[CLUE-Talk] easiest distro to install

[Matt Gushee]

On Mon, Aug 18, 2003 at 04:37:40PM -0600, Dale K. Hawkins wrote:
> Dennis J Perkins <djperkins at americanisp.net> writes:
> 
> > I've been playing with LFS and I use Debian, so I have not looked at the other 
> > distros for a while.  I have no idea how easy they might be to
> > install.
> 
> I believe that newbies still shudder at the Debian installer.

<RANT>
I suppose they probably do, but I still think this is mostly a knee-jerk
reaction to the command-line interface. And I recognize that in many
cases that reaction is just the reality we have to deal with, but it
should also be challenged when possible. Because here's the thing:
people have been conditioned to think that 

   User Friendly === Having Buttons, Icons and Menus

which is not totally without a rational basis. But most ordinary users,
I think, don't believe it for rational reasons, and there are other
factors that have to be considered.

Thinking about the problem rationally, which is really more
user-friendly: a GUI that presents you with choices, but no explanation
of what those choices mean, or a CLI that gives you good help messages
to guide you?

If we can assume the user knows how to read and type, I'd have to pick
the latter ... which IMO is basically the Debian approach. I haven't
installed RedHat or SuSE lately, but last time I checked, they, like
Microsoft, picked the former approach. Automate the s**t out of
everything, set up a bunch of pretty buttons, keep the interface as
simple as possible--and certainly keep any technical details well
hidden, because they might scare people away. Great. Well, if the
vendors have done their job well, it works a large percentage of the
time. But at some point the process will inevitably break down, because
in developing a mass-market software product noone can ever anticipate
all user's actions and understanding.

So what happens then? The user--who has never bothered to learn how
computers work, because they have been led to believe they don't need to
--is up the creek.

Again, I realize that users' attitudes are what they are, and often
there's nothing you can do about it. Nonetheless, it's frustrating that
so many people uncritically pursue the Holy Grail of dumbing down the
interface to the point of effortlessness. Because in those rare cases
where you can persuade Joe or Jane Newbie to approach the problem
rationally, and not to automatically fear things like command lines and
partitions, *you are helping to empower people*.

Not that everybody can or should be an UberG33k. But if you think about
it like cars: should ordinary car owners be able to replace a clutch or
grind a valve stem? Probably not. Should they be able to fix flats and
change their oil? I would say so. And you know what? It feels *good* to
be able to do those things, even if you usually pay somebody to do them
for you.
</RANT>

-- 
Matt Gushee                 When a nation follows the Way,
Englewood, Colorado, USA    Horses bear manure through
mgushee at havenrock.com           its fields;
http://www.havenrock.com/   When a nation ignores the Way,
                            Horses bear soldiers through
                                its streets.
                                
                            --Lao Tzu (Peter Merel, trans.)