My attention was grabbed by Brad Gadberry's comment [no mean IT commentator, he] about the relative difficulties of using Windows and Linux, noting that you can have bad Windows experiences also, and that emphasizing the minor problems in Linux makes the OS sound like risky business.
My first response was "Well, yes" -- in the sense that Windows is easier to use than Linux, so that when something goes wrong with it, a relatively inexperienced person can effect a repair more easily than with Linux [to be clear, I am not talking Win 9x here -- it is simply unfair to compare such a limited OS with Linux]. So in that sense, the perception of "greater risk" in Lunux is not necessarily wrong -- my Ford and my Ferrari may both suffer from a problem with their brake calipers, but reparing the latter is liable to be more fraught with angst.
But when I thought about this further, I asked myself: "What does it mean to 'use Linux'?". This is by no means as silly a question as it sounds, because "using Linux" can mean one of (at least) two things:
1) To interact with and employ the capacities of the operating system through the command line interface; or
2) To interact with and employ the capacities of the operating system through the graphical interface.
Now Windows, of course, is primarily graphic [though many useful command-line elements like scripting are possible within it], so when we talk about "using Windows", there is usually no doubt about what we mean. I would argue with equal force that in terms of complexity and power, Windows and Linux are roughly similar [i.e. this difference is not even a single order of magnitude]. Currently, however, the power of Linux is most readily tapped through the CLI, and this is exactly the interface which is most intimidating to most computer users, so that even executing a trivial correction may appear to be non-trivial.
There is, I would argue, some need for precision when talking about "using" operating systems, just to make sure we are not comparing hawks with handsaws.
Posted by jho at June 16, 2003 09:26 PMCowards die many times before their deaths: The valiant never taste of death but once. altace buy altace If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die. That strain again! it had a dying fall: O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound 1 That breathes upon a bank of violets, Stealing and giving odour!
Posted by: altace at November 14, 2004 02:53 PM