Re: Linux on the desktop viewed as from Joe Winuser

All untrue. What keeps folks from Linux on Desktop is bash. Simple is that. 
You can't write an app that runs on all known desktop environments with start
menu items, desktop icons or quick launchs for you would have to take into
account:
KDE2, KDE3, Gnome1, Gnome2, XFCE, Fluxbox, Enlightenment, Windowmaker, blah
blah blah. 
You can open a term with bash in all of these, but this is the point where Joe
Winuser get scared: command line.
This makes people think DOS. Which makes them think "obsolete"
Next thing. Windows user wants to surf to some website with flash content or
embedded video. Windows user was clever enough not to use IE but Opera and
found Opera is available for Linux, too. Wants to keep it since there aint no
IE at all.
So it comes to downloading and installing Opera. 
Installing. Umm. double click? Nah, won't work. So what to do with this rpm
thing?
Command line. Yuck. Too complex. Reading manuals? For installing a program?
What a waste of time.
Even if Joe Winuser reads the manual, he will come up with questions like "why
can't I chose the destination dir?" and the linux geek will tell him that's
possible if he COMPILES the SOURCE CODE and PREFIXES the destination dir in
the CONFIGURE SCRIPT from the COMMAND LINE. Joe Winuser is scared.
Let's say Joe got a distro with a graphical package maintenance and really
only had to select the package and say "install" and doesn't give a rats ass
about dest dir.
Now Opera is there, fine. But how to start it? Dunno what it's like with other
dists but here on Slackware it won't generate Gnome Menu entries.
Choices: "Run Application" and bash. I said enough about bash didn't I?
So there's Run Application, big deal: a dialog box with a text field. What to
enter there? "Opera"<return>. Result: "The target file://Opera could not be
opened". Hmm, so something must have gone wrong with the installation, right?
No, it's only caps, but does Joe know (*wanna* know)? Guess.
So let's say Joe figures Linux is case sensitive and manages to run Opera. 
Next thing is Flash. 
So we need Flash. Go to download site. Read instructions. Terminal, bash,
untar, become root, copy some stuff to some obnoxious place nobody ever heard
about before.

And so on.

All this takes me a handful of mouseclicks in Windowsdone in under 5 minutes
while I wasted 2 hours so far reading "fucking manuals" and getting larted in
irc chats, and you really ask what keeps Linux/desktop going to the masses?

Dex