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Google Translate butchers the article badly, but https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.heise.de%2F

by 4bpp 12y ago

Google Translate butchers the article badly, but https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.heise.de%2Fnewsticker%2Fmeldung%2FLinux-in-Muenchen-Stadtrat-verteidigt-LiMux-gegen-Buergermeister-2262506.html&edit-text=&act=url https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&pr... suggests that this is more of a personal ambition of the vice-mayor and the city council is positioning itself firmly against any move back to Windows. Ultimately, it is more surprising that things even managed to remain this peaceful so far. Windows holds a huge home advantage simply by being the operating system almost everyone in the bureaucracy invariably uses at home. Many of the employees probably already invested years of painstaking trial-and-error, frustrated tech support calls and offering of incentives to more computer-literate relatives and offspring to get where they are in terms of being able to navigate a Windows desktop. No amount of corporate training is going to be able to make up for the feeling of frustration that those people will feel from the realisation that much of that was moot and they will have to relearn the basics.

click170 12y ago
As one of those computer-literate relatives / offspring, I can't help but feel like I'm contributing to the problem by helping them "fix" their windows computers. So I've stopped doing it. I've explained politely but firmly that I'll be happy to help them transition to a Linux or Mac desktop because I use those in my daily life and am familiar with them, but I'm not helping them with their Windows 8 PC. I do not use it, don't plan to, and have no interest in it. Anecdotally, the relative who is the most cautious seems to be the one who causes most of the problems by trying to click on all of the "helpful" messages that pop up. This came to light after they got a new laptop that only one of them had been using exclusively.
- graeme 12y ago
  >As one of those computer-literate relatives / offspring, I can't help but feel like I'm contributing to the problem by helping them "fix" their windows computers. So I've stopped doing it. This happened to me after I switched to mac. Not on purpose, I just stopped knowing how to troubleshoot. Recently, my parents had to upgrade their old XP computer. They bought a mac. They were worried about learning Windows 8 without support.
  - Widdershin 12y ago
    This had been one of the nice upsides of swapping to *nix. I can now claim ignorance of Windows problems.
- fiatjaf 12y ago
  This is something everyone reading this should start doing now. I will.
egor83 12y ago
Makes me wonder - why hasn't anyone made a Linux desktop environments that tries to mimic Windows look and behaviour as much as possible? IP/patent issues maybe? There would be a huge market for something like that, as this situation shows.
- DSMan195276 12y ago
  It's kinda interesting, Zorin does exactly what you've mentioned but I've never seen it get really popular. I think the big issue is that the UI isn't what people stumble with when moving to Linux. The bigger issues is the differences in file-system and programs, and it would be extremely hard to create a compatibility layer for such differences because Wine just isn't perfect (Nor should it really be recommended when Linux equivalent exist), and lots of programs ask for files and there's no easy way to patch them all in such a way that it appears like the Windows drive system instead of a Unix file system.
- rrradical 12y ago
  Check out Linspire (formerly Lindows): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linspire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linspire
- varkson 12y ago
  There has been, like PCLinuxOS. The problem is that it's not just the interface keeping people off GNU/Linux, it's everything else, like software and hardware support.
- byerley 12y ago
  I think this is an unstated (stated?) goal of Kubuntu, and there are some guides floating around to make it look even more like Windows.
- ronwl 12y ago
  Linux Mint with Cinnamon? I think its good enough since I've managed to convert at least 42 user from Windows to that. Its been almost 2years and they still stick with that.
pippy 12y ago
He'll be getting paid by MS to position himself in supporting windows. Even in medium organisations you'll be shocked by the freebies and goodies you'll get by supporting their infrastructure.

by 4bpp 12y ago

click170 12y ago

As one of those computer-literate relatives / offspring, I can't help but feel like I'm contributing to the problem by helping them "fix" their windows computers. So I've stopped doing it. I've explained politely but firmly that I'll be happy to help them transition to a Linux or Mac desktop because I use those in my daily life and am familiar with them, but I'm not helping them with their Windows 8 PC. I do not use it, don't plan to, and have no interest in it. Anecdotally, the relative who is the most cautious seems to be the one who causes most of the problems by trying to click on all of the "helpful" messages that pop up. This came to light after they got a new laptop that only one of them had been using exclusively.

graeme 12y ago
>As one of those computer-literate relatives / offspring, I can't help but feel like I'm contributing to the problem by helping them "fix" their windows computers. So I've stopped doing it. This happened to me after I switched to mac. Not on purpose, I just stopped knowing how to troubleshoot. Recently, my parents had to upgrade their old XP computer. They bought a mac. They were worried about learning Windows 8 without support.
- Widdershin 12y ago
  This had been one of the nice upsides of swapping to *nix. I can now claim ignorance of Windows problems.
fiatjaf 12y ago
This is something everyone reading this should start doing now. I will.

egor83 12y ago

Makes me wonder - why hasn't anyone made a Linux desktop environments that tries to mimic Windows look and behaviour as much as possible? IP/patent issues maybe? There would be a huge market for something like that, as this situation shows.

DSMan195276 12y ago
It's kinda interesting, Zorin does exactly what you've mentioned but I've never seen it get really popular. I think the big issue is that the UI isn't what people stumble with when moving to Linux. The bigger issues is the differences in file-system and programs, and it would be extremely hard to create a compatibility layer for such differences because Wine just isn't perfect (Nor should it really be recommended when Linux equivalent exist), and lots of programs ask for files and there's no easy way to patch them all in such a way that it appears like the Windows drive system instead of a Unix file system.
rrradical 12y ago
Check out Linspire (formerly Lindows): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linspire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linspire
varkson 12y ago
There has been, like PCLinuxOS. The problem is that it's not just the interface keeping people off GNU/Linux, it's everything else, like software and hardware support.
byerley 12y ago
I think this is an unstated (stated?) goal of Kubuntu, and there are some guides floating around to make it look even more like Windows.
ronwl 12y ago
Linux Mint with Cinnamon? I think its good enough since I've managed to convert at least 42 user from Windows to that. Its been almost 2years and they still stick with that.

pippy 12y ago

He'll be getting paid by MS to position himself in supporting windows. Even in medium organisations you'll be shocked by the freebies and goodies you'll get by supporting their infrastructure.