Praise for Linux

[charlie.corder]

Good day to everyone,

I bought a small Gateway laptop the other day that comes with Windows 10 installed. All my other cp's have various Linux distros installed on them, {3 desktops and 2 laptops}.
I spent about 20 years using Windows from 3.1 up to Win 7.
I thought it would further my education to have a look at Win. 10. Besides, when my present lappie gives up the ghost I can always install Linux on the Gateway later.

I have been using Linux since about 2017 or 18. I remember the problems I had with the transition to Linux.
Those problems were fewer than any new person now has trying to figure out Win 10.

Linux terminology makes much more sense than Windows. For instance, if I want to write a short essay, what program would I use for that? In Win. Office you have to find a program that's called 'Word'. In Linux, Libre Office you look for the program called 'Writer'. I don't have to be a genius to realize that 'word' is what I am going to 'write', not a program to use.

It has taken me several tries to figure out where stuff is located in Win. 10, and I know pretty much what I am looking for. Must be more difficult for a newbie.

To me, Linux just makes things so much easier to use, as I have things set up just the way I want them, and know where to look for them.

I really believe that if someone who had never used a computer before, were to start out by using Linux, they would become proficient well before they had memorized all the things they had to learn in order to use Windows.

With Linux you are actually using your mental abilities, along with your memory, instead of just memorizing a bunch of things without any thought process. Linux sharpens your mental acuity, while Win. does not require any thought.

I, for one, am grateful that I have found Linux. It is a pleasure to use {and abuse occasionally} with the freedom to do with it as I please. I am sure it helps this old mind to keep functioning in a somewhat positive manner.

Just an Old Geezer,
Tango Charlie

 

[KGIII]

That's something I'd love to be able to blind test.

From a zero-knowledge starting point, which OS is easiest to learn how to use effectively and efficiently?

Devising a test like that would be problematic, as most folks these days have at least some level of computer proficiency.

Amusingly, when I was a young man, the first computer course was called exactly that, "Computer Proficiency".

 

[wizardfromoz]

Maybe not so problematic if a long-term study was performed with elementary school children - 3 groups for Windows, Apple and Linux. If you start them with point and click, drag and drop, they could start pre-school age, then introduce them to the Terminal as their literacy skills commence.

20 year study, and see if and how it affects the vocational directions taken.

Wiz

 

[bob466]

Charlie,

I know how you feel...switching to Linux was the best thing I ever did and you don't have to be an expert to install and use it.

Not long ago I was in a store and all the Laptops had that other OS on them...I didn't know where to start...I have to laugh when some people say...Linux is too hard.

 

[Condobloke]

I occasionally screw things royally in Linux.

it can take pages here in this site to rectify my "abuse"....but beneath the "words of wisdom" I utter (read really bad language), I know I , and those helping me, will eventually triumph.
my most foray into the unknown was here : https://www.linux.org/threads/cpu1-...y-cpu2-running-at-15-varying-with-load.43287/ ....and while the "fault" was not really mine, I certainly didn't help the situation by doing a few things that I did !!! (long and boring story !)

My point here is: when the 'fix' became readily apparent, was put in place and the outcome was truly Positive......I jumped for joy....my dear wife thought I had taken leave of my senses (again) and decided a cup of coffee was in order (for her.....I would only spill one with my excitement)
Why?....because mostly all of the actual reading, testing, trying various'solutions' out, was on me and as grateful as I am to the excellent people who searched for me and made suggestions based on their experience ....the putting in of that material etc was up to me....my thought processes figured out the order, which ones, etc etc etc

For the majority of people with a problem of that nature in windows they end up at bleeping computer (.com)...or some similar site...or at a local repair shop......and they are either given a 'recipe' to follow, or the repair guy makes the decisions necessary.....not them

Linux... own it. You will not regret doing that.

 

[KGIII]

Maybe not so problematic if a long-term study was performed with elementary school children - 3 groups for Windows, Apple and Linux. If you start them with point and click, drag and drop, they could start pre-school age, then introduce them to the Terminal as their literacy skills commence.

20 year study, and see if and how it affects the vocational directions taken.

Wiz

I like the idea - but I'm not sure of the ethics. You can't experiment (you can observe all you want, assuming you have permission) on people without their consent (see the University of Minnesota's experiments on the Linux kernel) and children can't consent.

For what it's worth, their parents (which is kinda scary when we think about it) can consent for children.

We'd have to figure out a way past that little nugget...

Lemme ponder this one... I like your idea and it'd be a good way to get some data, assuming we had some sort of equivalent proficiency test at the end.

It might be ethical if we devised it in such a way as to allow the children themselves to pick their OS path and then just observed.

 

[ML_113]

If you start them with point and click, drag and drop, they could start pre-school age, then introduce them to the Terminal as their literacy skills commence.

Let's me give opinion about that from an impartial (sic) observer - an ex AS/400 IT.
I worked with it starting from the late 1980, all command lines. Later IBM introduced GUI for the platform. I found that young people , exposed to that, usually are unable to cope with command lines and cannot advance due to that fact.

The essence of the AS/400 is Security not COBOL, RPG ... learning the AS/400 from GUI is an impossible task unless people are satisfied staying as operator or third class programmer.

By the way I was sold by Linux when retired thinking I would adapt to Linux better then found out that my old brain is stone dead. My AS/400 commands help me as much as a person proficient in Arab trying to read and write in Mandarin.