Re: [tlug] Install languages

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

Thomas Blasejewicz writes:

 > I have been reading everywhere, Linux is giving the user freedom = the 
 > freedom to customize all sorts of things.

It does.  Freedom implies responsibility.

 > A thousand times already the tiniest little change (customization)
 > I "implemented" - probably did wrong anyway - sent the entire
 > system over the edge and unless you are a computer specialist

Not.  I'm an economist, always have been.  Everything I know about
computers (except a little bit of FORTRAN -- and when I learned it,
that was still the most common spelling) I've taught myself with
"hands on" or from books, or got from listening to real experts.  You
can learn enough to customize your computer without becoming a
specialist.

Yes, if you want to customize your system, you need to learn something
about it.  That's true of Windows, too.  The tuition is a lot more
expensive with Windows, though, and very few users do more than change
the wallpaper.

 > No offense, but this is A LOT more unstable and troublesome than
 > the much despised MS stuff.

"No offense, but" from your computer's point of view, *you* are "A LOT
more unstable and troublesome" than the typical Linux user is.  If you
treated your Ubuntu/Mint system the way you would *have* to treat
Windows (only select the absolute minimum of additional options and
never ever refuse to install the installer's default selections) it
would probably work quite well.  "Accept the defaults" works just fine
for many users.

Remember, Microsoft and Apple each spend on the order of a billion
dollars a year on quality assurance to make sure that users get that
"Install -> let's go" experience (not that it's ever been 100% with
any Windows system I've used, and even Macs have gotten a lot more
fragile since Snow Leopard).  Even so, they succeed (95% isn't bad ;-)
only because they do take that freedom to customize away from you as
much as they can.  (And even more so with handhelds than with desktop
systems. :-( )