Yeah, sadly that’s the main problem why Linux is taking so long to even have a chance to replace Windows. To make something very complex sound very simple to someone who is not technical is a talent. It’s a talent that only a few of us have, and it’s a talent that Microsoft cultivated in the 80s. Windows worked because the dummiest of the dummiest could install it.
I consider myself technical, but a few years ago I installed Linux after a few friends of mine, Linux techies, told me newest versions of Linux were SO easy to use. Well, I did install it and right away I was looking at a way to change the screen resolution using the mouse, like you would do on Windows with right-click then change video card settings. Well, you could NOT even do that. You had to go in some obscure xwindow settings, in command line, and update some text and restart. I knew at that point that Linux was not ready, and that most Linux techies were blind to that reality.
It’s the same thing with software design. If you want to be a good software designer, you know that the solution is not to explain how to use your software, but to make sure that even the dummiest user won’t need explanations. That damn helper dude with Office is so annoying, you click at almost any spot in the application and the little dude will say “Did you know that you could do this or that?”. I disable that guy as soon as I can, but I think that was a genius idea, because even my grandmother could have started using Word and have that little beast telling her what to do every 5 seconds.
But Linux is getting there. I’m not sure which version of Linux people suggested to Dale, but there are 3 or 4 very, very user friendly versions out there, you got one file to download, one CD to burn (or many CDs if you want lotsa packages). You insert the CD in your machine and boot with it, like you’d do with Windows, and that’s it.
Dale is pretty much right on in his observations. You need to remember that installing Windows is not a trivial thing, BUT practically nobody ever has to do that.
It’s not that bad, but if the installer asks you how you want to partition your hard disk, a whole buch of people out there are going to have no idea what to do.
Microsoft has maybe gotten to the point where their system is reasonably idiot-proof, but it has not been easy for them, nor has it been quick. It will not be easy or quick for Linux either. I mean the system, not the installer. I haven’t installed a fresh Windows since NT.
Whoever it was who suggested Ubuntu, I agree that it’s a very good first-linux choice. You can almost always use the defaults for everything in the installer, and the resulting system works well and is easy to update.
An ISO file is more or less a disc image.
So…
You download an ISO. Some linux distributions have more than 1 ISO to download. (ubuntu has only one, another plus).
Burn that ISO onto a CD. You need to somehow tell the burning program that this file is a disc image, not a data file. If you don’t do that, you’ve just made a coaster.
Get a computer with a single hard drive that you’re ready to wipe. Don’t try to set up a dual-boot with windows unless you know what you’re doing. It’s not hard, but if you do the wrong thing, windows will be gone.
Put the CD in it’s drive, boot, follow instructions.
Fact is, Macs are going to start using Intel chips http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2005/jun/06intel.html and become just a software and Ipod company. Whether this means that PC viruses will be able to penetrate the OS on the new boxes, I dunno.
If you are using OSX, try running the freeware application Applejack. It runs several unix command line diagnostic and repair tasks automatically. It works wonders and is easy to use. http://applejack.sourceforge.net
Yes, they’re going to use Intel chips, but no they’re not going to become just a software and iPod company! That’s hogwash.
Apple is still going to make computers and I don’t think they’re going to allow clones, and I also don’t think they’re going to make it easy for the Mac to become a two-platform machine. I’ve read reports of people running Windows on some of the developer Mac models with Intel chips, but I don’t think that option will be easily available (without a lot of hacking) on the commercial models.
Apple will always just have a tiny slice of the computer market (right now I think it’s around 3 percent), but even a tiny slice is enough to run a very profitable and successful business. Apple’s in great financial health and has millions of customers. I don’t think that’s going to change.
Well, I heard differently from the radio technology expert guy (about their financial strength) but hey, whatever, I’m no expert about it. But they will be paying Bill royalties for the iPod wheel as long as they continue to sell it. I bet the engineers are working on a new interface as we write.
In the last year, Apple’s sales have gone up 33%, net income has grown 300% and its stock price has nearly tripled. I’d say that’s pretty good financial health.
In the third quarter of this year, Apple reported the highest revenue and earnings in the company’s history, with a net quarterly profit of $320 million. It shipped 6.2 million iPods in the last quarter, but it also shipped 1.2 million Macs, so the company’s success is not entirely due to iPods.
Apple is a little like Nintendo these days. Their “main” product is slowly becoming their second product. The GameCube didnt sell that much, but the Game Boy Advanced allows Nintendo to post great profits. Same thing with Apple. Imagine what their finances would be without the iPod. I’m sure they’re going to keep on pushing on the iPod front and try to make that business even more profitable.
That’s my impression, Az. Hey, I have been a big-time user since 1990, and love the interface and SOME of the company practices, but I don’t think their financial standing is as solid as it might seem based on their Ipod profit-taking. I sure give them points for revolutionizing the way people listen to music. Took me a while to “get it,” but even I wanna Ipod now.
Kids have gone from playing CDs on budget $30 portable players to walking around with a $250 box. That’s pretty incredible. A little frightening insofar as taking them to school and all.
It’s true that the iPod is generating a lot of sales for Apple, but from what I’ve read most of the company’s revenue and profits still come from Macs. Without the iPod, Apple would be where it was before the iPod hit the market: which means it would have something like $6 billion in cash and no debt.
They got $1.5 billion in revenue during the last three months from sales of Macs compared with $1 billion in revenue from sales of iPods. So more of their revenue is in fact still coming from Macs even though iPods account for more sales [Edited to add this paragraph]
But as I said above, the Mac will always be a niche product, with a very small market share. Apple knows that, and that’s why they’ve been diversifying into other products and software. They’re more like Sony now than they are like Dell or IBM. The fact that they’re putting their eggs in many different baskets should make them stronger in the long run.
Regarding the quality control in Macs, my experience is quite different from those of some of our fellow chiffsters. I’ve had six Macs at home and at least 10 at work since the late 80’s. I’ve had three problems. The only one that I think was a Mac hardware problem was the energy saver in a G3 powerbook. Once one crashed while Norton was running, and I had to reformat the HD (I think that was a Power Computing clone, actually). The other was when I tried to upgrade to OSX on a 3-year-old blue G3; it had some memory issues likely due to a bad chip or slot.
I didn’t notice anybody pointing it out further up in the thread, but OSX is a Unix-based system; some believe that this was a big step toward bringing Unix into the mass-market. Basically, you can do all the Mac-style things, but can also run it almost completely through a unix terminal, from which you can do just about anything a unix guru can. There’s also Linux for the Mac, which worked just fine several years ago.