This link has been bookmarked by 67 people . It was first bookmarked on 28 Apr 2008, by a77ila.
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29 Aug 11
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19 Oct 09
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That’s where the EEE PC comes in
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That’s why a distro like Arch Linux while having maybe 1% of the users of Ubuntu has (imo) much better quality software. This is because the people who use the distro often also contribute to it’s improvement.
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It isn’t because she’s computer illiterate it’s because she is used to a Windows OS, she’d have many of the same problems switching to a Mac OS.
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30 Sep 09
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02 Jun 08
Sean FentonI’ve toyed with Linux since 2002, when I first installed Mandrake. With the latest release of Ubuntu, I was interested to see how far Linux had come since then in terms of being used easily by the mainstream. So, I tricked my grudging girlfriend Erin in
Ubuntu Linux research reference computers operating_system open_source tech software usability review article 2008 blog design
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23 May 08
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07 May 08
abrothman69I tricked my grudging girlfriend Erin into sitting down at a brand new Ubuntu 8.04 installation and performing some basic tasks. It’s surprising how many seemingly simple things become complicated and even out of reach for someone without a knowledge of
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04 May 08
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03 May 08
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30 Apr 08
Adriana LukasI want ubuntu to be successful and user-friendly as I intend to turn my windoze laptop into a ubantu run machine. I had a similar experience with the previous version of ubuntu and really glad someone wrote all this down. Please ubuntu people take note! I
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29 Apr 08
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28 Apr 08
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Conclusion
The main issue with the desktop experience is that the geeky programmers and designers assume too much from the average user. They assume the user knows about the way in which programs are installed, or how the file system is set out. The average user will not go out of their way to google for help or even read the associated documentation that comes with Ubuntu and its default software. The little information pop-ups and guided wizards are critical to explaining how the user can accomplish the basic tasks they most probably are trying to do.
I’d love to see a welcome screen for the first time you open up your desktop, with little videos explaining a few key concepts to how Linux and Ubuntu work. Maybe it could ask “What do you want to do?” and then explain how they could do this.
Linux won’t truly be ready for the desktop until someone computer illiterate can sit down at a the computer and with little effort do what they want to do. Erin’s intelligent, quick to learn and is reasonably well-acquainted with modern technology. If she had as much trouble as she did, what chance to the elderly or at least the middle-aged stand?
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Brett Boessenguy asks his non-geek girlfriend to try Ubuntu hardy heron. Most of it works well, but the stuff she has trouble with sparks several comments on ways to make Ubuntu more user friendly. As an aside, the article itself is pretty much devoid of sexist innu
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brian rodneyI was interested to see how far Linux had come since then in terms of being used easily by the mainstream. So, I tricked my grudging girlfriend Erin into sitting down at a brand new Ubuntu 8.04 installation and performing some basic tasks. It’s surprisi
design experiment linux ubuntu usability comparison xp windows
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