" menu, and any cdroms or USB devices are autodetected.
By jamesgecko, # 14. February 2006, 02:14:37