Comments on: Linux.com Still Unhelpful for New Users

By: Pat

Pat — Fri, 29 May 2009 03:49:32 +0000

I think you’re doing a great service to Linux — and, I hope, ultimately the global community of computer users — by exposing Linux’s ugly, user-hostile underbelly. The existence of a site like this is evidence that things are changing for the better. And I still salute all the people who are contributing their time and talents for free — even if the results are sometimes off the mark.

By: Gen2ly

Gen2ly — Sat, 16 May 2009 16:57:28 +0000

Good point. if i were looking into linux i think i’d probably go to that page and leave pretty quickly. If i had just heard about linux and just wanted to look into it i might just look at the page and give up thinking the ideas as too obscure.

By: Christopher Tozzi

Christopher Tozzi — Fri, 15 May 2009 20:25:29 +0000

Mackenzie: I see that now too–thanks for pointing this out. Either that content wasn’t there the other day, or I missed it (which is certainly possible). It’s good to see the “Popular Distributions” more prominently displayed–although I’d still argue that they could be a bit easier to access from the homepage, since people who don’t know what a Linux distribution is in the first place are unlikely to find the link.

By: Mackenzie

Mackenzie — Fri, 15 May 2009 20:16:17 +0000

When I looked at the distro page yesterday, they had a list of like 5 distros for normal folks right at the top (Fedora, Ubuntu, SuSE, a couple others).

By: hezy's status on Friday, 15-May-09 20:08:07 UTC - Identi.ca

hezy's status on Friday, 15-May-09 20:08:07 UTC - Identi.ca — Fri, 15 May 2009 20:08:10 +0000

[...] is right: http://www.workswithu.com/2009/05/14/linuxcom-still-unhelpful-for-new-users/ !linux [...]

By: Christopher Tozzi

Christopher Tozzi — Thu, 14 May 2009 21:48:25 +0000

Walt: I agree that the new site is a great resource for experienced Linux users and for promoting collaboration between the various components of the Linux community, which has been needed for some time. For this purpose, it deserves more credit than I gave it in the article; thanks for pointing out its value to to the ‘REAL geeks’

However, as the authors of the other comments point out, the site would have done an important service to new Linux users by helping them download and install a beginner-friendly distribution–and there’s no reason it couldn’t have done that without also catering to Linux gurus.

I suspect that the Linux Foundation decided not to provide instructions targeted at new users because it doesn’t want to get mired in the politics of privileging Ubuntu or Fedora over obscure home-spun distributions made by geeks in their basements. Although most of the Linux community would probably agree that Ubuntu is the best distribution for most new users, there’s a minority that can’t get it through their heads that not everyone is an elite hacker, and that most people looking to switch to Linux just want things to work with as little effort as possible (or maybe these individuals don’t want “normal people” using Linux at all, which is a valid opinion).

I wish the Linux Foundation would follow the will of the vast majority instead of worrying about being 100% politically correct–after all, it’s called the Linux Foundation, not the GNU/Linux/HURD Foundation, so it’s already offending the Richard-Stallman types because of its name.

By: Walt

Walt — Thu, 14 May 2009 21:12:00 +0000

I can’t get excited about that site not being beginner friendly. Maybe everyone would be happy if they just had a link at the top of their home page that said “I you don’t understand these web pages go to http://www.ubuntu.com“.
After all the REAL geeks need to have their web sites, too

By: Vadim P.

Vadim P. — Thu, 14 May 2009 13:37:10 +0000

I looked at their “download linux” page and left too. Wtf are they thinking – afraid if helping linux and getting their feet wet by the complaints of minorities? That’s not helping anyone.

But the tuts page and the developer section is nice though – linux needs something like MSDN.

By: Jason Crane

Jason Crane — Thu, 14 May 2009 11:49:38 +0000

Great post, Christopher. If it were up to me — and if splash pages aren’t out of fashion, which they may be — I might have the opening page be something as simple as “Want to get Linux?” and “Already Got Linux?” with the first link leading to simple instruction focused on the most user-friendly distributions, and the second link sending you to the main site.