Why Linux is not for the masses
Jul22Written by:
2009/07/22 09:44 AM 
There has been endless debates going on between Linux faithful and Windows enthusiasts. Both stating that their preferred operating system is the best, and bad mouthing the competition. The problem is that they are aimed at different users in general
Bill Gate's goal was to put a computer in every home. He wanted the average Joe Soap, who is computer illiterate to be able to use a computer. Windows fulfils this role.
Linux on the other hand is a derivative on Unix and is meant for IT Geeks. Not your average Joe. Linux is hard core, nuts and bolts.
Windows does everything for you behind the scenes, while Linux expects you to know everything and do it all for yourself. Imagine your father, or your wife or some computer illiterate relative trying to install Linux or some third party software. Where they have to download it, recompile it and write a script to get it going. Now I know this can be extreme. But consider the following.
Below was an answer to a Question posed on one of the Ubuntu forums. Someone trying to install Firefox 3. Now in Windows everything is precompiled, with an installation package that does everything for you. You click once, perhaps if you’re more knowledgeable you make some modifications like which folder to install, and then the installation package takes care of the install.
This is ALWAYS the way windows installation works. But in Linux, you could have an install package. You could have raw code you need to compile, it could be just a copy past. Who knows?
Well the answer is , geeks know, moms, dads and grandma don’t. They just want it to work
Now I don’t hate Linux. In fact I use Linux myself. My point being that Windows and Linux are aimed at different markets. If both supporters realise this everyone would get along so much better.
The question posed in the Ubuntu forum and the answer below. Imagine trying to get some computer illiterate to follow these instructions when they can barely follow instructions to “Start->Run”
how can I install Firefox 3 in 7.10 ?
The answer:
grab feisty's version of gtk here:
http://packages.ubuntu.com/feisty/libgtk2.0-0
(probably the i386 .deb - if you are using a 32bit machine - here's a direct link to the deb: http://mirror.mcs.anl.gov/pub/ubuntu...untu3_i386.deb ) save it to say, "/tmp" don't install it - we want to just extract it.
Code:
sudo dpkg-deb -x /tmp/libgtk2.0-0_2.10.11-0ubuntu3_i386.deb /opt/gtk2.10
so now you have gtk2.10 living in /opt/gtk2.10/usr/lib
now, create a shell script to start firefox using that library. the shell script has the following contents:
Code:
#!/bin/bash
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="/opt/gtk2.10/usr/lib"
/opt/firefox/firefox $*
run command
Code:
sudo nano /opt/firefox/startfirefox.sh
and paste the above contents into it.
then run command
Code:
sudo chmod 755 /opt/firefox/startfirefox.sh
finally, try starting firefox, run command:
Code:
/opt/firefox/startfirefox.sh
and it /should/ run. give it a shot.
sorry i know the instructions are a bit long... but i hope they are clear enough to follow.
edit: as an alternative to doing all the above manually, here's a shellscript that will do it all for you automatically - take the contents, paste into a text file, save as "gtkfirefoxfix.sh" (e.g), then run as
Code:
bash gtkfirefoxfix.sh
Code:
#!/bin/bash
wget -c --tries=5 --read-timeout=20 --waitretry=10 http://mirror.mcs.anl.gov/pub/ubuntu/pool/main/g/gtk+2.0/libgtk2.0-0_2.10.11-0ubuntu3_i386.deb -O /tmp/libgtk2.0-0_2.10.11-0ubuntu3_i386.deb
sudo dpkg-deb -x /tmp/libgtk2.0-0_2.10.11-0ubuntu3_i386.deb /opt/gtk2.10
(
cat <<'EOF'
#!/bin/bash
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="/opt/gtk2.10/usr/lib"
/opt/firefox/firefox $*
EOF
) > /tmp/startfirefox.sh
sudo mv /tmp/startfirefox.sh /opt/firefox/
sudo chmod 755 /opt/firefox/startfirefox.sh
sudo chown root:root /opt/firefox/startfirefox.sh
then try it, run
Code:
/opt/firefox/startfirefox.sh
and see if it works.
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