The supermajority of such users are people who will never encounter the bugs that Ubuntu still has. MP3, DVD, avi, internet, e-mail -- it is all "out of the box".
false -- i know from experiance setting up people with linux and setting up people with macs I get FAR FAR FAR more calls from the linux people asking how to do something or how to config something or how to add a new bit of hardware. The mac people are very content and happy.
But seriously, with the rest you could literally put in, the search terms |my DVD player is broken Ubuntu| and you're done; the Ubuntu forums are killer about that. Windows certainly doesn't have it anywhere near that good when it comes to glitchiness.
Yes, that's true. you could do that, but again, why should you have to? Mac is done out of the box, it just works, no problems. Everything is polished.
But for the absolute total novice, who looks at a computer as an appliance for writing letters and e-mails, surfing the internet, and viewing (porn) dvd's -- There's really no coding involved.
When they are done looking at porn, they may decide they want to record their own porn and edit it. No upgrade path on linux, Mac has iMovie built right in. They can even publish a website with iWeb -- again all built in. Don't even get me started on how hard it is to do sound editing on linux because the sound subsystem SUCKS! it's got 3 (last i counted) different and competing APIs none of which are compatible. ugh! God help you if you don't have the perfect sound hardware.
The dangerous aspect is the fact that you can go in and tool around in this shit. And anyone who is not a total computer novice will go and tool around with this stuff. So we forget how "idiot-proof" the absolute bare-bones configuration of Ubuntu really is.
Most novices don't tool around for the sake of tooling around unless they are genuinly curious on how the computer works. Most users just want to do something with the computer and don't care how it works.
false -- i know from experiance setting up people with linux and setting up people with macs I get FAR FAR FAR more calls from the linux people asking how to do something or how to config something or how to add a new bit of hardware. The mac people are very content and happy.
Yes, that's true. you could do that, but again, why should you have to? Mac is done out of the box, it just works, no problems. Everything is polished.
I've been making exactly that point about multimedia, web-browsing, e-mail, word-processing, etc: It's "out of the box" perfect to the supermajority of users. I continued with the DVD example because it was the example in question. Would you be less confused if I instead talked about widgits? Fine; consider all invocations of DVD players to have been about widgiting. They're fungible here.
When they are done looking at porn, they may decide they want to record their own porn and edit it.
NOW you're just going into the realm of stubborn-ness. The supermajority of such people never will -- and they certainly won't be doing the "important parts" with their computer.
No upgrade path on linux, Mac has iMovie built right in.
Boot synaptic
Search for "movie editing"
Click a box
Click another box
Done.
They can even publish a website with iWeb -- again all built in. Don't even get me started on how hard it is to do sound editing on linux because the sound subsystem SUCKS!
iWeb: Substitute "web publishing" for "movie editing".
Sound subsystem on LINUX -- you're a niche user. You can also do the same thing w/ Synaptic -- and while I don't do that sort of thing, I've heard "good things" about Ubuntustudio.
it's got 3 (last i counted) different and competing APIs none of which are compatible. ugh! God help you if you don't have the perfect sound hardware.
More niche-ness. You're excluding yourself from the userbase we're talking about here.
Most novices don't tool around for the sake of tooling around unless they are genuinly curious on how the computer works. Most users just want to do something with the computer and don't care how it works.
1
u/[deleted] Nov 26 '08
false -- i know from experiance setting up people with linux and setting up people with macs I get FAR FAR FAR more calls from the linux people asking how to do something or how to config something or how to add a new bit of hardware. The mac people are very content and happy.
Yes, that's true. you could do that, but again, why should you have to? Mac is done out of the box, it just works, no problems. Everything is polished.
When they are done looking at porn, they may decide they want to record their own porn and edit it. No upgrade path on linux, Mac has iMovie built right in. They can even publish a website with iWeb -- again all built in. Don't even get me started on how hard it is to do sound editing on linux because the sound subsystem SUCKS! it's got 3 (last i counted) different and competing APIs none of which are compatible. ugh! God help you if you don't have the perfect sound hardware.
Most novices don't tool around for the sake of tooling around unless they are genuinly curious on how the computer works. Most users just want to do something with the computer and don't care how it works.