> SunSpot - exactly my point. The hardware which sets up "plug and chug" on Linux does not happen to be what I have. My Epson scanner and printer will produce archival-quality prints up to
> 13x19 with print tone unmatched by anything HP makes. It is also what I happen to own, and it's not supported under Linux. It's not supported under Win2K either... your point there is well
> taken.
If you're willing to accept the limitations of windows, then there's nothing wrong with you choosing to use hardware that doesn't presently have good support under linux. However, I'm not willing to accept the instability, insecurity, inflexibility, resource drain, and reduced efficiency of running Windows. Therefore I choose to run linux. I'm willing to choose only hardware that is well supported. Further, I believe with time more people will make a similar choice.
Even better, I believe that companies will make it easier for people to make the linux choice. As customers become increasingly aware of the benefits of linux, more will request linux. As they do, more companies will start to sell computers (or more relevantly, peripherals) that are fully linux compatible and hardware manufactures will contribute to making their products run well on linux. Then having a computer happily running linux will be as easy as having a computer running windows is now. IMO, the question is when, not if.
> As far as trusting my 4 year old to install software, the schools here in Texas recommend several "jump start" programs which begin in pre-school and run up through 5th grade. They also like
> "blue's clues", Franklin the Turtle, and the like. They have no problem handling CDs, they load them 10 times a day and have not screwed up one yet. The installation of a new program under
> Windows98, and Win95 before that, is completely automated and trouble-free, and I'm talking about ground-up installation of a new program and all required support. Your comments
> exactly reinforce what I was saying - no rational person would suggest that a preschool child could do that on Linux, yet it is easily and routinely done on Win98.
I disagree. If they learned how to install software for windows, they can learn how to install software for linux, or even linux itself. Yes, it can be somewhat different, but that doesn't mean more difficult.
Perhaps, your perception that linux programs are hard to install is a result of the way they're distributed. Most windows programs are sold in a store. You pop in the CD, maybe run d:\setup.exe, click ok a bunch, and then find where it stuck the new icon. If you buy a CD with linux software, I think you'll likely find the process is rather similar. Pop in the CD, maybe run /mnt/cdrom/install.sh, click on ok a bunch, and then find where it stuck the new icon.
However, most linux programs are free for downloading off the internet. For a non-development version of a program I typically click on a link to download something and then install it with one command line. (If I wanted a graphical installer, I could use it instead, but for me that is less efficient.) I suppose you could claim that you have to know which web site to go to, but the same is true for free/share-ware on windows. I'd say that installing shareware on windows is of nearly the same difficulty as installing a downloaded program for linux.
Of course, if you insist on using a device that is not fully supported (maybe your printer) and you need to run a development version of something to make it work, then yes, it will likely be more complicated. A legitimate concern you could raise is that too many things (maybe your printer driver or the available children's games) are still in the development stage. That may be true for you, but it's not for me. More importantly, the situation is improving with time at an increasingly rapid rate. If you want a piece of hardware supported under linux or a program to be ported to linux, I recommend sending an email to the company to that effect.
In any case, if you're really interested, I'd recommend you take a look at the recent helixcode installer for gnome. I'd say it's as good or better than any other I've seen on any platform. Certainly this isn't yet normal for installing linux packages, but it demonstrates that some people/companies are making installations more to your liking.
The best part is that I can choose how to install my software and you can choose how to install install yours. We can both have it the way we like it.
In any case, I suspect what you're talking about is software that runs primarily off a CD. In that case, sure it's trivial to do and I believe it is an option under linux, although I don't choose to turn it on.
> Those games are an important learning tool. My 4 year old has started to develop both reading and math skills, my 7 year old, a first grader, can do multiplication and division and reads at a
> third grade level. I suppose I should give that up because Win98 crashed sometimes?
I may not be qualified to make suggestions here, and I don't mean to attack you, but...
If it were me and my kid, I think I'd prefer to spend time with them myself. That way I could interact with them in a way that I felt was best for their development based on what they were doing at the time. I think this is better than hoping some software company has programmed in something that will do it for me.
Personally, I've never seen a piece of software labeled as education that I would recommend to a parent/child as actually a good way for the kid to learn.
The most educational software I had as a young child was the BASIC interpreter in the ROM of a Commodore 64. |
