Posted on Sunday 25th of March 2007 at 03:18 in Linux

Why the Linux distro reviews are the way they are

The other day I revisted PCLinuxOS 2007 beta 2 for more in depth look at the functionality to take into consideration my new intentions on reviewing distros. This meant looking at the system from the point of view of a new user, playing some media, networking to my current in-house network and writing (and editing) the review from within the test environment.

A reader then questioned whether this review was actually of any use to anyone, so I feel compelled to justify myself and answer a few questions in an entirely new post

Frank ’viperteq’ Young stated that " I don’t think that this has been a realistic review of a Linux OS." and claimed that the majority of Linux users are 18-35 because the 35+ market don't change operating systems. Wrong my friend. I've been contacted by many users who fall above the 35 mark and had questions regarding moving from Windows - don't forget that this age of technology is breaking the barriers that people once believed. Now it's rather common for the 60+ market to be very profficient at IT related tasks so I'd have to say that limiting Linux users down to a potential 18-35 window isn't terribly accurate.

He continued to explain that " the majority of users that fall between 18 and 35 will more than likely be laptop users than desktop users. And laptops are where most Linux distros fall into problems." which possibly holds more truth than the last statement - but not by much. On what grounds do 18-35's use notebooks more? Of my circle of friends and their families (clearly spanning many generations) all have desktops (and a few laptops, but primarily desktops). The "older" generation tend to have desktops because they're cheaper to purchase and "techie" users tend to have desktops for power and customisability. I'd agree that the 18-35 market will use notebooks more than the other age brackets but I don't agree that laptops are more popular than desktops.

However, I do agree that I should focus on notebook installtion - and if Frank had read some of my previous posts he'd know that I'm still in "negotiations" for finding a Windows-free notebook from which I can review future distros.

Some closing points involving my ability were raised. Frank stated "When offering a review of something, you have to in depth and touch on every aspect of using the subject as if you are completely nullus to whatever that subject is. The two points that you touched on seem easy to you BECAUSE IT IS EASY TO YOU." and I should defend this, I suck at terminal commands and I'm not an advanced Linux user. Odd maybe considering I focus on the topic a lot, but I look at the topic from a Windows point of view and how easy a migration from one system to another would be. I've been using Windows since I had 3.1 installed on a 486 and I've been through 3.1, 95, 98, 98se and XP and it wasn't until 2005 that I even looked at Linux seriously. So to say that I find these tasks easy because they're easy to an advanced Linux user like me is a redundant statement (although you weren't to know). I'm not brilliant at command line stuff (I normally need a tutorial or two) but I am a developer and a "techie" of sorts so I understand how stuff works. But I'm not by any stretch of the imagination an advanced user - I have just tried quite a few different distros.

I do the reviews the way I do because I'm a native Windows user with an understanding of Linux and the surrounding community. Therefore I review distros and express opinions based on how easily I think others could move from XP (what I'm used to) to the review system.

Thanks for the feedback though Frank, it's stuff like this that helps me further understand what readers are thinking and how best I can tailer the reviews. I am looking into obtaining a notebook to do the reviews on but funding is tight and I can't justify that outlay just yet. If anyone wants to comment on how they think the reviews could be improved please let me know - I read every email and each comment so your voice will be heard.

Enjoy this article? Why not subscribe to the full RSS feed?

Add Your Comments

Comments

Showing most recent 6 of 6 comments

I’m a 40 year old who has switched. I’m also a teacher who teaches both adults and children. I’ve found that it is actually the 30+ users that are more ready to make the switch. Younger users may dabble but stay with MS and are actually very conservative. They learn’t on windows at school and use it for gaming and believe the fud. They are also more receptive to peer pressure and don’t want to be seen using some ’weird’ os’. The older users don’t care what it is as long as it works and is stable. They also remember pre Win95 and are more receptive to other OS. Finally cost comes into it. I’m a family man and need to balance my computer and hardware thirst with feeding the kids :) A new MS OS is just too expensive and doesn’t let me do what I want.

by drakshug on Saturday 14th of April 2007 at 06:43

I’m a 62-year-old who is fascinated by different os’s. I started with Apple II, then Mac, Windows 95, 98, and XP. Along the way I’ve tried Red Hat 7, SUSE 9, Ubuntu (dapper) and Linux Mint (Bea) - based on Ubuntu. I am somewhat ADHD, so I get frustrated by command line. I want an OS that appeals to my need to be independent of Big Brother ( either OSX or Windows). I still haven’t found a Linux distro that installs without problems, but I’m still trying. Some of the Linux help sites are swamped by newbies with technical problems. I admire the moderators who patiently try to help. It shouldn’t be so hard. For example, why is my browser slower in Linux than in XP? Why did have to install SUSE 3 times before it worked? I think Linux will have arrived when these problems more or less disappear.

In the meantime, is anyone else keeping an eye in Haiku? It’s a re-write of BeOS, optimised for a gui desktop. It’s in progress, and you can check it out at Haiku.com. I can hardly wait to give it a test run!

You see, young fellers? Even old farts like to experiment with new stuff.

by Bob Colwell on Tuesday 27th of March 2007 at 16:36

I Am a 40 year old heavy Pc user.I Have tried and used every distro of windows starting at 3.1 to vista . 18 year olds have no idea..they think they do and yes they can change reg edits and run a few proggies but i only give credit to c or c++ writers that really do the nitty grittty, the few 18 year olds that can do this i will nod my head at.. Otherwise i have played with linux since redhat 6.1 and have tried them all .Ive compiled and rpmed my little head of and pull my hair out like no tomorrow...but at the end of the day linux can do everything i want after i spend 2 weeks configuring and stuffing about..windows can do it within an hour but is corupt within two weeks and is so slow and cant even really multitask it mutiplexes and stuffs about, does a millisecond here and there but after every program steals my bandwidth and robs my resources it worthless. Even Xps file structure was stolen from linux.So 40 plus do change operating systems...we were writing dos when you where in nappies...wake up junior. your probably dont even know what boolean is.

by mark Earnshaw on Tuesday 27th of March 2007 at 05:56

My only grip is the style heet for the main body of the article makes reading the articlea pain in the eyes for me (19" CRT) I’ll have to try on the 17" TFT and see if it looks nicer. But fear not as I too suck at commanding nix about and must site with a web browser open on an XP box to anything. Funny thing was back pre 3.1 I was red hot with DOS... funny.

by Lord Matt on Sunday 25th of March 2007 at 17:18

Well i enjoy the linux reviews as i am still unsure weather to use it. Mainly because why i need it.

by Nadinengland on Sunday 25th of March 2007 at 14:59

I get the reviews and I understand why they’re done this way. However I think it’ll be a good indication when you’re able to use a laptop to do the reviews.

by Harpo on Sunday 25th of March 2007 at 06:33