The Great Ubuntu-Girlfriend Experiment
Introduction
I’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 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 Linux. There are a lot of little things that could be done to make the experience a lot more friendly for non-computer-literate people – some of them easy to implement, others not at all.
Erin’s knowledge of computers is limited to word processors, spreadsheets, Photoshop and a reasonable amount of browsing on the Web. Fairly standard stuff for a university philosophy student. All I did to the system (before leaving Erin at the log-in screen) was to install it and create a user account for her. She had no problems logging in, and loved the stylised heron background. Then I gave her one by one the tasks I’d set her. I didn’t give her any help at all.
First task: Tell me what the capital of Bosnia is.
As soon as she heard this, Erin grinned, rolled her eyes and said “easy!” Her eyes found the Firefox shortcut at the top of the screen, and very soon Wikipedia told her Sarajevo. A good start, the task was completed with absolutely no trouble at all.
Second task: Watch a video on YouTube.
(note: this is a problem specifically with YouTube – it detects whether or not you have Flash using JavaScript and then puts a link to Adobe’s webpage instead of displaying the plugin. Firefox’s standard behaviour is to ask you to install it in an automated fashion. Just bad luck I happened to choose YouTube!)
This proved more problematic. Erin went to YouTube and searched for a Beatles video, and seemed to assume that it would work straight away. When it told her that she needed a plug-in she groaned, but clicked the link they gave her. It took her to the official Flash plug-in page, and gave her the option of downloading a gzipped tarball, an RPM or a YUM.
Because she’s using Ubuntu, the RPM and the YUM are going to be of no use – not that she knows this. Erin tried the .tar.gz, and it downloaded to her home folder. It opened in the archive manager, and she extracted it to the default. Then, she was lost. She tried double-clicking the file, and Ubuntu just asked her what she’d like to do with it. The option “run” results in it crashing. No clue was given to her that she should open up a terminal and type ‘./flashplayer-installer’. To be fair, there are links to installation instructions, but the average person acclimatised to Windows is not expecting to have to read complex information before installing a program – all they need to do is double click it. Obviously her attempts with the RPM and the YUM went nowhere. Frustrated, Erin conceded defeat.
There are other ways to install flash on Ubuntu, such as by using the inbuilt package manager. Why doesn’t Firefox tell her to do this, or do it automatically like Rhythmbox does with codecs? Ubuntu ship Firefox with their own special modifications, couldn’t this be one of them?
Third task: Download a Spice Girls Album
Erin’s first reaction was to go to the Applications menu, and look first in the Sound & Video folder, and then in Internet. I presumed that she was looking for some kind of Limewire equivalent. Erin has downloaded music using uTorrent before in Windows, so she went and got utorrent.exe from their website. It downloaded, and she double clicked it. It asked her if she wanted to open it with an application, and, confused, she tried to open the executable with itself.
When this didn’t work, she sat frowning for a while before heading to ScrapeTorrent (where I’d shown her to get torrents months and months ago.) She downloaded a Spice Girls torrent and it asked her if she wanted to open it with “Transmission”. She hesitated, then clicked yes. It started downloading immediately to her Desktop. She sat back, folded her arms and gave me a self-satisfied smirk.
The only problem I see here is the name of Transmission in the menu. I imagine that her problems would’ve been reduced if only they listed “Transmission BitTorrent Client” instead. How on earth is a user supposed to know what Transmission is? The icon certainly doesn’t help. They do this with “Firefox Web Browser”, so why not Transmission? Weird. They could even just put “file-sharing client”, and when it loads up for the first time a wizard can help the user understand what BitTorrent is and how it works.
Fourth task: Draw me a little picture and save it in three formats.
Erin’s done a fair bit of photoshopping before, and from her attitude I could tell she thought it’d be easy. She went to the Graphics menu in Applications and selected “OpenOffice.org Drawing”, which makes sense for anyone uninitiated. However, I think she was expecting a simple Paint-esque program. Instead, she had opened an unfamiliar vector-based illustrator. It took her a long time just to find the buttons to make a line, or change colours. Eventually she made the picture and saved it as three formats. Because she went to “Save As…” instead of “Export…” she could only save it in strange and unfamiliar formats such as odg, otg, sxg. I could tell that she was perplexed as to why she couldn’t just save it in the formats she was used to.
Obviously not having experience with a vector-based illustrator was Erin’s downfall in this task – but, then, how many people have used one? I don’t understand why there isn’t a program like KDE’s KPaint for Gnome/Ubuntu. (Also, why is OpenOffice.org Drawing installed in the Base package? Seems pretty unnecessary – if only because I don’t know anyone who uses a program like it.)
Fifth Task: Burn an album from my music collection.
Erin knows that my music collection is on the same computer that she is using, in Windows. Before trying to find it, though, she looked for a CD burning program in the Sound & Video menu and found it with “Brasero Disc Burning”. Thankfully it wasn’t just called Brasero. I was impressed with the way it opened straight up to a screen with four big buttons, each with the common tasks anyone would want to do. Erin had no problems working out which button to push, and then it asked her which files to add.
Erin looked in her Music folder (created by default in Ubuntu), and her home folder and the desktop. She avoided the “492.8GB Media”, which is my Windows partition, and the many strange and unhelpfully-named folders in “Filesystem” could only have scared her. She minimised Brasero and went to the “Places” menu for the first time, launching the search program. She tried searching for music in her home directory and music folder, but found nothing, and didn’t try “Filesystem” or “492.8GB Media”. She also told me later that she thought it was stupid that you couldn’t specify which type of file you want to find. Nevertheless, she was unable to burn an album from my music collection.
No problems with Brasero, their team did well for making it so user-friendly. However, Ubuntu really should be make more clear where the computer’s other partitions are. It should detect if there are Windows installations on the machine and provide well-named shortcuts to them. If this had been done, there wouldn’t've been any trouble. Also, the search function should, instead of “Filesystem”, have a “Whole Computer” option. How is someone not experienced with Linux supposed to know that folders like “etc”, “dev” and “mnt” contain all the workings and files on the machine?
Sixth Task: Change the speed of the mouse
No issues here, Erin found “System → Preferences → Mouse” within a few seconds and the slider bar was right there. Easy.
Seventh Task: Change the theme of the computer.
Again, very simple. Though she moved down to the Ts to find “Theme” first, she saw “Appearance” soon after and changed the theme to Mist. Couldn’t be simpler.
Eighth Task: Find a picture on the Intenet and set it as the desktop background
Went straight away to a website with background images, and grabbed one. Instead of just clicking the “Set as Desktop Background” option in the right-click menu, she saved the image to her home folder and then changed the background from the Appearance menu she’d found earlier. No problems.
Ninth Task: Change screen resolution.
This was easy from the Preferences menu under Screen Resolution, and she changed it to the smallest size available: 720×400. However, she clicked “Keep settings” straight away, and couldn’t work out how to get it back because the screen was too small to display the entire height of the Screen Resolution menu. Eventually I had to do it for her by tabbing through the options.
This is pretty ridiculous – you can’t make it shorter and you can’t move it up past the top of the screen. There’s no way I can see of being able to change the resolution using that menu when you’re on a small resoltion – without tabbing to invisible options that you don’t know are there. Maybe I’m just missing something, I’d be happy to be enlightened.
Tenth Task: Photoshop a picture of her face onto my body
She opened Firefox, went to Facebook and found pictures of her and me. So far so good. Then, she opened up GIMP (which had “Image Editor” after it in the menu). Her multiple attempts to maximise each of the purposefully small windows showed that she was confused with the change from Photoshop’s one main window to GIMP’s scattered one. After she worked out what was going on, she just copied and pasted the images straight from Facebook. From there, it was easy, because GIMP has the same icons and functionality as photoshop does for cutting out and pasting parts of a photo. I had to stop her when she started finding out how to match our skin tones: “How can I make my skin colour more like yours, all pasty and yellow?”
I don’t understand why GIMP doesn’t just layout its windows like photoshop does. It wouldn’t lose usability, surely, and it would help the transition of first-time-users immensely.
Eleventh Task: Log onto MSN
She went straight to the Internet category of Applications, but was uncertain about “Pidgin Instant Messenger”. She asked “Does it have to be MSN?”. I said, “not really”, and so she opened up Pidgin. It asked her to add an account, and gave her a drop-down box of IM protocols along with inputs for “Screen name” and “Local alias”.
Because Erin’s only experience with IM clients has been the official MSN ones, she didn’t understand what a multi-protocol one could do. She thought that “adding” an account was creating a new one on the network. Also, she understandably didn’t know what “AIM” was, which is what the protocol menu defaulted to. Moreover, MSN doesn’t use the term “screen name”, so she obviously wouldn’t associate it with her normal login.
So, she tried to sign-on using a made up username and password, and obviously it failed. She then went back to the add screen and found the MSN protocol. However, she put her login under local alias instead of screen name, but she fixed this the second time around after it didn’t work. Then she was online, able to tell her friends about how much she hated Linux.
The problems Erin had could easily be solved by some sort of first-time welcome screen that explained what Pidgin is, what it does, and asking if she’d like to add and log into existing MSN, etc. accounts. Perhaps changing “screen name” to something more appropriate based on which protocol is selected would be helpful. Also, why does local alias seem like a necessary piece of information required to create an account? Seems like it confuses more than aids a new user.
When Erin tried to quit Pidgin, she pressed the X in the top right, and it went to the notification area. When I told Erin that she hadn’t quit it properly, she tried to quit it by clicking in the lower-left hand side of the screen, where she’d usually find her MSN icon in Windows. She just changed desktops, of course, but eventually she found it in the top-right. When you first close Pidgin it should tell you that you haven’t really quit it and that it’s just going to the notification area and what it will look like.
Twelfth Task: Install Skype
Erin went straight away to skype.com. I think she was wary after her experience with Flash, but Skype have a great download page for Linux, where it lists different packages for the more popular distros. Ubuntu was at the top, and Erin saved the .deb file to the default location. When it was done, it opened with the Package Install and there was a big button saying “Install”. She clicked it, and it installed. Perfect.
The only problem was, she didn’t know where it went. She looked in her home folder, the desktop and the menus up the top. For some weird reason she didn’t look in “Internet”, where it had popped up. Regardless, after a package is installed, if it’s available in the menu it should say where it is. Or, copy Windows’ “new programs have been installed” bubble that comes out of the Start Menu. Either thing would’ve solved this problem.
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?
I’ve installed several Ubuntu boxes for people and THE secret is to do the initial tuning for them.
That means flash, java, MP3 support, Windows media and Quicktime compatibility, etc.
It’s also handy to tell OpenOffice to save documents in MS formats by default, so when they attach a .DOC file to Aunt Millie she won’t choke like she would with an .ODT.
Finally, if they have even modest horsepower (P4 with a gig or more RAM) setting up VirtualBox and an XP virtual machine with USB support can be a Godsend, allowing them to run things like Quicken or other WinApps they may already have. This just works better than Wine, m’kay? Get them used to the idea that they should do their general web and EMail in Ubuntu where they’re malware-immune. You can build one virtual machine and export it for multiple users
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Jim March
April 27, 2008 at 9:50 pm
regarding number 9: you can hold alt and lick on anywhere on an application to move it around.
Amir A
April 28, 2008 at 4:55 am
[...] Source: Content Consumer [...]
The Great Ubuntu-Girlfriend Experiment | Don't Copy That Floppy
April 28, 2008 at 6:25 am
This was an excellent experiment and and excellent article dissecting it.
Most computer users are not computer geeks, they are ordinary people who want to perform task(s). Whether or not it’s ‘right’, Windows has massive dominance in the sphere of PC-OSs and if the ordinary user is going to be successfully introduced to Ubuntu (or any flavor of Linux) they need to be able to perform their chosen tasks in an intuitive way. “Intuitive’ being defined as ‘what they’re used to’.
This experiment produced some concrete (and in most cases relatively simple) fixes for the show-stopping problems the ordinary user will most likely come up with. Congratulations, good show.
Jim in Chicago
April 28, 2008 at 6:47 am
That is a pretty interesting experiment. I hope you did treat her well after making her go through all that trouble.
A few points I’d like to address as my own experience with Ubuntu in the past.
When the flash plugin was missing I remember Firefox telling me a plugin was missing and it when straight to dowload the package without leaving firefox, a quick restart of the browser and Flash was working. Further more, as you’ve seen when she installed Skype, if Adobe had a .deb file clearly labelled for Ubuntu she would of saved a lot of energy trying to figure it out.
Even though there are very few applications that give you a first time run walktrough of the features the Help menu should be one thing to always rely on. Just like with Windows applications they will explain in plain English where to find what feature, and what terms mean what.
I’ll agree that developers need to be able to take a step back and help the un-initiated use their software better.
PhoenixP3K
April 28, 2008 at 7:28 am
You have to realize though what is user friendly to one person might not be user friendly to another. For every experienced person like a developer which Ubuntu scares off to another distro like Arch Linux, well it is much worse then scaring off your grandma. Why?
Geeky programmers and designers are the ones who are driving Linux development as you said, and Linux should (and probably will) always cater to them first because of this. 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.
There has been many distros who have concentrating on “idiot-proofing” their distro but they all fail in the end. The ones who live on the longest is the ones who attract the most geeky people, like Slackware for instance.
Jonathan
April 28, 2008 at 8:13 am
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. Not in the same way mind you, but similar. I think you’re being too hard on Linux here when Ubuntu 8.04 (which I’m posting this from) has come a very long way in usability and polish. Perhaps it isn’t the systems fault, but the preconceived notions of the user.
After all, Windows is Windows, Gnome/Linux are Gnome/Linux.
Marcus
April 28, 2008 at 8:13 am
Good post, and I totally agree with you on GIMP, why is the layout scatterd?
(I’m used to it, I use GIMP almost everyday, but still?)
gurkzor
April 28, 2008 at 8:23 am
Doesn’t firefox show you a message to install flash the first time you go into flash-using site?
Also, if you go to add/remove program, and search for MSN, aided by describtion there and popularity stars you could install aMSN which is more straight forward for her case. I mean you download MSN/yahoo messenger ..etc on Windows.
I think this is more of people assuming Linux is Windows. It would be interesting to see what happens if she tried to use Mac OSX. Except that the window partition test won’t be there unless you make it across network.
MKx
April 28, 2008 at 8:36 am
Excellent experiment. I want to reinforce the suggestion in comment 9. above — would love to see the results if you rerun this experiment with a virgin install of OS X. Assuming the ever-patient Erin is willing.
KDawson
April 28, 2008 at 10:53 am
I switched my non-techy gf from Vista to Ubuntu 7.10 and she won’t switch back. I had to help her set up her Broadcom wifi card, and she needs a hand with some issues still. But she can manage daily tasks, installing\removing applications, managing music, photos, videos, documents, etc.
The Linux Desktop is so close to ready for main stream. At this point a non-techy user still needs a techy user to hold their hand, but it’s so close!
Alex
April 28, 2008 at 11:41 am
best regards 3 yr gf!!
Ksawery
April 28, 2008 at 11:43 am
To make this fair, you should also do these same tests on Windows.
5 & 10 are impossible without additional software and $ and skype is also not free with Windows.
buster
April 28, 2008 at 11:45 am
Your conclusion is definitely true. I would love to get off of Microsoft but Linux just makes my family scratch their heads.
Linux isn’t for everyone but if they want to achieve a larger market share, they should definitely consider dumbing down how users go about doing things.
russel
April 28, 2008 at 11:48 am
Check out GIMPShop. It’s a hack of GIMP to mirror Photoshop. I don’t use it as I learned GIMP first but I hear it’s good.
http://www.gimpshop.com/
James
April 28, 2008 at 11:49 am
You don’t have a girlfriend
jerkstore
April 28, 2008 at 11:49 am
CONCLUSION : LINUX for GRANDMAS – FAIL. Erin, the test subject, was rather tech savy to begin with, however, some very basic things bombed on her. Flash not being installed in Firefox, and being unable to install it, thereby rendinging most sites such as Youtube.. unusable. P2P software client missing… no Limewire equivalent, and having to know a certain obscure Torrent site beforehand (one I’ve never heard of, and I’ve been on the internet since 81) to find a music album and download it. Etc. etc.
Wait until her computer won’t boot, and she has to run fsk with a bunch of obscure parameters…. yeah… sorry… not ready for the grandma’s of the world. And what’s so assinine about Linux, is nobody care’s about wordprocessors, spreadsheets, Open Office equivalents… they just WANT TO SURF THE WEB and listen to music and watch some video and maybe do some IM chatting. Its that GD simple. If the browser isn’t easy to find, and doesn’t have all the plugins, and and the video player/music player isn’t there and doesn’t have a huge plethora of codecs… and the IM client doesn’t autoupdate so it stays up to date with the always changing IM protocols.. well then, you have EPIC FAIL.
I’ve screwed around a long time in Linux and am comfortable in it, but I could never recommend it to a noob… its just hell on the command line sometimes, utter absolute hell. Getting such basic things to work sometimes, Samba, or locating where the webserver stores its config files, or even setting up a NIC from the command line…. there is just too many GUI tools that aren’t integrated, or fail or break, and no single good command line tool to do it all. You’re best bet is getting Webmin running as soon as possible on a box.
Give a noob a linux box, and watch them type “help” on a command line, and look at the glazed look that comes over their face and the utter gibbersish nonsense about some BASH commands lacking paramenters or any explanation about them. Then tell them to use “man [command name] to get info about any linux command, and look at that glazed look again at any man page, which is totally useless garbage for actually figuring out what a command is, what are its typical paraments, and how to use it (for example, to untar a file). Utter LINUX FAIL.
Granted these things are not exclusive to Linux… Windows and Mac OSX are just as bad. Computers still… are just not ready for non geeky tech people. You literally have had to have been phucking around with these things since the 80’s to really understand what’s going on with them and the mentality to use them.
US SOLDIER
April 28, 2008 at 11:52 am
Just to point something out, the way GIMP lays out it’s windows is more similar to Photoshop on Mac OS, where there are several different windows not within a larger window.
Very interesting article, and I agree that program installation on Linux in general is difficult unless you can find a package or can use RPMs.
J. A.
April 28, 2008 at 11:52 am
Excellent experiment indeed.
I think the zealots are somewhat deluded in thinking Linux has made it far enough to be compared to OS X however. As pointed out by this wonderfully unscientific case study, Ubuntu is still very inconsistent. The UI (not so much GUI, but UI) still has a long way to go to match the usability of OS X.
Personally, I just don’t get the point. My business servers are *nix for obvious reasons and I spend more time with a command line than a mouse, but I would never suggest it to the average computer user. There’s simply no compelling argument to suggest Linux over OS X or even Windows to average people.
There’s a lot of truth in the saying “Linux is free if your time is worthless”.
Greg-J
April 28, 2008 at 11:59 am
Sorry for the second comment (got a little ahead of myself and didn’t finish the article before my first comment) but part of the reason for Pidgin’s faults is probably a result of it having started out as an AIM client (hence the previous name: “Gaim”) and the whole closing window thing is a problem that many people find when using a Mac as well, since cliking the close button on the window doesn’t usually actually close the application itself.
Basically, Ubuntu (or Gnome in general, not so much KDE) has some of the similar UI quirks that confuse Windows users.
And I don’t think the issue is so much that it doesn’t guide a normal person through but that that person is much more familiar with Windows, which really doesn’t walk users through all that well either. I get plenty of questions from friends and family asking “how do i…?” for simple Windows tasks as well, Windows is just so widespread that it’s easier to find someone who can help. Not to say that Ubuntu/Kubuntu don’t have a lot of work ahead of them before they can be viable put in front of an average user, but they are a great improvement over anything before them. And lets face it, Windows isn’t all that easy to understand either.
J. A.
April 28, 2008 at 12:01 pm
So will any Ubuntu developers look at this and take the time to fix these very small things? It seems like this would not take a developer long to fix most of these issues. I know some of them were application specific but the renaming of the menu item’s could be very quickly fixed. Anyone know if a Ubuntu developer will look at this?
Austin
April 28, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Haha, should have asked her to play an mp3. That would have been classic.
Ericson
April 28, 2008 at 12:06 pm
For one thing, GIMP is laid out in the same manner as Photoshop on OS X.
Also, measuring whether Ubuntu is ready for your girlfriend by her very first experience with it….
A person learns about packages and such in very short order. If she’d had that knowledge, stuff like Flash would have been easier.
LordNecros
April 28, 2008 at 12:07 pm
Well…agree with buster…
I have a client likes to double-click the links in IE
T
April 28, 2008 at 12:07 pm
Great article, I think it was very fair and as objective as could be. I’ve got one minor nit to pick, though.
In response to the statement “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.”
I don’t think Ubuntu is any worse here than Windows. The fact is, she isn’t computer-illiterate. She’s accustomed to Windows, and the way everything works in Windows.
I’d wager that most people have some level of difficulty the very first time they sit in front of a computer, regardless of whether it’s Windows or Linux.
People become comfortable with whatever they first learned, and it is more difficult to get them to use something else effectively. In order to switch from Windows to Linux or vice versa, to learn the new environment requires “unlearning” much of what has been learned in the old environment.
Chris
April 28, 2008 at 12:09 pm
#10 I don’t think Erin is a virgin.
fen
April 28, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Comment to the first poster, Jim March. Your comment reflexs the exact reason people stay away from Linux.
I’ve installed several Ubuntu boxes for people and THE secret is to do the initial tuning for them.
Why not make it simple enough so anybody with minimal knowledge can do it?
John B.
April 28, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Though I like the idea of this write up and agree some tasks could be even simpler, I do think it’s less of a usability issue and more an issue of her and others being used to “the windows way” of doing things. I’ve actually done a similar test but never documented it. What I did was install PCLOS and Ubuntu and see how easy it was for new computer users to acclimate to Linux, then installed Windows XP and tried that with a similar size control group. It seems each have enough quirks but Ubuntu actually came out on top. It isn’t harder just different and at this point the “mainstream” doesn’t need to switch if Windows is doing what they need out of a OS.
At some point I would like to do it again with both XP and Vista and document the process.
Gimpshop could solve the gimp UI issues.
Just my 2 cents.
Rick
April 28, 2008 at 12:12 pm
[...] someone who’s never used Linux. Interesting insight into how ready Linux is for the desktop.read more | digg story addthis_url = [...]
Is Ubuntu usable enough for a non-tech-savvy girlfriend yet? | Simple Drops
April 28, 2008 at 12:18 pm
“It isn’t because she’s computer illiterate it’s because she is used to a Windows OS”
Completely… this isn’t a test of ‘usability’ for Ubuntu, this is a test of Ubuntu’s similarity to Windows. Sit just about anyone in front of an operating system they don’t know about and they wont know about it… by definition. Most people wouldn’t guess that you can install applications as easily as dragging and dropping an icon into your Applications folder in Mac OS X, and in the same way most people wouldn’t guess that “.exe” means something is an executable file (that is if they had thought to turn off hide file extensions), and most people wouldn’t guess apt-get allows you to install and update software.
Perhaps the author and his girlfriend will be better off staying with Windows if they are happy with the way it is implemented. Ubuntu is a viable option for anyone interested in a more stable and secure operating system… or, you could use Mac OS X with the stability of the UNIX backend and usability that puts Windows to shame.
Simon
April 28, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Hold down Alt to click and drag a window–including past the desktop borders.
totobu
April 28, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Personally I believe it is 100% conditioning. I had a difficult time using my new Mac after years of Linux. I think Windows users are used to constant annoyances and illogical interfaces, that is why they are confused when something intuitive comes along, they expect bad software…
aster1sk
April 28, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Great read, I have to agree with you and most of the comments.
I use ubuntu myself and I have to admit I’m a linux newby, one of the major reasons why windows is so successful in my opinion is that a lot of the documentation telling people how to use it, was NOT writtn by the ubergeek that wrote the actual program, It was written by some people with a good grasp of the english language.
Linux on the other hand has a problem 1. being that its translated documentation comes from finish, swedish, german etc
some of which is non existant, other documents run into 1000 pages
very inconsistant.
mike
April 28, 2008 at 12:24 pm
[...] found this article on digg and I found it very [...]
Mindfock » Blog Archive » Ubuntu-Girlfriend Experiment
April 28, 2008 at 12:25 pm
If someone tries this with vanilla OS X, it’s likely to be less successful in terms of completed tasks. Getting stuff off the Windows partition is dead easy and Flash is built in, but the image manipulation task will already be very hard using only Preview*, and downloading a torrent or logging into MSN requires additional software. The other way around, there are probably just as many tasks that would work better on OS X (judging from my perspective), like creating a webcam movie, authoring a DVD or setting up a daily calendar notification.
My point is that this posting shouldn’t be, and probably isn’t supposed to be used for OS comparisons. It’s a really great benchmark of how easy to find and use Ubuntu’s existing features are, nothing more and nothing less, and I hope all the little things will be sorted out too. I still have half a family that should get off Windows before the malware hits them
(* My sister has done rather advanced stuff using Preview with the iBook I gave her, though. I would never have tried to use it for more than viewing stuff, being used to Photoshop-like interfaces. Scary.)
jlnr
April 28, 2008 at 12:26 pm
I think you made some very good points in this article. I too find that program naming in Linux tends to be confusing and finding a newly installed program in the applications menu can require some sleuthing.
I do, however, disagree with your final assessment that Linux (you really should have said Ubuntu) isn’t yet ready for the desktop. If anything, I think you just proved that it is very much ready for the desktop. Erin had all the tools she needed for your tasks and more and the computer did not crash or otherwise fail. Clearly, Ubuntu is very much ready for the desktop but like any piece of software there are always improvements to be made.
Consider how your statement would sound if you said it about Windows 2000. For all intents and purposes Win2k == WinXP, but minus the polishing features that were added over time. Clearly, Win2k was not ‘unready’ for the desktop when it was first introduced, and even today some still prefer it. So, obviously ‘polish’ is not the defining requirement for desktop readyness.
Barius
April 28, 2008 at 12:27 pm
I think the best option is to have something in the install asking whether the user is a first-time linux user, which would turn on all these tips and helpers. I think that as long as these features can be turned off easily, they won’t be detrimental to the more experienced user base. I totally agree that if these features are forced on all users there will be problems. I would probably go to another distro too. But if the designers balance experienced users with newbies well, it could be very helpful.
Will
April 28, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Check out GIMPshop, its like a hack to the GIMP that makes it look and feel like Photoshop.
atarijedi
April 28, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Thank you for this wonderful article! My boyfriend installed Linux on my pc about a year ago. I quickly discovered I needed his help to do a lot of what I assumed were basic tasks. My webcam wouldn’t work, I couldn’t play any games I wanted, I had trouble with streaming video, the list goes on. I would spend hours reading how-to’s and manuals and forums to figure out how to fix this issue or that… and when I did find an explanation, it was usually written in terms I didn’t understand. After two months, I reinstalled Windows myself, and stuck Linux in a smaller partition. I haven’t looked at it since. I’m not computer-illiterate by any means, but Linux was built by and for a certain type of computer user, that most of us just can’t be. Give my best wishes to Erin, poor girl!
Mirm
April 28, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Skype is free on Windows.
TheCat
April 28, 2008 at 12:35 pm
@#12 “skype is also not free with Windows.”
Is the above out of context/ a typo?
Because Skype *is* free for windows… calling landlines requires a skype out account, but messaging/calling other skype accounts is free.
xentar
April 28, 2008 at 12:36 pm
I am actually put-off a bit by your article. One of the main things that you did not consider is that a new operating system is new no matter who is using it. If I had never used Windows, certainly I would have some problems with some of the stuff you listed as well. Let me explain a few of your points:
2) If she were as competent with browsing the web as you said she was, then she should easily be able to use Google … “How to install Flash player on Ubuntu 8.04.” She had obviously never installed a program on Ubuntu before (or didn’t notice the “Add/Remove programs” from the application drop-down menu.)
3) Great, so you have her using torrents. I’m glad she knows how! I agree that many users may not know what Transmission is but this can be solved from the “Add/Remove Programs” utility. Type in “Torrent” and you get a nice list explaining what everything is. “Oh, Transmission is installed? I’ll just use that!”
4) This can be a bit confusing. Though, it is again solved by using the “Add/Remove Programs” utility. Type in “Paint” or “image editor” and you get a nice list. Counting off for opening an application that the user was not educated in is not a downside. Apparently, the Ubuntu developers thought that a program as simple as MS Paint would be useless. GIMP works well for simple sketchings but there is a program called Tux Paint (I think its called that) that is similar.
5) A normal user would not have two operating systems on their PC. Asking her to fetch music from your Windows partition (regardless of its size that you pointed out… certainly she would know right?) is a bit cruel. If she had bought a Linux machine, it would not have Windows on it and she would certainly have organized her music on the Ubuntu filesystem somewhere.
10) Obviously, not a problem. GIMP is NOT Photoshop and should not be treated the same. You can install CS2 in the latest version of WINE if you absolutely need to.
11) If she did not know what Pidgin was or how to use it, she could open “Add/Remove Programs” utility and find another IM program. There is one called aMSN that is a clone of the real thing. The other problems are irrelevant and are a matter of personal choice and awareness.
12) Installing something via the “Add/Remove Programs” utility, when installed, notifies you of where it is located. Also, you can add the Deskbar applet to a panel to quickly find applications.
Expecting the same things from completely different operating systems is, for lack of a better vocabulary, not cool. First, it is great that you got her to try it for a little bit but regular users are not going to install separate operating systems or know what each application does from the get-go. This is true for users of ALL operating systems. Seriously, how would somebody know whether Nero was a program for burning CDs or a program to research Roman emperors? I find your article to be a cheap shot at Ubuntu and Linux in general. Btw: Ubuntu == Linux… but Linux != Ubuntu.
I will agree with you on one point, however, a first-time-user window would be nice explaining the layout in front of them immediately when they log in, that way they know exactly where all the menus are and such. Perhaps a small video explaining where to get help as well. Have her try Linux Mint (base d on Ubuntu) and then try to write this demeaning article again.
Jawsh
April 28, 2008 at 12:42 pm
I consider myself an advanced computer user, have owned and tweaked computers for years. My only experience with Linux was knoppix I used to back up data off my hard drive after a windows crash required me to reformat my entire drive. Im not sure what Ubuntu is like, but having to use terminal to perform simple tasks really irritates me. When I was trying to do things in knoppix all the help I found in forums kept telling you what to type in terminal. It just reminds me of the old dos and even my older commodore 64 and just makes me shudder.
andy
April 28, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Awesome article, very well-written.
Whilst Ubuntu, and Linux desktop distros in general, are lacking the intrinsic nature of Windows machines, and do indeed assume too much from a non-tech-savvy user, there are also positive points, like the massive amount of pre-installed apps. This experiment on Windows would have taken alot longer, most of which would have been downloading and installing programs.
I wish someone would sit me down and do this with me and OSX. I know my way around Windows and Linux fine, I’ve never even used a Mac, and to be honest, from what I’ve seen the interface just confuses me.
(@buster: Pretty sure XP and Vista include native CD writing support, you can get GIMP for Windows, or could do a simple copy-paste-save with mspaint)
Jamie
April 28, 2008 at 12:42 pm
I agree with this article. While I use Ubuntu daily on my laptop and XP on my Gaming Desktop and Fileserver, Ubuntu just needs some welcome menus and easy to find intructions for the average user. I took the time back with 6.06 to learn how to do Linux but some people don’t take the time to google it or go to the IRC/Ubuntu Forums.
The average user just needs some welcome screens and help setting up and it would make switching quite a bit easier.
Anonymous
April 28, 2008 at 12:43 pm
[...] Maybe it’s very suprising to know that very easy task could be very complicated when it comes to non-tech user. Apparently, what we think easy enough is actually hard to do when the information isn’t clear. Content Consumer had a great experiment on how regular non-tech user (in his case, his girlfriend) doing things in Ubuntu 8…. [...]
Is Ubuntu 8.04 Ready for Non-Tech Savvy? : little brain
April 28, 2008 at 12:44 pm
Having just switched to Linux (Ubuntu) for the first time, I had MANY of the same experiences as your girlfriend, and I think your conclusion about assuming too much for the first time user is spot on. Still, I have the time to enjoy the learning experience and at least now I know how to do 12 things!
Ronald Paulson
April 28, 2008 at 12:46 pm
This is a great idea, and now I’m thinking why not moving really to Ubuntu. I’ll miss Photoshop, I don’t like the gimp…
Zim
April 28, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Why do we need more user friendly linux, why not try for more linux friendly users. This seems to me like were going at this the entirely wrong way. We are dumbing down our operating system and measuring it against what we want to be “better than”. Why not instead of demand that stupid users can use linux, educated people to use the full power of linux
x1101
April 28, 2008 at 12:48 pm
I don’t have a problem so much with GIMP’s windows but a recurring issue that keeps coming up in your article is the strange naming of so many programs.
Geeks absolutely love codenames. Knowing what project a codename stands for or even what obscure reference is behind the name itself makes you feel like part of the elite. Any codename becomes second natures after you’ve dropped it enough times.
It’s not just Linux. Windows has had its Chicago, Cairo, Longhorn, etc. The difference is that in the Windows or Mac world, the developer gives the program a real name before shipping it. Something suggestive, like Pages or Word. Linux developers are happy to just leave the codename as is for the final product name. You end up with new or infrequent users frustrated because they didn’t know their problem could be solved by Brasero or Pidgin or whatever. GIMP is an acronym of a descriptive name so it doesn’t really fall under this problem. But come on… after all these years, Pulp Fiction still comes to mind when I hear about Linux image-editing. Even though everyone uses the acronym, the full name should be what’s displayed in the menus.
John
April 28, 2008 at 12:48 pm
@12
5 can be done with windows media player
10 can be slightly done with Paint, but nothing to show off
=]
shonuf
April 28, 2008 at 12:49 pm
This experiment is great, but the conclusion is ridiculous. I didn’t know how to install programs when I first started using OS X, and that had no bearing on my deciding whether it was ready or not for the desktop. People who are used to doing things the Windows way should be ready to learn a new culture when they switch operating systems… or just stick with Windows.
Nothing wrong with sticking with what you’re comfortable with.
ubuntucat
April 28, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Great test you have performed. I have done this myself with a spare machine, 2.6ghg/1.5gig RAM. I have installed Ubuntu Gutsy(7.10) and I let the girlfriend use it as the sole OS. She did ask why it didn’t have windows, I told her because we cant and you must use linux she said ok. I created her an account and I put some icons on the desktop being firefox and pidgin. I said if you have problems ask me otherwise have fun. She is alright with computers, windows experience same as your partner. In the first day she managed to change and customize the theme, backgrounds etc. She got pidgin (MSN) working but later on had issues with yahoo. Confused by what to put in as the login name(this was a bit of Yahoo’s fault and pidgins fault). I helped with that and got it working.
I also installed the basics, such as flash, java, codecs before I gave her the machine. She did ask about saving images as a different format and we had issues with some websites having users download a PDF document that required users to fill in the form and email the form. This didnt work out well and so we tried the excel download which OO opened but she had some problems filling out portions of the sheet(possibly complex layout). She also was getting upset about changing her resume and how OOWriter decided that she meant to put bullets in and proceeded to do it for her but she didn’t want OO to do it. She had a hard time with that, so about 20min later I helped and we got through it. She was able to get images off a camera by herself, resize them and upload them to myspace, facebook by herself. Out of surprise her dad came over and jumped right on and found the games right away, without any help. He also did some browsing. This has gone on for about 3 months now, and she had just a few complaints, some linux specific and others not.
I will be upgrading to 8.04 after the initial rush is gone. I am also running vmware server beta 2 with 1 VM and a DNS server using bind. I also have webmin on that machine which this stuff is used only for myself.
I think ubuntu needs to name the applications better at least to direct users to pick the right one. Also the most important, full understanding from vendors to support, RPM, DEB, custom installer and shell script installers. I went to skype the other day and was happy to see that they supported the most popular package formats and the installation was quick and easy.
A little bit of user friendlessness screens goes a long way such as welcome screens, and help installing required packages such as flash through firefox automatically. I would like to see an option for installation packages, for example say in the tar.gz if a user clicks on it the archive manager will look inside the package and see a install.txt or a common file which will tell the archive manager to open the file on how to install the application. This might bring up a terminal window to the extracted files or run the installation file if the user wants to. So the process could be click on the compressed file, then a window pops up saying it has detected this package has an installer would you like to run the installer or open the file with Archive Manager. If the user clicks the install button then the application is ran (prompting for password) so a terminal window could come up with the shell script, or a gui app is launched. Anyway just an idea.
David
David
April 28, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Great post. I have to second the comment about the comparison with Windows and Mac OS. I think that of the 10 tasks, each OS would have its problems.
insomnia169
April 28, 2008 at 12:56 pm
I would have kicked your ass if you made me do that.
Joe
April 28, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Who cares if your girlfriend can use linux? If you use linux and it makes you happy, great! But why must you spread it to everyone in the world? If you don’t believe in using windows because it is monopolist and money-hungry, pirate it. If you think its not secure, give her a limited account with firefox and noscript.
I will never understand why linux *HAS* to be accessible to the people it wasn’t even made for.
Matthew
April 28, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Excellent review!
I strongly agree with the problem in the application names.
It’s about time to drop the strange names like “Transmission”, “Brasero”, “Tomboy”, etc, and just describe the tasks: “Torrent download”, “CD Burner”, “Note taking”, etc.
And the Office menu should drop the redundant/repetitive “OpenOffice.org” labels, and simply display “Writer”, “Calc”, “Impress”, etc.
Menu items should focus what people really want to do — not necessarily tool names.
Foo
April 28, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Fair assessment. Eventually with time, I’m sure anyone with the drive to tinker would eventually get it down but those who have experience definitely need trial runs like this to see how average Joe handles the rat maze.
Also fair input which can be used to work on the next release. TY!
Brady
April 28, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Some quick translations that would make Ubuntu easier for human beings:
“Transmission” => “Bittorrent”
“Brasero” => “CD Burning”
“OpenOffice.org Writer” => “Writer” # or “Word processing”
“OpenOffice.org Calc” => “Calc” # or “Spreadsheet”
“OpenOffice.org Impress” => “Impress” # or “Presentation”
“Firefox” => “Internet (Firefox)”
“Gimp” => “Image editor (Gimp)”
etc.
Foo
April 28, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Both my parents are in their 70’s.
Dad is on a dual boot kUbuntu 7.04/Win XP and xUbuntu 7.04 on his old T21 laptop.
Mom is new to computers and she inherited my laptop with PCLinuxOS on it. She has never used a computer before.
She also learned how to add games from the repositories and installed ALL the board games that are offered.\
So enough with the ‘is it ready for’ articles.
I install a lot of dual boots because lets face it….games and the work that it takes to get an XP box setup with the firewalls, anti-virus, anti- malware and other crap is a lot worse.
Its ok Matthew, you dont understand and that’s why you’ll always be our loveable dunce.
Its good, its fast, its secure and its cutting edge technology. Its always updated and its free as in beer and as in freedom so you NEVER have to pay for the next upgrade. AND it can help revive old hardware.
I install different distros (Ubuntu and PCLinuxOS are great for newbies) for family and friends who want free tech support and the time I spend now is cut down by 80%.
I also helped some students setup about 40 systems at a retirement home. The systems were all hold P3’s that were donated and we managed to get the retirees to grok Linux.
Its like any other OS except it gives you more choices than other OS.
And for the searchers of ‘cool’, the compiz demo I give to friends is enough to make most Mac fanbois cry on the inside.
Version 5 wasnt ready but version 7.04 was the one I felt confident giving to my family. And while I have been installing PCLinuxOS of late, I will definitely be upgrading to version 8.
Rob Enderle
April 28, 2008 at 1:26 pm
This is a great article – particularly as I’m tossing up purchasing an eee but need to decide if I get linux or windows xp.
I think I might try installing a virtual copy of Linux and familiarise myself first, see whether it’s worth going for that option or if I should just stay with Windows XP.
Kel
April 28, 2008 at 1:36 pm
An amazing experience. All linux developers and designers are geek and they assume their targeted customer as geeks. you pointed out right thing. User experience means “Microsoft user experience”. 96% of the desktops are controlled by windows so the windows users expect similar behavior with ubundu as well. They need to include normal user in their User experience team to make ubundu successful. Because 99% percent targeted customers are from windows background there could only 1% moving from other linux flavor
murti
April 28, 2008 at 1:37 pm
I’ll just say this. I used to have to provide extensive support for my fiance’s XP and Vista systems (one desktop, one laptop). The last support I did on either of her systems was BURNING a Kubuntu install DVD. Not installing it, not configuring it, not explaining it. Just burning it and handing it to her. She managed the rest on her own and she’s always had trouble as a windows user.
Keith
April 28, 2008 at 1:42 pm
What the fuck format is odg, otg, sxg? I’ve used Illustrator, Corel Draw, Freehand and worst of all OpenOffice Draw. svg, svg-tiny? yes…none of the formats you list however.
I think the comment “who cares if you GF can use Linux” is a good one. Even better would be if I didn’t have to see all the fucking diggs for new release of freetard OSs. Linux on desktop = ass.
freetard
April 28, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Last time I used it, Photoshop was multi-window. Did it change between CS2 and CS3? Oh, and can you alt+click & drag to move the screen resolution thing up to somewhere where the last buttons are visible?
My mom uses Ubuntu 7.10 (she started on 6.06) and handles it much better than Windows. She couldn’t have installed Flash on Windows either, though…actually, Ubuntu’s the only OS where my family members *can* figure out how to install anything. I didn’t set Ubuntu up any further than I would set up Windows for them, but they prefer it. My mom says it’s easier, and my brother loves Synaptic and the lack of viruses.
I agree that it needs a “first boot” sequence. Fedora has something for first boot…but I skipped it, so I don’t know what it does exactly. Anyway, a first-boot thing with a “here’s wtf is going on” thing would be good for newbies.
Mackenzie
April 28, 2008 at 1:46 pm
That seemed to go pretty well and is really useful feedback, however, most of the “difficulties” had more to do with being accustomed to windows annoyances, such as searching software all around the web (that’s the problem with flash and torrent (besides the name), and actually, I don’t really know what else can be done about that, as there’s a ‘install/add software’ item at the bottom of the applications menu).
The drive issue would have been solved if you had labeled the windows drive in the past, the best identificator hal con give to it is the size, as it cannot be asumed safely that sda0 is the windows drive, surely, the owner of the computer would have found the disk.
I concede you the ‘screen name’ problem in pidgin, it should change to the name used for logins in the network you selected, and that the local screen name shouldn’t be in the create account window, the horrible change resolution window (that’s an ubuntu problem there, gnome’s dialog is only two comboboxes), and the fact that ‘filesystem’ should be something more generic, both in nautilus and in the search utility.
However, I think it went pretty well, it’s probably a lot better than a ubuntu or mac os user using windows for the first time.
Also, I see that you’re a big fan of introductions… those are annoying, don’t you remember the tour windows had around windows Me… that nobody use anyway? that’s because those things are pretty annoying, you know? the interface should be self explainatory, that’s all, however, it’s a pretty dificult task, requering a lot of feedback, like yours right here, so I hope some dev reads this and lands a couple of patches in pidgin and nautilus (I’d rather not touch such big projects, as I’m not that confident in my gtk+ skills yet)
Phrodo_00
April 28, 2008 at 1:48 pm
I fooled around w. Heron this weekend, and also have to agree that it was mostly wasted effort. Few main points:
1. I’ve got an ATI video card. I DL’d the ATI driver, and tried to get dual monitor support going. Screen went off the refresh cliff several times, and I had to reboot each time. Now, I get it that ATI’s cards are not open source, but, I just don’t care. I shouldn’t have to make sure my video card is organically grown and politically correct to run an OS. I just want it to work as nicely as it does in Windows.
2. Java functionality was limited. Again, having to DL Java updates via Synaptec should not be required on a new install. Now, granted, Windows requires the same thing, but it’s a heck of a lot easier to do that in Windows.
3. No NTFS support. I have a 300GB HDD from my Windows install. Ubuntu couldn’t see it, and I didn’t want to muck around with trying to figure out which cryptically named tool would do it.
In the end, too much trouble to make it worthwhile. I want to use Linux, I want it to be just as good as OSX or XP, but in the end, simplicity wins, and I reloaded XP and went about my business.
Will E Kerr
April 28, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Good article. I must admit for me (being quite computer literate, can build computers and are studying to become a web developer and had used Gimp and InkScape before I used linux) wasn’t the smoothest in the world.
About Gimp though, it looks like in gimp 2.5 (possibly 2.6) you will be able to choose a one window photoshop like GUI. So that will help a lot of people.
Ashley
April 28, 2008 at 1:50 pm
*wasn’t the smoothest *transition* in the world, to linux.
see above post.
Ashley
April 28, 2008 at 1:52 pm
btw, gimp won’t, ever get a full window, baybe ubuntu should switch to that photoshopized gimp, but I think they shouldn’t, for one, photoshop uses multiple windows on the mac and nobody complains, after all, photoshop is supposed to be profesional software, and a single windows is not the most convenient way to use multiple monitors.
Phrodo_00
April 28, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Regarding your complaints about Pidgin…you really shouldn’t have any. I’ve recommended it to friends and family (who have varying computer knowledge) and no one’s had any problems.
dkong
April 28, 2008 at 1:53 pm
I’ve included this article and a synopsis of the issues raised in the Ubuntu bug tracker. Please contribute to the resolution of these bugs to help improve the user experience for future releases!
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-meta/+bug/223436
Ryan Prior
April 28, 2008 at 1:57 pm
1) Awesome article. Stuff like this will help make Linux better. I hope every ubuntu dev reads this.
2) You girlfriend is incredibly patient.
Victor
April 28, 2008 at 1:58 pm
I’ve suggested user acceptance testing in the past, or use profiling in large groups, only to be told, “OK, go do it!” I can understand the mentality, but I don’t personally have that kind of time.
Yes yes yes
April 28, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Linux is designed by geeks, for geeks. Why is anyone surprised that it is so bad at interacting with girlfriends?
evenworse
April 28, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Instead of making all of the changes that you listed in your post, Ubuntu could package a “Ubuntu Tour” walkthrough to initiate new users with the OS, much like windows XP did. I for one like the fact that Linux isn’t just a Windows clone, and I feel it should stay that way. I expect a review with your girlfriend trying to figure out MacOSX next.
Kevin
April 28, 2008 at 2:14 pm
[...] someone who’s never used Linux. Interesting insight into how ready Linux is for the desktop.read more | digg story « Fx-Interest Arizona superdelegate pledges vote for Obama! [...]
Is Ubuntu usable enough for a non-tech-savvy girlfriend yet? · Acne Care
April 28, 2008 at 2:23 pm
[...] ended up getting the install disc instead of the live disc and she figured out how to install that.read more | digg [...]
Nasavo » Blog Archive » Is Ubuntu usable enough for a non-tech-savvy girlfriend yet?
April 28, 2008 at 2:24 pm
“btw, gimp won’t, ever get a full window, ”
you obviously havent read the plans for 2.6
Ashley
April 28, 2008 at 2:32 pm
“When you first close Pidgin it should tell you that you haven’t really quit it and that it’s just going to the notification area and what it will look like.”
::Hits you with newspaper:: No! No! This is exactly what SHOULDN’T happen. Ever. This leads to the cluttered mess of a GUI that windows has.
Your girlfriend would have figured out pidgin was in the corner eventually, and at that point she’d realized what the notification area is. Additionally, there are help documents and videos she can read and watch.
“Resolution windows was too small”
X allows for Alt+Drag to move windows. This is an X thing, so it works regardless of window manager. Also, it allows you to move them above the top of the screen. Not intuitive, I know, and a fix specific to at least that dialog should be made (since it is the dialog that allows you to control the screen size, after all… it should always work, even if others are broken).
Bob/Paul
April 28, 2008 at 2:37 pm
alt+f2
‘gnome-terminal’
$ sudo umount /girlfriend
oh and RTFM of course.
ubuntugeek
April 28, 2008 at 2:40 pm
[...] Link SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “Está Ubuntu Listo para Principiantes (Ubuntu 8.04)? Ubuntu, para la novia”, url: “http://www.arturogoga.com/2008/04/27/esta-ubuntu-listo-para-principiantes-ubuntu-804-ubuntu-para-la-novia/” }); [...]
Está Ubuntu Listo para Principiantes (Ubuntu 8.04)? Ubuntu, para la novia
April 28, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Gah! What’s wrong with you?
“Regardless, after a package is installed, if it’s available in the menu it should say where it is. Or, copy Windows’ “new programs have been installed” bubble that comes out of the Start Menu. Either thing would’ve solved this problem”
No no no no no! Clutter annoying needless clutter! Not only will this complicate the code base, but it’s something that’s only needed once, ever. Installed applications **always** show up in the menu unless they’re command line applications. Where the hell else would they go?
Your girlfriend found it in the menu, and by the 2nd application she installs will come to realize the menu is the first place to look after installing an application. In fact, she’ll learn it’s the only place to look.
There’s little more annoying that opening a windows start menu with half the application groups hidden and a quarter of them highlighted in amber because something was recently installed. This is sort of needed on Windows because instead of meaningful categories, applications are grouped by product vendor (and honestly, who knows or cares the publisher names of most of their software apps??) If windows had the start menu setup like GNOME’s Applications menu, they never would have needed to do the highlighting crap.
Bob/Paul
April 28, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Ah just a heads up. Frostwire is fork of Limewire made by some of the original Limewire developers and available on Linux. Frostwire website has also .deb packages ready for ubuntu [and other distros].
check: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FrostWire
MK2
April 28, 2008 at 2:46 pm
I had some of the similar experiences as her trying out Kbuntu Remix just last night, and I’m an 18 year programmer who’s been using KDE for a year! Issues such as a Display dialog where the Apply button is out of sight, and Firefox flash plugin that does not have a one-click installation, are clearly design problems that could easily have been fixed, so please don’t blame Windows conditioning! I would excuse these problems if I were using some other Linux distros, but Ubuntu is meant to be “Linux for the rest of us”. So just admit that Ubuntu is the most user-friendly Linux distros ever, but it still has some startup rough edges when compared to the Mac and Windows.
HL
April 28, 2008 at 3:01 pm
i wonder how many of those tasks i’d have managed on an operating system other than *nix?
howlingmadhowie
April 28, 2008 at 3:13 pm
I’m IT for a number of windows exclusive environments and I’ve been curious about Linux for about 8 years or so. I’ve various distros and books but it’s too difficult to make it functionally useful when you are trying to self-teach yourself. It also doesn’t help when there are much more user friendly and robust programs that quickly make someone productive. Just overall, linux needs to be more intuitively easier to figure out…maybe even taking a look at windows and seeing how they achieved that at least. Don’t misunderstand, I’d love to change over, but not if it’s too difficult to do so.
tom
April 28, 2008 at 3:13 pm
This was a great experiment that underscores two major points:
1. If you want to make an OS for the masses, you have to consider your user base FIRST.
2. Linux, even with the advances of the Ubuntu distros, is not ready for the masses.
Don’t get me wrong. I love what Ubuntu’s done and how far they’ve brought Linux in general.
As a lifelong techno-geek, one of the hardest lessons for me to learn was to know when to put my own ideas of how things should be and to replace them with what would be easiest for my customers.
For example, if Ubuntu is trying to draw market share away from Windows, they’re gonna have to abstract the low-level operations, build out the GUI a little more, and make things more task-oriented for the user.
If Ubuntu gets past these issues, it’ll be closer to ready for prime-time. If not, it will remain a choice for computer geeks only. This may not be a bad thing, depending on Ubuntu’s goals.
sgdouglas
April 28, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Great article. I’m a Linux girlfriend, and I’ve experienced many of the same things that Erin did.
About the comment that these experiments should be run on first-time Windows users–AFAIK there is presently widespread confusion among new Vista users. I was confused by many things when I sat down at a Vista machine for the first time, and I’m reasonably used to new and different operating systems by now. Frankly my experience of Vista was strongly reminiscent of my early experiences with Linux OSs. (not trying to make anyone cry…)
Among the things that I find consistently puzzling and irksome is the filesystem organization (mnt, dev, etc are not descriptive titles). I can never guess what’s going to end up where–also, if I select “run with” and try to select a program from the file menu, it’s an impossible task. I still don’t know where the friendly little .exe files are stored, and no amount of guessing gets me anywhere. I don’t even bother anymore, and instead complain loudly until BF comes and tells me he doesn’t really know either, and that he can search the forums, at which point I sigh and lament what could have been.
ITA about the “local alias” thing in Pidgin, and the utter impossibility of downloading plugin. I have to use Epiphany for anything with Java and Firefox for anything with Flash ATM. It’s a pain.
rhabhekkha
April 28, 2008 at 3:34 pm
To the OP–is that a sash you’re wearing in the pic?
rhabhekkha
April 28, 2008 at 3:37 pm
I agree with Kevin above. I think a Ubuntu Tour feature would be pretty handy to convert new users from other OS’ to Ubuntu.
Its interesting to see that a vast majority of setbacks where adapting to a new OS, not Ubuntu specific. As it was said above, I’m sure a lot of users would take just as long adjusting to a OSX as they would a friendly distro like Ubuntu.
Lachlan
April 28, 2008 at 3:45 pm
GIMPshop aims to replicate the Photoshop interface to make the transition from PS to GIMP easier.
http://www.gimpshop.com/
Brylie
April 28, 2008 at 4:00 pm
[...] primei mele pareri, am gasit post-ul asta pe web. Este vorba de un tip care s-a decis sa verifice cat de bine se descurca prietena lui cu [...]
Etherfast’s corner » Ubuntu e alegerea perfecta pentru desktopul prietenei tale?
April 28, 2008 at 4:15 pm
I find that with only a small amount of coaching from me, the the elderly and middle aged, women actually – men seem to have more trouble, probably because they don’t tend to listen – seem to thrive on Mandriva Linux, after I’ve set it up for them.
Mind you The get the KDE desktop, so the experience is probably more akin to using a Windows desktop where someone has customised the Menu.
tracyanne
April 28, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Well, actually, there is aMSN, which is an MSN-only client for that IM network, but it’s not a part of the default install. Rather, it’s available through apt.
As for Flash, if Firefox didn’t have you grab the flashplugin-nonfree package from the repositories, that’s a bug. It’s supposed to get nonfree plugins from the repositories instead of fetching them from upstream. That said, Gnash (a Flash player and browser plugin made by the Free Software Foundation and released under the GPLv3) should have been in the default install. If it wasn’t, that’s another bug. If it was installed (check
thephotoman
April 28, 2008 at 4:17 pm
i liked the article but its not entirely accurate,i installed Ubuntu on all of the computers at home and all of my younger brothers get along fine(they are 6,10,and 17).none of them have had any problem that google couldnt solve.and gimp is tricky for someone whos used to photoshop but my brothers seemed to have managed and do fine with gimp,showing them photoshop would probably be more confusing than anything else.
silver
April 28, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Excellent article and a great experiment. This is useful stuff for the Ubuntu UI designers.
But the conclusion is somewhat far-fetched (or harsh) if I read that your girl did basically well on about 80% of the tasks (don’t want to be an spreadsheet-hugger here) when she used the system for the first time. Give it another week and I’m sure she will start challenging Windows for how it forces you to work with it.
I played around with Linux since 1999 or something and if I compare Ubuntu now with the first Red Hat and Suse I managed to install, I must say it has come a loooooong, loooong way. Back in 1999 it was a pain for me as a Windows user to even unzip an archive or install a piece of software on Linux without checking documentation. In 1999 or even 2002 doing this kind of experiment with an average computer user was simply unthinkable. Now it’s a matter of days to get used to Linux and never look back.
Even if you compare 8.04 with Dapper Drake: the progress is undeniably spectacular. And that’s just, what, 2 years?
It can still get better. It has to and it will happen. I’m convinced that in the near future, Microsoft and Apple will have difficulties to create a desktop that can challenge Linux in terms of user experience and functionality. Experiments like this can help the Linux community to continue improving the experience and functionality.
Linux should stay Linux however. There is no point in creating a OSS Windows make-over and call it GNU/Linux. If people want to do things The Windows Way, please use Windows. It would be sad to see the Windows flaws incorporated in Linux just to please those who aren’t comfortable with non-Windows behavior.
Another thing that is not fair: GIMP is not part of GNU/Linux. It’s an OSS that comes standard with every Linux distro. How many Windows computers come with Photoshop (or MS Office) preinstalled?
miles
April 28, 2008 at 4:25 pm
pretty sweet. I’m going to put my GF up to the same test
Tynen
April 28, 2008 at 4:26 pm
dude your girlfriend has the body of a dude! and she wears kilts!
tony two shoes
April 28, 2008 at 4:33 pm
@johnb
I understand the idea that anyone should be able to sit down and set up their pc, no matter what OS is on it, on their own is a nice thought, but even Windows doesn’t “Just Work” on a fresh install. Most people get their computers already set up. This means that they don’t have to install the drivers for their equipment, or install their office suite, or any number of programs that they need or want for general day to day use. I wouldn’t ask anyone to install Windows on their own, or to have them figure out what kind of chipset they have for graphics, or what sound driver they need. Machines take tuning, that’s just the way life is. Same can be applied for many operating systems.
When they tune themselves, well, IT people may well be out of a job
emcee
April 28, 2008 at 4:42 pm
Stopped reading at ‘utorrent.exe’. This is obviously someone who has been thoroughly indoctrinated by Windows, and is completely unaware of what a healthy OS-market with various different choices would look like.
Now I recognize that that is the majority of potential users, but in the light of that reality you will have to accept that some re-education is necessary for those people to be able to work with any kind of different OS.
Meanwhile, this kind of test is like dumping someone who has grown up in a communist state in the middle of New York, watching them fail to deal with the many choices, freedom and responsibilities, and then concluding that capitalism and democracy are inferior because they are to complicated for the subject to handle.
extemporanea
April 28, 2008 at 4:43 pm
@9
I’ve run into this problem on the EEE PC, you need to hold alt while left clicking on the window. That will allow you to drag it off screen so you can click on the buttons located at the bottom of the dialog box.
AncientPC
April 28, 2008 at 4:43 pm
I haven’t read thru all these comments, but for the “Ninth Task: Change screen resolution”…
Instead of tabbing & guessing, you could have held ALT + left clicked the window to move it anywhere you’d like.
Jason
April 28, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Aside from the selected tasks being pretty trivial, this was a god illustration of Linux Myopia, inability of developers to see the OS from an objective POV. I would have selected a few productivity and important maintenance tasks.
1. Learn how synaptic and installer works. Install G-streamer codecs and a firewall
2. install a printer
3. install O-Ofc, create and print a doc.
4. mount a new drive or partition
5. perform a backup procedure
Wil
April 28, 2008 at 4:48 pm
excellent!!!
i’m not a geek, but know all variations of windows pretty well, and have attempted to use ubuntu for it last 3 re-incarnations, only to be put off by it’s geekiness and fuzzy logic.
i think you’ve hit the nail directly on the head:
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
horizontal_hold
April 28, 2008 at 4:58 pm
this post is about a windows user trying to use linux. but what about a linux user trying to use windows? i mean, linux as their first operating system they learn. most people learns windows as their first operating system, and thats why they very familiar with windows workflow. what about people who never know windows, trying to use it. they must be also some usability problem occur.
btw, i agree with the user’s confusion on software name in the menu. they (open source developer) should use generic name (Torrent client) instead of program name (e.g. Transmission). Especially in KDE environment, the default setting is showing the program names, which is very confusing (Kedit, KNetwork, Konqueror etc.)
azwan
April 28, 2008 at 5:35 pm
I agree with many of the comments made by the author and the general point he seems to be making, which is that people become familiar with some versions of some operating systems, forms interoperation processes, applications etc.
The notion that some people find it difficult changing to new Operating Systems is a reasonable comment, though not new. That he’s suggesting ways to make it better is a credit to him.
However, few people go out of their way to change over to new OSs by themselves. It’s often with a helping hand. Given the complexity of such things, it is likely to remain this way.
I’ve had mixed success with swapping people to Linux. It varied according to the amount of time they wished to put in and the time I had. If either was of a reasonable degree, then they were successful. If both were low, then it was not.
The author’s argument is a reasonable one and he suggests improvements or changes to increase the swap-over success rates.
Good on him and his g/friend.
My final point is that a great many people I work with (all but a small handful are university graduates) have problems of varying degrees in understanding Windows – it’s all the use where I work – and they’ve been using it for years at work and home. What does this tell us about ‘intuition’ and exposure to an OS? Just that for many people, they’re clueless and they struggle to do anything other than what they’ve been shown. Nothing new in that either.
Patrick
April 28, 2008 at 5:56 pm
[...] read more | digg story [...]
teh TODDtastic webLog-a-majig » Blog Archive » Is Ubuntu usable enough for a non-tech-savvy girlfriend yet?
April 28, 2008 at 5:59 pm
I am doing those kind of tests since ages, and had very good results with some triks….
and loves linux.
- I usually install all the required software/plugins with all the required setups before getting the user to use the keyboard.
- I use kde with kde_xp theme
and the winxp superkaramba bar moving the kde one on topscreen so the user can choose which one is better
- I use the xp icons theme
- I change the names in the icons to talking ones
- for msn I use the one on amsn.sf.net, pretty much similar and it has webcam and voice support
my father now uses slackware without any problems
renato gallo
April 28, 2008 at 6:00 pm
the only real gripe a newbie to ubuntu, or any other linux distro for that matter, that really annoys me is the installation of new programs. everything can be learned within a couple of days of tinkering, but program installation is really what bothered me my first time.
for ubuntu, there are *.deb files out there that installs just like a regular *.exe file, but that is limited to debian-based systems and I’m not too sure about other distros.
just my two cents
antemon
April 28, 2008 at 6:10 pm
I don’t think there is much assumptions to the user knowing about installation and file system structure in GNOME. I feel the situation you describe is how a user expect the OS to be like Windows.
I’ve done the same experiment on different friends and family. They find their stuff under Places, and with a hint that they need to install apps through “add/remove” in the menu they don’t get issues with installing random stuff that really are windows apps.
As for the youtube issue, Firefox really is patched do use the software channels for flash – when the plugin warning displays. I guess the bug is in youtube, because of the javascript usage.
And last: I wouldn’t be worried about letting your girl use Ubuntu. She seems to find her way easily. Her “problems” are more out of Windows habit than anything else. She’d get accustomed pretty fast. As has everyone I’ve put to use it.
ringe
April 28, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Why don’t you try this same thing with somebody less tech savvy, like somebody tech support normally deals with. These are the people that will have real problems, they don’t even know how to change the them, so how would they do? This was stupid.
Thomas
April 28, 2008 at 6:30 pm
I’ve been using Linux for a couple of years now..and I won’t say it has always been easy. Nice experiment you did there. I haven’t used Ubuntu for some time though, (Arch Linux user), however I do believe that Firefox allows you to install flash through the browser itself – without going to Adobe/apt-get.
About Transmission, I agree with you..the menu name should be Transmission – Bittorrent client. This should also be done for every application that comes in the default, and pretty much every app that installs itself in the menus.
4th task..couldn’t agree more. OpenOffice Draw seriously needs an upgrade. And perhaps a change in the menu to read Vector Image Editor?
5th task…agree
9th task..apart from using alt-drag, I pretty much agree. It’s useless having a huge picture that takes up half the window space.
10th task..I agree a bit here. Never used photoshop but gimp’s layout can be a bit irritating. What I usually do is put it on a virtual desktop..and set everything to always on top.
11th task..I believe a nice solution could be changing the text of the options based on what protocol you chose. Thus, you can chose the wording that’s most appropriate.
12th task. Not so sure I agree with the windows bubble like idea. I’m flummoxed..if she didn’t search under Internet, then where did she search??
Jean
April 28, 2008 at 6:33 pm
X-mas 2006 was rainy where I live. And Vista was marketed. At that moment I ran 8 pc’s on WinXP, and switching was just far too costly.
So I spent the rainy days trying out Ubuntu, and I’ve met with exactly the same problems and standstills and frustrations. And most of all, I could never introduce this to my family members.
So I discovered DistroWatch and started to try alternatives. I had ATI-videocards and the many problems they cause. But I’ve tried many distro’s. It became like a hobby.
This is what I use at the present:
MEPIS 7 (Debian now)
MINT 4 (sure will try hardy MINT 5)
GRANULAR 1 (PCLOS)
Why I use above and Ubuntu? The author just described it. With the above 3, I’ve a good feeling thru installing, I’ve a logical layout, everything works as it should, my printer is easily installed.
One exception; finding a scanner (in Europe) that is SANE-compatible. If they exist, they either seem always soldout either way too expensive.
I don’t use Pidgin anymore, I use Meebo, it gives me more at once.
I still use OfficeXP through WINE/CrossOver, but more and more I appreciate OpenOffice, and the GIMP, and all the other good stuff that’s awaiting you in the Linux lib’s.
capricornus
April 28, 2008 at 6:37 pm
Mac, Windows and Linux distros are all different, but much of the base can be learned by anyone without a closed mind. A far more accurate test would be to take a small child who hadn’t really used computers and mad them do the same tasks on Windows, Mac & Linux.
Ubuntu is trying to make a linux distro friendly to Windows users. The piece was and interesting test, but I feel the tone is a bit rudely condescending, condsidering the devlopers are trying to cater to people like your girlfriend.
For the commetors, if you don’t like linux, don’t use it! Simple. If you hate linux people for always speak up in defense of their operating system, spend less time trashing it. There is room in the world for more than one OS.
As for #75, I’m a girl who uses Linux, who has dated geeks…
How like a windows user to stereotpye
Zoe
April 28, 2008 at 6:43 pm
quote … If she had as much trouble as she did, what chance to the elderly or at least the middle-aged stand? … quote
Well the elderly and middle aged, this is primarily women I’m referring to (as men seem to have a harder time, probably it’s because they don’t listen), seem to have no problem using Mandriva Linux, after I’ve set it up for them, and given them some fairly minimal instruction.
I’m giving them a system with a KDE desktop, so the transition from Windows to Linux is not as big a step, as it is going to the GNOME desktop. But for the most part they seem to just accept that that’s the way it is, when confronted with the GIMP, although in the case of Thunderbird or Evolution the comment is often along the lines of it being better or faster, Firefox gets this sort of response as well, in fact the total responsiveness of Mandriva’s KDE desktop is waht generally impresses them from the start.
tracyanne
April 28, 2008 at 6:45 pm
Worst thing is the need to use Command Line to install Flash?
Why??!!!
Windows users do not understand Command Line requirements. When Linux is 100 per cent GUI then it will be ready for non-geeks.
charles
April 28, 2008 at 6:47 pm
That was an amazing post; I enjoyed so much!
Yes, still there is a lot to be done.
I hope Ubuntu people will see this.
Probably an option to choose between ‘Migration mode’ and ‘Normal mode’ would do.
Anyway, I believe that Ubuntu is more friendly for someone that has never seen a computer..
Jeus
April 28, 2008 at 7:03 pm
Part of this is true and I agree… but most of the programs are cross-platform, like GIMP or Pidgin, or OpenOffice… and I don’t think because Photoshop is now associated with image editing, someone is supposed to had such an EXPENSIVE software on their computers, or MS Office (which is EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE)… I am right?
And btw, if I put your girlfriend to do the same tests on a Mac it will be almost the same results! Believe me when I say that I have non-geeky friends, and that their are UNABLE to operate Windows, Mac or Ubuntu!!! I have to do the tasks for them! Unfortunately, people like this will make further in computers if they don’t read a lot and if they do not assume many things (like those from the Pidgin task). This is the truth!
Regards.
John Klans
April 28, 2008 at 7:08 pm
A little correction in my comment:
“people like this will NOT make it further”
John Klans
April 28, 2008 at 7:10 pm
For the second task (YouTube), she could have succeeded if the Ubuntu package manager followed WinZip (or Windows compressed folders)’s behavior — when trying to run an application from an archive, it should unzip the *whole* archive to a temp folder, so that dependencies (libflashplayer.so) can be found.
Eugene
April 28, 2008 at 7:32 pm
I feel a little like Erin when I have to go back to using Windows.
Ken Jackson
April 28, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Ofcourse we shouldn’t take windows as a point of reverence, but it would have done a far worse job on some of these points. Installing flash would’ve been succesfull though many would’ve failed this task (but let’s be honest you should have installed that with ‘a fresh installation’ together with the medibuntu repos).
But burning cd’s from a linux partition in windows? Does a fresh windows install even have a cd-burner? If it does it doesn’t read ext3.
Could you photoshop anything with a fresh windows install?
Truely, most non-geek people I know don’t know what a ‘partition’ is. Some not even after I explained them repeatedly.
Nevertheless an interesting experiment, and some of these improvements are fairly obvious and easy to make.
bro
April 28, 2008 at 7:41 pm
You have a great girlfriend. Treasure her and don’t force her to install linux too many times!
Great posting.
thomascrampton
April 28, 2008 at 7:52 pm
This is a very important article, and very well written.
I really hope that the developers of ubuntu will read this, and enhance their great distribution until its granny-ready!
good job!
Vadali
April 28, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Im a bit of a computer geek, as im a web developer and dabble in desktop programming aswell but when I installed ubuntu, it really doesnt make it clear how to install programs. From memory I realised that I might have to run a command but people who are not good at computers would have no idea about this. If linux is gonna spread to a wider audience, this is gonna have to be addressed
ethangk
April 28, 2008 at 8:31 pm
The author is correct in that there are many things in the modern linux GUI’s that must be taught. He has, however, made the incorrect assumption that “Everyone knows how to use Windows”
Find a person who does not know how to use Windows and subject them to the same experiment on a current Windows installation. Believe me there are plenty of those folks around.
I think you’ll find that the people who do know Windows, have had help learning it or been taught the use of it in some form of training. Take the same type of person (no Windows experience) and perform the same experiment with the Ubuntu linux Gui.
This is good stuff. Completing this experiment would be very helpful to the myriad of GUI designers for all operating systems.
tgiro
April 28, 2008 at 10:30 pm
P.S. A better solution for Pidgin would be (1) if there are no accounts configured immediately go to screen that lets the user select, “Do you want to use a pre-existing account/screenname or would you like to create a new one?” (2) Let the user specify the network and then ask just username and password. Anything else should be pre-defined. If the user wants to set all the various parameters, they can use an “advanced” option.
Tom Limonecelli
April 28, 2008 at 10:31 pm
There’s been a sea change in the Linux world, thanks to Ubuntu. I can’t imagine asking my wife to do anything with the Slackware box I had years ago, but Ubuntu I think would be much easier for her. It is a lot more polished.
To give one solid example, I was having trouble with sharing a printer from my Gutsy server – and all of the help I was finding online was referring to the GUI tool rather than editing config files with the CLI. That shows you how far the GUI tools have come. On a headless server, it wasn’t much help, but still.
x0-22
April 28, 2008 at 10:31 pm
Please, please do not talk the Gnome developers into putting little pop-up and notification bubbles all over the UI for little things like installing new programs, minimizing applications, or welcome screens. That is precisely the reason windows is so freaking annoying. I agree with you there are some good finds here and some room for improvement, but please, lets do it subtlely through the UI instead of adding a plethora of annoying popup messages.
Landon
April 28, 2008 at 10:35 pm
“Erin’s intelligent, quick to learn and is reasonably well-acquainted with modern technology.”
She’s not reasonably well-acquainted with Linux, and using a new system takes a little time getting used to even for a computer professional.
If she’d known about Synaptic, she’d likely find it easier to install a program than on a Windows box. Also, I set up a fresh Ubuntu 8.04 installation on a friend’s laptop this Sunday and the Flash Player was there out of the box, so this has been ironed out…
Thomas
April 28, 2008 at 10:36 pm
You can move the “change resolution” box to fit on the screen, but it requires a few config options.
First, you need to install compizconfig-settings-manager, usually through apt, aptitude or synaptic. Then, open up Advanced Desktop Effects Settings, go to “Move Window” at the bottom, click it, then uncheck “Constrain Y”. Now you can hold down alt and drag a window, and you can move it off the screen.
I think rather than the compiz stuff, you can go to appearance, then visual effects, and then disable compiz by selecting “None”. That should also let you move windows past the top of the screen
It’s awful to find :/
slugonamission
April 28, 2008 at 10:38 pm
Oh yeah, and flash (along with other stuff, including Java) can also be installed by installing ubuntu-restricted-extras, again from either apt, aptitude or synaptic.
TBH, synaptic needs to be publicized more when using it, so users feel like they need to go there instead of through websites, like in Windows.
slugonamission
April 28, 2008 at 10:41 pm
More people should try CinePaint (the fork formerly known as FilmGimp). It’s not currently in Hardy, but I’d suggest people give it a try. Apart from not having as silly a name, it’s nicer to throw n00bs at. I fervently await GEGL being good enough for CinePaint and GIMP to be able to re-merge at least in theory.
David Gerard
April 28, 2008 at 10:43 pm
your gf did all that? dude, she’s a keeper….
andrew
April 28, 2008 at 10:45 pm
Overall your comments are great on Ubuntu 8.04 and I agree with them. The only thing I have to say about it is that even on windows, with alll the messages a user can get in a day to tell them exactly what is going on on their computer, beginners often get lost. So putting a “new program installed” for example might help some of them, but I don’t know if you’ve configures a windows pc recently because having half the folders highlighted because you installed all the usefull softwares you need is really disturbing to me, and since in linux you can install a lot of programs at a time, this would make a real mess.
Good job overall!
Nik
April 28, 2008 at 10:51 pm
Next time ask her the name of a Country that begins with “U” and don’t let her use wikipedia… (quote: http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=fJuNgBkloFE)
Regards
Freddy
April 28, 2008 at 10:52 pm
I don’t think a 1-person test is representative, anyway there are simpler ways to do things.
For example, Flash can be directly installed by firefox on a per-user basis when a flash movie is met in a page.
Moreover, there are distributions out there that provide it installed out of the box if a full installation is performed.
With openSUSE for example, if you perform a DVD installation, you have flash (for all browsers) and the java virtual machine properly installed, and on 32 bit systems also the Java firefox plugin (no 64 bit is provided by SUN).
About burning a collection, it’s straightforward with tools like Banshee. Just import the collection and click burn to CD.
Finally, skype is available as RPM for it, and a simple click on it after having saved the RPM on the desktop starts the installer.
To conclude, I agree with you when you say Linux has a lot of work to do on the desktop, but some of the problems you cited are distribution specific.
Alberto
April 28, 2008 at 10:57 pm
Try making her try windoze without prior experience. You’d see the same show.
bob jones
April 28, 2008 at 11:01 pm
I’ve installed several Ubuntu boxes for people, and no one I’ve installed for has had these issues. The very simple reason is that I normally do all the plugin and extra’s installations myself. I do this for both windows and linux installs, as it tends to be less of a headache. I’ve never just installed an OS and expected that everything was going to work out of the box. By doing so, your just showing all of us your extreme ignorance. Here’s my short list of things to install before you give it to you luser. Jave, flash, some sort of pdf reader and all drivers. If your not doing that, then you really shouldn’t try. All lot of people have problems with these things whether their using windows or ubuntu. I’m not going to say everyone has these problems, but had you actually set it up for her, like any compatant tech, then most of these problems could have been avoided. As for pidgin, sorry, but anything new is going to require some explanation. Try sitting grandma down in front of a windows box, when she’s never even touched a computer before. (especially a fresh install with no patches or programs installed) And pidgin isn’t even that hard to figure out. I’ll admit that the first time I used it, I was a little confused at first. But it is fairly straight-forward, and the only reason you would have major problems is if you didn’t understand the ENGLISH LANGUAGE! Now unless I’ve missed the boat here, you’ve just alienated a potential linux user, because your an idiot. PEOPLE ARE USED TO WINDOWS AND NEED TO TAKE A LITTLE TIME TO LEARN AND GET USED TO LINUX. JUST SHOVING SOMEONE FACE IN IT IS LIKELY TO PISS THEM OFF. YOU HAVE TO HELP NEW USERS, YOU STUPID TARD.
C N
April 28, 2008 at 11:04 pm
Well, the main problem with this test is that the girlfriend didn’t have much PC experience – only Windows experience. That’s why she wanted to download programs from websites instead of doing this through package manager (THE killer feature of most linux distributions IMO). She was also completely illiterate about the basics – where the files are and why you can’t simply run .exe in linux.
She assumed she knew something where it would be wiser to google or ask for answer.
So, this test isn’t about how friendly Ubuntu is to a newbie user – it is about how friendly it is to a windows user which is much worse. Habit is the biggest obstacle in switching OS’s. You stick to the was things were used to be even if there is much convenient way of doing them (e.g. multi-protocol instead of having multiple IM’s).
Erik
April 28, 2008 at 11:10 pm
Interesting experiment. She seems to have done fairly well. Linux is making great strides in usability…
Mark
April 28, 2008 at 11:11 pm
If you ever find a dialog box bigger than your current window, hold down ALT and the spacebar, then click and drag the window from anywhere on the window, not just the menu bar. Of course your test subject wouldn’t know that, but just an FYI.
Michael
April 28, 2008 at 11:11 pm
Linux isn’t Windows, nor is it OS X. Assuming that it is will only frustrate you.
If you want an OS that does not require some reading by someone (either an admin or an end user), you should not be using Linux.
I happen to find Linux easier to work with than the above to OSs for what I use it for, and the huge amount of documentation available for Ubuntu makes it very easy to quickly setup a desktop for an end user.
scyon
April 28, 2008 at 11:11 pm
Re Post #7:
There’s definitely a learning curve going from Windows to OS X, but speaking as someone who used Windows as a teenager, but then switched to OS X halfway through college, it’s much less than the learning curve of Ubuntu. OS X is /very/ user-friendly and the help menu is a) actually helpful and b) easily searchable. Within 4 days of buying my Macbook, I was using it like I had been using it all my life.
Also, I’ve used Ubuntu on friend’s computer and I still don’t like it. I can do the basics of command line Unix and am proficient with a couple of high-level programming languages. If I can do it by clicking and dragging on my Mac, why would I /want/ to do it through a (more confusing) command-line interface? I know that Linux offers you superuser capabilities that make playing with your computer very fun, but the average user cares about customizing their desktop and not much more.
therosh
April 28, 2008 at 11:13 pm
This reads like Penthouse letters for nerds.
“I never thought this would happen to me, but…”
wookiee
April 28, 2008 at 11:13 pm
Most folks aren’t even as technically savvy as your girlfriend. My 75-year old dad would just ask “what’s skype?”, or say “just show me”.
1) You’re right – desktop Linux is NOT ready for joe-blow-sixpack.
2) Not everybody uses skype, downloads torrents, or even creates/edits images on their computers. The people you specifically mention (grandma) barely use a computer at all.
3) The simple truth is that after the devlopers think they’re done with the distro, they should run usability tests with all levels of WINDOWS users and make necessary changes.
4) *Real* people (as opposed to Linux activists) don’t care about the politics of open source, the ramifications of the GPL, nor the “purity” of using the command line. they simply want to get their stuff done in the fastest way possible.
5) Pretty much everyone that starts using Linux today is coming from a Windows background. Like it or not, THOSE are the people distro manufacturers have to cater to. The goal is to make everything obvious and keep them the hell away from the command line.
john
April 28, 2008 at 11:14 pm
Hi.
I agree that this article and its thesis is excellent. All the chosen tasks were appropriate as well, I thought.
One thing I would like to mention, apologies if it’s been mentioned, I didn’t read all the comments, is that it’s discouraging to continually read about people freezing up when confronting a different OS that uses differrent terms or icons. Although I agree that some program names in the FLOSS world are pretty out-there and completely non-intuitive. Some functions, as well.
However, if we were trapped on an island somewhere – would we just sit and wait to die, or would we find out how to get food water and shelter that we might survive?
It discourages and disheartens me to know that people lose their minds when they have to think, on any level, when they are sitting at a computer. What should be taught, or self-learned, is methods, and functions instead of terms like username. Or, pointing and clicking on the pretty pictures. When account name is substituted for username people get stupid. “Oh, NO! Where does my member name go?”
I am not knocking your girlfriend at all becaus it’s not her doing. The dumbing down of people globally has been accomplished by the MS Windows operating system. People lock up sit in awe because no Clippy exists for Linux.
I do blame people that maintain this glazed-look, however. We are supposed to be able to put 2 and 2 together to get 4 under any circumstances. However, when a term exists in Linux that is similar but not exactly the same as it is in Windows, the reader needs to be able to figure out ( HELLO – CONTEXT!) what’s going on.
I blame apathy, laziness, Microsoft, and our posh and self-gratifying society. I would never let my children become so placated and helpless. If they can’t figure a thing out then I haven’t done my job as a Dad. And that’s not happening.
Again, I thought your article was terrific, as were your tasks.
What we all need to do next is to figure out how to remind the typical Windows user that they are not a moron, or helpless. Nor should they be reliant on the windows OS to make decisions for them. It cannot be trusted at all. We need to figure out how to remind people that they figured out how to walk and talk – now they need to figure out how to get their brains back.
–machiner
machiner
April 28, 2008 at 11:15 pm
Ok Minor problem. Some of the issues you are talking about are not Ubuntu issues but Linux Standard Base. Soon the download package issue should be resolvable for flash. When the Linux standard base support more and better sound outputs.
Next Ubuntu should be able to install a RPM. Reason its a LSB format. It should be a simple point and click if its a LSB package. So that should be come kick adobes ass after Linux Standard Base 4.0 gets release.
Fifth task transition issue. Really not a fair test. Partitions are placed depended on your distro install. /mnt is normal pace for 3 party systems. Long term Linux users can have equal annoyances returning to windows like where is the etc directory when you have posix services install. Its nicely in a strange location too.
Yep screen res task 9 should be better.
Task 10 gimp is adding a function search to improve its usability next version.
Task 11 lack of transition preparation. pidgin does work on windows. Now user had never used a multi client messaging client before. Nop that was not the problem at all. Person had used a single target client before. So expected treatment was completely wrong. Clean slate person handles that one better.
Now it would be interesting to put her head to head with kde version of ubuntu or mint. Some of the naming issues is a gnome one. Also most people don’t notice the mouse hover information in the Linux menus.
oiaohm
April 28, 2008 at 11:16 pm
Nice article. I think several of the issues were just familiarity, but your points about generic naming of applications were a good idea. What I think would be REALLY INTERESTING is to do the same test with a fresh install of Microsoft Vista, and see how her experience compares.
As an added comparison, if your Ubuntu machine didn’t come pre-installed, and was installed on an old machine, then Vista should be installed on that same machine.
Ben
April 28, 2008 at 11:17 pm
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.
The whole system of a written word using letters won’t be really usable until someone illiterate can sit in front of a piece of paper and with little effort write a book. Hieroglyphs are a much better system.
Eddie
April 28, 2008 at 11:19 pm
[...] from http://contentconsumer.wordpress.com/2008/04/27/is-ubuntu-useable-e... [...]
ffloat.it / The Great Ubuntu-Girlfriend Experiment
April 28, 2008 at 11:19 pm
One more “great article” comment. I’m a long-time Linux user, and I try hard to be aware of the knowledge I take for granted when introducing people to Linux…but it can be hard to remember what you once didn’t know. Thanks to both of you for taking the time to do this and write it up.
Saint Aardvark
April 28, 2008 at 11:20 pm
per: “(Also, why is OpenOffice.org Drawing installed in the Base package? Seems pretty unnecessary – if only because I don’t know anyone who uses a program like it.)”
Apparently OO.o Impress relies on the Draw package, so I guess I can kind of see this being needed. But like you said, who really uses it.
Trevor
April 28, 2008 at 11:22 pm
i almost totally disagree
flash problem is a youtube problem, as you said, not an ubuntu/linux problem.
i don’t think the right solution is to change the behaviour of the desktop..
i think the best thing should be an help screen popping up the first time you install it that explain you the basis and “where to find help”
with screenshots and stuff..
so you know you can install software with the package manager (es. flash) and that almost all programs goes in the menù after they had been installed…
and so on…
remember: linux is NOT windows! and it doesn’t want to be like windows!
you here are assuming “easy = windows like”
to be fair you should compare the behavior of a person that never used a computer..
or you should find somone that always used Linux, and only Linux and ask him to do something on windows… trust me.. it will be puzzled at least like your girlfriend got puzzled here
mastro
April 28, 2008 at 11:23 pm
Perhaps you should teach your girlfriend how to use google. She would have been much more successful.
Abby
April 28, 2008 at 11:24 pm
[...] someone who’s never used Linux. Interesting insight into how ready Linux is for the desktop.read more | digg [...]
timfitz.net » Blog Archive » Is Ubuntu usable enough for a non-tech-savvy girlfriend yet?
April 28, 2008 at 11:24 pm
Perhaps we have reached the ‘uncanny valley’ where the ubuntu desktop is nearly like Windows, but not quite… leading to unfulfilled user expectations?
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_Valley)
Ben
April 28, 2008 at 11:24 pm
If she used Ubuntu from the start, she would have as many problems trying to run Windows as she did running Linux, though I agree Windows does automate more of these tasks. It’s still what you’re used to.
Rob
April 28, 2008 at 11:24 pm
Tasks 2 & 3 would have gone a lot smoother had erin been shown how to use the software installer for ubuntu – Software installation on ubuntu is a lot easier than windows if you know about this – a lot harder otherwise… A five minute tour ought to do it.
With Regards to task 5 – Had you named the drive when you formatted it – Ubuntu would have used that name for the partition. It defaults back to giving the size when there is no name.
This could be better but I hardly think it is worse than Windows drive letter scheme.
I do agree that the gimp and pidgen could be very much made more accesible by your suggestions.
danni coy
April 28, 2008 at 11:24 pm
[...] switching over to Linux the developers of Linux Desktop Applications should read articles such as this one and take to heart the experiences of the average computer user [...]
Hines Information Technology Services » Blog Archive » The Linux Desktop Experience
April 28, 2008 at 11:25 pm
you’re right! only -after- some tuning my girlfriend is able to use ubuntu. but why? if you power up a new notebook or pc from, say hp or sony, you find a “strange operating system” with a lot of preinstalled stuff, like skype, flash plugin, java and some codecs… do the same thing with ubuntu and your users will be happy. I usually install ubuntu (or other distro) with flash, java, realplay, some other codecs and vlc, some applications (amule, inkscape, scribus and so on) and configure openoffice to save in office format. everything in few minutes. and on this pc one can be productive from (his…) first login.
ftaurino
April 28, 2008 at 11:27 pm
I noticed some comments that x feature would be new for anyone that hadn’t used OS X/Windows/OS? before. The truth of the matter is that Windows has the bulk of the market share. If Linux is going to grow quickly it will need Windows users to migrate to Linux. This will require that some of the things that Windows does will need to be mimicked on Linux
Adam
April 28, 2008 at 11:28 pm
Well I tip my hat off to you for sharing linux with your g/f.
clinton
April 28, 2008 at 11:30 pm
[...] maybe not entirely, I just wanted to draw your attention to this interesting but rather not surprising post . Somebody asked a Windows non-geek user to use Ubuntu for first time (I understood). Kind of [...]
You can always change this. » Blog Archive » no news: Ubuntu is for geeks
April 28, 2008 at 11:30 pm
I really do appreciate articles, and experiments, such as this.
I commented about this post on my own blog as well (http://www.hinesit.com/blog/?p=62).
I think this really nailed down the problems behind acceptance of Linux as an alternative to the Windows desktop. Excellent article.
johnhines
April 28, 2008 at 11:30 pm
Linux IS pretty much ready. The results of this experiment PROVE(?) this. Some of the application are not!
GF managed to solve the OS issues (except recovering from small desktop).
Moz
April 28, 2008 at 11:33 pm
Well played. And cute too, not everyone has a girlfriend who will do whimsical usability testing, let alone a cute one.
haha!
Matt!
April 28, 2008 at 11:34 pm
Hey man. This is a great article with a novel approach!
I’m a GNOME developer (though with the Translation project, so of little direct interest to you). What you’re describing here are problems more with GNOME than with Ubuntu (which simply uses and modifies a GNOME installation).
I’d think that you open up some bug reports to fix some of these things! I’d be happy to help get the ball rolling, so feel free to email me if you’d like to do this.
These are all great ideas, with fixable problems. Email me and we can get the ball rolling!
Adam
April 28, 2008 at 11:34 pm
What shocks me is that you thought nothing of downloading music illegally. Whatever happened to buying it, or ripping it off a purchased CD? You could at least have pretended to do that instead of owning outright that you steal music.
Raoul
April 28, 2008 at 11:36 pm
Oh joy, aren’t these sexist undertones fantastic.
Noah Slater
April 28, 2008 at 11:36 pm
@117 you can install flash on ubuntu without using a command line….
danni coy
April 28, 2008 at 11:37 pm
There’s already an Ubuntu bug ticket open for Transmission’s name in the menu. Apparently it slipped through the cracks before the Heron release, but I suspect this article will help it get fast-tracked for a patch.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/transmission/+bug/184238
Charles Kerr
April 28, 2008 at 11:39 pm
[...] The new Ubuntu is great, but probably still not ready for your Mom, or your girlfriend. [...]
The Boar’s Head Tavern
April 28, 2008 at 11:39 pm
“I’ve installed several Ubuntu boxes for people and THE secret is to do
the initial tuning for them.”
“Why not make it simple enough so anybody with minimal knowledge can do it?”
Me:
Well, the ‘initial tuning’ is basically just installing all of the things that are ILLEGAL to install in the US because of asinine laws. That is not Ubuntu’s fault that they can’t break the law to make the OS more user-friendly. Not while remaining free.
Decent review. I thought some of the points (menu item names and such) vere valid, some not.
Just remember, Ubuntu is not Windows. Don’t treat it like it is. If you just take a few minutes to learn how to use it, you might actually realize that this way is *better*. Windows is not the best thing ever, so don’t think that different = bad.
Daniel
Daniel
April 28, 2008 at 11:40 pm
Names
I agree basically with the confusing names problem but …
Windows has the same problem ..What do Outlook, Access, Nero do ?
And I hate the “Simplified” only names idea “BitTorrent Client” is easy to find but which one am I using? and what If I install two are they both called the same …?
Photoshop is not GIMP and GIMP is not Photoshop, GimpShop is the answer if you already know photoshop ….
The intro hinting system is a really good idea … but please NOT a tour (no-one will use it) and not a paperclip style helper!
The Flash Plugin download is an annoyance.. and should be handled better, as skype is ….but this is more than partially to do with Firefox?
I see the usual “hate the command line”, “looks like DOS”, “long instructions for the command line” people are commenting … please go and use a modern version of Linux… Windows 3.1 looked old fashioned and was clunky as well …
I use Linux a lot and very rarely open a command prompt (and I write software!)
Jaster
April 28, 2008 at 11:42 pm
@67
1) For complaints about that best to talk to AMD….
2) main issue here is that there are so many java related packages- but still not too hard
3) NTFS is definately supported under ubuntu (out of the box) both read and write. Though that may have changed since you used it last.
danni coy
April 28, 2008 at 11:46 pm
Well Photoshop behaves exactly how Gimp does on Mac OS. Apparently that way of behaviour is better according to the enlightened Mac artists out there. Personally, that is the thing I hate most about my Mac is how Photoshop does that.
Don Nathan
April 28, 2008 at 11:51 pm
You should’ve had her dd the hard drive as one of the tasks
The problem is that Windows is so dumbed down, users aren’t used to solving problems for themselves.
Realistically, how many ‘average’ users have installed Windows before, and actually set it up? You gave your gf a fresh non-tweaked copy of linux. Obviously there are going to be some problems, but most of the problems or complaints you had were not major.
I can bet a lot of Windows users have had PLENTY of complaints.
Good article…
Steve
April 28, 2008 at 11:52 pm
when people complain that ubuntu need some initial tuning after a install, think about what kind of tuning is done to a windows install that comes with a computer.
this is the main fallacy i see when people compare windows and linux. unless your some tech geek that build your own computers, you do not install the os yourself, ever. of the shelf computers today come with recovery media, not windows install media. they basically rewrite the os and bundled software to its factory complete state.
also, i see that a lot of the problems she is having comes from thinking app = task. as in, i want to draw a image, where is the image drawing app im used to? this instead of something like task -> draw new image, or similar.
this is a problem thats like a mental epidemic today in computing, and why people mentally deadlock when moving between interfaces and app collections.
turn.self.off
April 28, 2008 at 11:53 pm
“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.” – I agree with others, this is an unfounded statement, since a truly computer illiterate person would have similar difficulties in XP or Vista. Unfortunately, it seems your definition of computer illiterate = normal Windows user.
Also, while some advice on OS modifications like using “Computer” instead of the jargon “filesystem” makes sense, criticisms regarding some programs were unfounded. For example, you criticised the GIMP’s unintuitive UI. For some, it is intuitive….for photoshopper’s, it’s not, which is why there is GIMPShop, which tries to copy the feel of Photoshop.
Remember though, the aim of Ubuntu or any linux distro is NOT to copy windows, or its look and feel, or the look and the feel of its programs, which is what you seem to be implying (or at least you’re implying that that should be its focus). Linux is just different.
What I would like to see is a linux-only user (and there are more and more people whose first experience is with linux), and expose them to windows, and see how well they fare.
S
April 28, 2008 at 11:56 pm
oh, and i fully forgot to comment on the flash thing. yes its a problem, but not one of usability as much as one of subverting the idea of the web.
one is becoming more and more reliant on using a proprietary package for supplying what has become a basic feature of the modern web.
and the best solution, ogg formats in html5, was edited out after corporate pressure.
yes, ogg would not have been the best choice for quality conscious users. but for the vast majority it would not matter one bit. also, the html5 spec allowed one to stack multiple media streams with priority so that if one had the right stuff available, one would get a higher quality stream. but the ogg formats would be a default failsafe so that one would not need to have flash, silverlight or any other plugin at hand.
media plugins are the corps number one tool for turning the open web into walled gardens.
turn.self.off
April 28, 2008 at 11:59 pm
Great article. I’ve always said that the biggest problem with linux is that it despite its graphical interface, it still relies almost entirely on the command line to do installations and updates or anything remotely technical. Average users don’t know how to do that, and savvy users like my self think life is too short to google “how to install flash on linux”.
Arie
April 29, 2008 at 12:01 am
like grown ups forget the time they were kids, advanced users, and os designers tend to forget those days ,they were beginning to mess with pc’s,and after all chose to combine their lives with them.some of us wanna use our pc’s while at the same time,not be computer gurus.so please guys,don’t forget to look back.apart from that, a big thanks to u all.nice article man .thanks… (just imagine how history would be if the Creator was not that “user friendly” to us. “light a fire?Better not.it is too much of a mess.better stick with raw meat,avoid big animals,and move to a warmer land by next moon”)
fraggyy
April 29, 2008 at 12:09 am
Interesting read, but I don’t agree with your conclusion at all.
See, your girlfriend wasn’t computer illiterate at all. She knew her way around Windows, an OS she’s had years to learn how to operate. Are you really surprised when she’s confused sitting down in front of a completely different OS?
Ubuntu isn’t supposed to be Windows. I think it’s incredibly amazing how easy they HAVE made it for Windows users migrating to Linux. But the questions remains, are you expecting Ubuntu to basically be Windows, or will you admit that it’s actually an entirely different OS from the ground up.
You can do the exact same experiment in reverse, and your Linux-using girlfriend would be perplexed at how weak the Windows CLI is, how unintuitive the menus are and how arbitrary the user interface is.
As I said, an interesting read but scientifically worthless.
Martin
April 29, 2008 at 12:09 am
[...] great if albeit sexist named article about testing the new Ubuntu on a beginner. I would say it mirrors my over all feeling that for the most part the OS works great but [...]
Stefan Hayden » testing the new Ubuntu on a beginner
April 29, 2008 at 12:16 am
OK, what you’ve really been waiting for.
She’s cute.
fletchshill
April 29, 2008 at 12:17 am
I think you are forgetting that everyone starts off as a virgin when it comes to computers. Take someone who has never been in front of a MS Windows machine and tell them to do the same tasks. They would have looked at you the exact same way, and Mac OSX would be no different. Sometimes we forget where we started and that things weren’t easy right out of the box. I remember installing my first Windows program. Sure it seems so easy now, but if you have never done it than when it asks, “do you want to create this folder” that is pretty traumatic.
I think that overall Linux could do a lot to make things easier, but overall the problems she had are only because she is a Linux virgin and likely the same problems she had when she first sat down in front of a Windows machine. Ubuntu has a ways to go, but if a user is properly trained and the machine properly configured than most of this would not have been a problem at all.
A few more things. GIMP is not Photoshop and there is no reason that they should make their menu look exactly like it. There are hundreds of other programs that people may be used to when coming to GIMP would you expect that GIMP cater to everyone of them?
Also for Pidgen the local alias is mostly for the XMMP protocol. It allows you to be logged in at multiple locations at the same time. If the local alias is the same than it gets confused. I don’t know if AIM or MSN allow similar things, but that may be why it is included. I will often be logged in 3 or 4 places at the same time.
I do appreciate the article though. I think it was pretty good and a good experiment. I only take issue with who is at fault. Just keep in mind that we all had to learn once. I think with a little bit of training someone could use Linux just like they are used to using Windows.
Mark
April 29, 2008 at 12:21 am
You didn’t mention one thing – not everybody is an English native. In fact most of the people in world aren’t.
If I were to install Ubuntu for my mother I would be really scared. Though Ubuntu polish translation is very strong and covers pretty much everything it is still highly criticized (still Microsoft translations are worse
). The point is that people using localized software get used to some stupid names and don’t care how far they are from the real meaning.
Running pidgin, downloading skype or installing flash becomes even more tricky when a not-english-speaking person is suddenly confronted with an English message (in Windows it’s pretty easy – you just click OK whenever you don’t know what’s going on). This is one of the reasons why I wouldn’t try forcing my mother to start with Ubuntu.
Personally I always stick to the default language version – just not to depend on the translation guys (which often are not geeky enough to get everything right). Unfortunately it isn’t a matter of choice for many people.
guma
April 29, 2008 at 12:23 am
[...] came across this “review” of Ubuntu Linux 8.04 Hardy Heron this morning. The reviewer doesn’t go and review it as a Linux user. Instead, he sits his [...]
Different, but better, type of review of Ubuntu Linux at RunawayJim.org
April 29, 2008 at 12:26 am
I liked the article and I think it paints a fair impression (I’ve read most of the comments). I ran into the problem of my screen res being too small for a window and didn’t know about the alt-click thing. It’s a good tip, but still.
I’m trying to set up a little Media centre jobbie for the lounge, and I’ve spent hours so far trying to get it to work ‘right’. Some of the problems were specific (e.g. having to mount my Samba share in fstab, I’m rusty and took me a few times to work it out. What really confused me was that the Samba share appeared in ‘My Places’ so I thought it was a usable, but most apps just show the filesystem rather than places).
Had to install MP3 codecs, but that was easy, I do love the Install Apps thing – that does rock.
DVD support was flaky out of the box, and I wanted to rip one (it’s Media machine) and it took my 3 hours of fiddling to install all the packages – in Windows I d/l DVDDecrypter and I was away.
About every 3rd boot Gnome doesn’t start properly – it works, but doesn’t get a call back or something – I suspect ATi’s drivers, but whatever.
I had to tweak VLC to play the DVDs properly.
Most of the problems I’m having are just differences, but a few things leave me stumped and googling for answers.
Anyway, it’s getting better, and a non-vital PC is the only way to experiment.
Assuming I can get the system to the point where my g/f can use it as a Media PC (MP3, DVD, Photo) I’ll be happy to see how it performs, but it’s non-trivial to switch OSs, and I admit I’m struggling. What with having too many hobbies and a job to relearn and fight. I’m not saying it’s wasted time, but it’s not there yet.
Still massive leaps and bounds from my last attempt at a Linux install.
Steve
April 29, 2008 at 12:27 am
[...] for the masses? No thanks. I just finished reading The Great Ubuntu-Girlfriend Experiment, a well-written log about the problems the author’s girlfriend had when first sitting down at [...]
Linux for the masses? No thanks. « Integer Overflow
April 29, 2008 at 12:28 am
There is a help section in Ubuntu written for Windows users and many others that would probably help with some of the parts your girlfriend had trouble with, however, it does not pop-up on the first login. Maybe having that happen would be a good start down the road for converts. Also, KDE does some of the things you thought the desktop should do, like reporting that clicking the X only tray’s the application. KDE tends to be easier for Windows converts as it replicates Windows a bit more then Gnome does. Maybe you should let her go at a Kubuntu install. Anyways, good article, those are things that could be easily addressed.
Craig
April 29, 2008 at 12:31 am
I think I am like a lot of people, wanting desperately to get rid of Windows, not wanting Apple, and hoping that someday soon, Linux will be usable by me and people less computer literate than me. I can understand geeks liking things the way they are. I started in DOS, but now I just don’t have the time and patience for that sort of thing. Ubuntu is great at some things, I’ve been tinkering with it for awhile. But IMHO it isn’t ready for the average non-geek user. There is a huge “market” out there for non-Windows, ripe for the taking. Ubuntu is close in many ways.
CN
April 29, 2008 at 12:33 am
Ask her to download and install a font. That one was hellishly difficult last time I tried Ubuntu. Easy in Kubuntu, however.
mathew
April 29, 2008 at 12:37 am
Excellent post!
timmahoney
April 29, 2008 at 12:37 am
Well I think you can expect any hiccups when switching to a new OS, I had some issues with MacOSX when I switched from my windows centric world, but I think the difference is after a couple minutes of screwing around with the Mac I could make it do what I wanted to. I installed Hardy this weekend (first time on Linux) and it really isn’t too bad, I didn’t have too many problems with it, but the key is I can’t just mess around with it and make it work, there are no little explanations here and there and tutorials to guide you through things. You need to use Google.
And yeah it really does annoy me when I know I have something on the Linux machine that can do what I want, but I don’t know what the application name is. I’d agree with the comment that each of the programs should have a descriptive label beside them, like “Gimp (Photoediting)” or something similar to that. Still, I think if someone was FORCED to use Linux for a month they will be able to figure it out by then, the problem is most users, including myself, just want to be able to sit down and know everything and have it all work. Obviously this is not realistic on our part, but when we sit down on the Windows we know, that’s the situation that exists, so it’s hard to pull us into another OS.
Meany
April 29, 2008 at 12:40 am
Put somebody in front of Vista for the first time and he/she will have the same problems. Oh wait, win. doesn’t have Photoshop or Gimp pre-installed on it.
Arpad
April 29, 2008 at 12:41 am
Hey, Make your girl friend use Linux for 90 day (no using windows for anything) then Report back.
I be she will switch back to windows before the 90 days!
Jl
April 29, 2008 at 12:43 am
limewire => frostwire (http://frostwire.com)
zero_himself
April 29, 2008 at 12:43 am
Great post. I love the objectiveness. And I totally agree. Unish operating systems don’t stand a chance in the real world markets because the USER API not the CODE API are so drastically different.
I do have to give it to the ubuntu team though in that they’ve created a wonderful product by comparison. But I can see where you’re going and if Linux wants to seriously campaign against the M$ distros they’ll need to appeal to a seamless USER transition.
In the end average users don’t care about the code or the protocols. On their first dip they’ll want things to act as they always did. Eventually they’ll find all the innovative features and delve into things that make their lives a bit better, but on the surface of it things would be a lot better if there were a “n00b” option or something for the programs run in linux to help transition from windows.
More users == Better product in time
Markie Gman
April 29, 2008 at 12:43 am
For future reference
System -> Help and Support
handband2
April 29, 2008 at 12:44 am
Great article, reminds me of my first time with Ubuntu. But the comments thread is what I live for. The entertainment value alone is fantastic. A few notes, though:
1. It doesn’t matter how user friendly Linux/Windows/OSX is. It’s about tech support, the carbon-based kind. With Windows, I can throw a rock and hit three people who probably know how to solve my problem. Macs are a little harder, but still pretty prevalent. But Linux? Unless you enjoy trolling college comp sci departments, you’re probably out of luck. (It’s an exaggeration, I know. But seriously, if you don’t run Linux, chances are good that you don’t know anyone who does, either)
2. This isn’t about dumbing down your favorite OS. Either Ubuntu wants to be famous and challenge Windows, or it doesn’t. Too many people treat Linux like indie music. Sure, some bands sell out to their labels. But some bands are just make music that appeals to a lot of people. If all you care about is “art”, that’s fine. But be prepared to live in a van down by the river.
Odin's Beard
April 29, 2008 at 12:44 am
Best exmples I have seen of what needs doing to improve usability. pity there isn’t an icicle’s hope in hell of any of them ever being implemented by the “if it was hard to write it should be hard to use” school.
Peter Flynn
April 29, 2008 at 12:45 am
First of all, great article!
I consider myself a pretty tech-savvy guy. I grew up with Dos and Windows, having tried every version. I have also spent time with a Mac, and preferred it for some tasks. I’ve worked in tech support, and I’m often the person my friends turn to when they have Windows problems.
I realize my shortcomings. Though I know how to install all versions of Windows (even Vista), drivers, hardware and software, I’m not much of a programmer. I can play with HTML and even write a little VB, but C still eludes me.
I tried to install a version of linux (I think it was slackware) 5 years ago and failed miserably. Despite spending an entire long weekend on it, I couldn’t get the PC to boot. I told myself I would try again some day.
Eight days ago, I installed Ubuntu 7.1 and I’ve been playing with it all week. I purposefully decided not to read any introductory books on Linux before getting into it. I wanted to see what it would be like for someone new at Linux to give it a try without having to put tons of hours preparing.
It didn’t take long at all to figure out how to Add/Remove Programs – great interface, very simple. I love being able to select multiple programs and have them all install at the same time with a simple click. I played with GIMP and didn’t find it too difficult. I had used Open Office before, and loved that it was already installed.
I didn’t like that I couldn’t play mp3’s right off the bat. I also couldn’t open .rar files. I went back to Add/Remove Programs and I got what I needed. Flash was easy to install (the options seemed intuitive).
I don’t understand the file structure. I’m going to have to look it up tonight. I’ve been putting everything into subfolders of my Home Folder, but I’m not sure if that is the best place for applications. I’m used to Windows where you have a clear OS folder (appropriately named Windows) and an equally clear Program Files folder. A little tour of the system would be really useful.
I tried to install Wine so I could play some of my older Windows games. I still haven’t managed to get anything to work. The Wine website really wasn’t clear. This is not so much a linux issue (certainly not an Ubuntu issue). Still, last night I found myself considering pulling an older computer out the basement so I could install Win98 on it. I’ll try Wine again tonight.
Overall, Ubuntu did a great job at helping me convert to Linux. I’m not going to go back to Windows for my primary PC, but I may have to setup a backup computer for when I just can’t get something to work in Linux. Ubuntu had some fantastic features that Microsoft should incorporate into their next OS. The whole Synaptic Package manager is just awesome.
The next time someone asks me for help with their Windows PC, I’m going to ask them to try Ubuntu. I think they may like it.
Kudos to the thousands of people that developed Linux.
Serge
April 29, 2008 at 12:46 am
Great article! Ubuntu got a lot more work to do for the average user.
mark
April 29, 2008 at 12:48 am
This is a good article, but it makes a dangerous assumption: that everyone is converting from Windows. It would be interesting to see a similar test done the other way (Linux-only user trying Windows for the first time) and even better having two parallel classrooms of non-computer-users learn the first steps: some on Windows and some on Linux. Who learns most and fastest?
Regardless of that, things like labelling the menu just “Transmission” or creating dialogs that are bigger than the screen aren’t excusable.
Hans Persson
April 29, 2008 at 12:49 am
Overall, a very good review. I think the non-technical point of view is often missed in Linux, and Ubuntu is where it is needed most.
Andrew J Younge
April 29, 2008 at 12:50 am
The test has obviously been conducted seriously and it is some nice work.
I just want to point that to be fair it should state in the disclaimer that it does not test at all how user friendly ubuntu 8.04 is, but how windows-like it is.
Especially when you wonder why gimp is not the same as photoshop. Face it or not some people (amongst them me) that have only used gimp are confused by photoshop.
By the way I wonder how Erin got installed photoshop on her windows box. Either she paid 300$, or learned what a torrent is, what mininova is, what a keygen is, and how to open ports in a firewall… I bet my ass she must have been impressed to find an image manipulation program under applications -> graphics out of a raw ubuntu install
Christian
April 29, 2008 at 12:52 am
Today I went to set up a network in a big kindergarten. There were about 20 young female teachers ages 20-30 there. They have been using those computers for over a year but didn’t know how to share files between them.
None of them knew how to install a printer in XP. None of them could install fonts in XP. Only a few knew how to install software , but none knew that Office is something you can install (I guess they never thought about it, they just figured that some computers come with it and some don’t). Most of them mistaken the desktop-shortcut for the actual programme so once the shortcut was gone they figured the programme was gone.
My point is that many average users cant admin their own computers. If it breaks they call help. If it doesn’t play Flash files they will just assume that they computer “can’t”.
So I think Linux can be used by the non-tech savy (my mom uses it ) if its properly tweaked by someone beforehand. In much the same way that most XP computers are preinstalled with drivers ,codecs and PDF-reading software.
There are a lot of things that are easier in Ubuntu – adding Chinese support to an English system, taking a screenshot, updating, change a theme, creating launchers in the panels, switching the displays’ language
Nevertheless , I agree that pidgin is very unfriendly.
Itai Michaelson
April 29, 2008 at 12:53 am
Good points: As I have been wtiting for years, much of the difficulty in Linux is that there are not enough clues for the novice users.
If the programmers would take the time to run their products through the “girlfriend” test and fix the problems before the rest of us get them it would really help. Little things like letting theuser know which menu something installed itself on, letting the user know if they need to relog or not to make the item show up on the menu, and a better or better documented way to get software that was not included in the first round would make people a lot happier.
Tsu Dho Nimh
April 29, 2008 at 1:02 am
I switched my home desktop to Kubuntu shortly after Gutsy Gibbon was released. I have always been a fan of KDE and found it a little more user friendly than Gnome.
My fiance didn’t like it at first, but it seems to have grown on her. She didn’t have many problems with her ordinary task, as we already used Firefox and OpenOffice on Windows.
She definatily enjoys how much faster it is and how she doesn’t have all those bubbles that popup. We do have a WinXP x64 partition, but we only use it for a few games that I couldn’t get working under Wine, and to transfer Music to our LG Chocolates.
JimmyJam
April 29, 2008 at 1:04 am
Make things friendly for people coming from Windows? What if it means copying places where Windows is making huge mistakes? Does everything have to look like Windows to be “user friendly”? Even if buttons start looking nothing like buttons and toggles show the state it will become not the state it is now like every other toggle switch in the real physical world.
Some of the points in the article are fair. It’s a pity Ubuntu didn’t set up flash.
Still, I’ve worked with some truly computer illiterate people before – people who’d never ever used any computer system, people who do not have the years of training becoming accustomed to Windows that some people take for granted.
For these people perhaps the most user friendly mail program is “Pine”. It’s text mode and not pretty, but it’s incredibly easy to use – even if a Windows user would say “Ugh! Give me Outlook!”. I’ve known people used to GMail suddenly be presented with Outlook and just give up on it as unfriendly for them.
Beginner users actually do well with imperative interfaces. The command line is imperative. You tell it to do something and get and answer. Then you tell it to do something else. Conversely windowing interfaces can be incredibly unintuitive.
So what’s user friendly? Copying Windows?
Richard
April 29, 2008 at 1:04 am
Great idea doing this experiment. Even if it’s not a complete test (external drives, other proprietary formats, windows partitions, windows programs, solving actual HW/SW problems etc.), I think it really shows three things.
* Linux is basically pretty much there for everyone (no offense intended against the girlfriend)
* Ubuntu Hardy has been fine tuned on the outside to achieve this even more
* There is *always* a little more that can be done to satisfy each possible scenario. Is OSX perfect? Is any other OS?
Peter
April 29, 2008 at 1:05 am
Great job, I think this is one of the main reasons why Windows is the winner so far.
D
April 29, 2008 at 1:07 am
My experience with OpenOffice.org Draw is that it is a Primarily a Publisher application, rather than a drawing one…
Lexie
April 29, 2008 at 1:11 am
My experience with OpenOffice.org Draw is that it is primarily a Publisher application, rather than a drawing one…
Lexie
April 29, 2008 at 1:11 am
Random thought. Not trolling or anything but this is is very true no matter how deep your head is in the sand.
The reason Linux has NEVER taken off and become the new “cool” thing is because of how hard it is to use.
Wait now Linux nerds, don’t shake you head.
For most people, Linux is very hard to use! command lines? really? in 2008? WHY?
Why not just have it work?
OSX does this and it’s market share has grown a lot.
When people tell me they are sick of windows I tell them to get a mac and I always will until someone takes a diffrent aproace to how humans interact with the linux os at it’s most basic level.
Money is not the issue here. Usability is.
I think it will always be a powerful os but not to normal people. Not to everyday people.
They just want it to work.
I often think of Linux as a F1 car. Windows is a minivan.
AND I think most peoples first exposure to any kind of OS is MS windows based so you need to work from that idea and then use those assumptions.
I don’t know if Linux will ever be anything but a nerds only club.
I love the idea of a open sause OS but so far, I can’t tell my mom for my 16 year old to dump windows or OSX for linux.
Not for what they want to do.
Dajenus
April 29, 2008 at 1:13 am
“scientifically worthless”… Not so friend. It’s a taste of what happens when you set a windows user in front of a linux machine. Your opinion of the conclusions may differ from the authors but it is significant.
The facts are: This is what happens to native windows users who try to use linux. If a Linux distro wants to have greater appeal to Windows users it could do that by simplifying the transition.
Now, whether or not that is a goal is another issue entirely. We’re all entitled to our opinions.
Personally, I believe the more users we get into linux the better. And that making a program or operating system more friendly to linux virgin windows users at the onset would NOT significantly alter the ideology or effectiveness of linux in general. The open source community proves again and again how effective popularity can be in developing a program. More users means more developers, more input, more bugs found, more helpful forum input, more corporate sponsorship etc.
Markie Gman
April 29, 2008 at 1:13 am
This was an interesting test, but it wasn’t an “experiment” – you had no control group.
Windows has many similar usability issues, even though overall I think it’s almost as usable as Ubuntu. For example:
(1) I spent over an hour this weekend helping a friend try to print from her new Vista laptop to the printer connected to her XP desktop. We debugged and googled for far longer than should be necessary, but Vista repeatedly put up “Permission denied” dialogs (even after setting the same user name and password on both). It never worked; she finally gave up and went to cable swapping.
(2) My new work laptop (Dell D630 running XP Pro) reconfigures its video randomly after every redock. Even the second tier help desk can’t explain it.
(3) My laptop also refused to connect to my 802.11n router at home – it asked for my “router serial number”, and when entered responded “configuration failed”. After 3 calls to the help desk, someone finally had the bright idea to disable the Intel wireless connection manager and revert to Windows’. Now it works, but I don’t know why.
My point is not that “Windoze sux” or “Linux rulez”, but rather that complex technology (Windows, Linux or Mac)requires acclimation. “It just works” is a great slogan, but it’s not reality.
(I tried out a Mac at Fry’s a couple of months ago, and couldn’t figure out how to close an application. I still don’t know, actually. Acclimation clearly needed.
However, Erin’s gracious usability testing should provide additional ideas for filing down some of the remaining usability bumps in Ubuntu (and desktop Linux in general).
George F. Rice
April 29, 2008 at 1:19 am
There are a number of posts which are saying it’s not Ubuntu’s fault, it’s Erin’s fault because she is so use to microsoft, but the reality is, Erin is the target market for Ubuntu.
Currently Microsoft has about 85% of the OS market share with 14% going to OS X and 1% going to Linux. Of Linux’s 1% Ubuntu has about half of those users. If Linux wants to make any headway into the Microsoft market share, they need to be able to convert users over. The only way this will happen is if things work in a familiar way. All it takes is a couple of tasks not working as easily as they do on windows and the person switches straight back, and Linux will remain in relative obscurity.
My hat goes off to the Ubuntu developers. They are doing some great work to help Windows users switch over. This is shown through the addition of Wubi in their latest release. Lets hope they can keep going.
yace2
April 29, 2008 at 1:22 am
Very good illustration of the basic problems people encounter with Linux and how to solve them. But…
“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.”
The problem was your girl friend WAS computer literate. She was literate in the ways of Microsoft Windows. It’s far too easy to forget that your computer is just an inanimate hunk of plastic and metal. How would you introduce someone who had never sat down in front of a computer before to Linux, or Windows for that matter? It would be a longer process, but an easier one because they would not have to unlearn anything.
You set out to expose the unnecessary confusion people encounter when they first try Linux but what you uncovered was the absolute most important piece of information they need to understand before they try Linux and that is: Linux is not Windows.
If personal computers had just come on the scene and Linux was the only operating system available, we wouldn’t be having this discussion. It’s not learning Linux, it’s unlearning Windows.
Richard Chapman
April 29, 2008 at 1:23 am
What if you install gnome-do first? Then tell the tester to hit win+space and just start typing what they want. In almost every test she’d be there in just a few keystrokes. Point and click is overrated.
Kurt
April 29, 2008 at 1:29 am
I really liked your article with the exception of this phrase:
“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.”
Every Windows user, not knowing how to do something, would ask someone. That would also happen with Linux.
My father (58 years old) has been using Ubuntu for sometime. He had a Pentium III with 700MHz, 128MB of RAM and 4GB of hard disk space. He never used WinXP so even with WinXP there would be some small learning curve.
This weekend he tried to open a PDF document with some images and the computer didn’t have enough memory and trashed the computer completely.
I decided to give him my Duron 900MHz with 512MB of RAM and 10GB of HD. I installed Ubuntu 8.04 and he’s using Gnome now, instead of XFCE.
Today I’ll completely wipe the HD and ask him, not only to perform similar things like you did to your girlfriend but I’ll also ask him to install Ubuntu on the desktop.
Just for your information, my father doesn’t know what “copy-paste” is, never used Photoshop, Powerpoint or something similar.
Only Paint in Windows 3.1 and Microsoft Word 6.0.
In all the Linux he used he only uses Abiword (no mem to run OpenOffice) and Firefox.
He doesn’t know how to use a file manager, never recorded a CD, never played an audio CD, etc.
It will be funny to do a similar test like you did.
I’ll post a comment again when my “Ubuntu-Father” experience is complete. =)
Henrique Rocha
April 29, 2008 at 1:31 am
[...] קראתי את הפוסט על “ניסוי החברה-אובונטו הגדול“. הפוסט מפרט את ההתמודדות של ארין, בחורה עם ראש על [...]
אנקדוטות » חברה שלי מבינה אובונטו?
April 29, 2008 at 1:35 am
Keep the girl!
Wow, my wife would never go through all of this to test if it works or not. I installed Vista on a machine in our house and all she said was:
“I heard Vista sucks, why the help would you bother wrecking the computer?”
Erin seems nice and nerd-loving
Internet Business Blogger
April 29, 2008 at 1:35 am
To be completely honest, if I did this with my girlfriend, I would be proud of her for breaking up with me. This is an unscientific, humiliating, sexist guinea pig test. The article makes the base assumption that the author’s girlfriend is a “stupid user” simply on the basis of her being a Linux user’s girlfriend. Seriously. What the hell?
thisisntsexistatall
April 29, 2008 at 1:36 am
Properly set up; Ubuntu is easily ready for the “non tech savy girlfriend”
Last year; my fiance was off in college and we did the long distance relationship. She was using Windows XP. I had to painstakingly guide her through 2 different OS reinstalls mainly because of virus’, malware ect. This last fall when she went back to college again; I set up Gusty 7.10 on the box, used the system for 3 days to make sure I got most of the easy items taken care of so she woudl be good to go. At this point in time she has been using gusty for close to 6 months now with no issues whatsoever (well aside from http://www.abc.com won’t let her watch her episodes of the hills”
She does and can do everything on it that she could with windows and so far; no issues whatsoever
Hoard
April 29, 2008 at 1:38 am
I think the article was absolutely spot on. If you raise these issues from forest level to the 1000-ft level, it’s possible to see the overall problem. Fact, Windows, regardless of how one feels about it, has the sheer market share of users; period. Whether other scenarios could be used like introducing new users to Linux, is a nice thought, but it doesn’t reflect the reality of the situation. Almost all new users are introduced to Windows. Even relatively experienced Windows users, such as your girlfriend, are going to have big problems moving to Linux, regardless of distro, if the distro has not made the user experience almost identical to Windows. That’s reality, and it holds regardless of how one feels about Microsoft.
Let’s bump this up a notch. Ever tried to install applications that require a bunch of editing of OS files, such as those under /etc? Have you ever tried to install open source apps to do things like provide a music player, such as VLC, or a video editor like Virtualdub or DVD authoring software or conversion of media formats? The enormous number of unexplained parameters that may or may not need to be set a certain way is nothing less than hideous. Granted, most of these examples are very specialized, and there are easier alternatives. But mercy on the poor user that ever ventures up those creeks.
Doing Linux OS maintenance, such as security patches? Not going to happen with inexperienced users. For one thing, it’s not uncommon to have to set up various sites that have the packages the maintenance apps need to actually do the maintenance. Then, there’s the dependency issues with which to deal. Then can follow more OS-specific file tweaking. No user, except those who really want to learn the guts of Linux, are going to have any chance of doing this. They aren’t interested in it. They don’t want to mess with it. They just want their applications to work, and they don’t want to worry about doing anything to the OS. They don’t even care or know what an OS is, let alone which one it is. And, in my experience, when they hit these kinds of snags, they lose interest very, very fast in changing away from the environment they’ve used that works as they want it to work.
Until, the distro and many of the open source developers finally understand that their code has to be able to run “out of the box” with no more interaction than what is required of Windows, none of this stuff stands any chance of gaining wide acceptance.
You want wide acceptance? Take the geek hat off and start looking at this from the standpoint of most users that know less than nothing about the innards of computer software & hardware. Otherwise, don’t even bother thinking this stuff is anywhere near close enough for the typical user to be talked into switching once they’ve experienced Windows. Argue all you want about how bad Windows is and the user would be fine if they just started with Linux or they’d have the same experience with OSX. The arguing, which has been going on for years and years and years only proves my point.
USSReliant
April 29, 2008 at 1:40 am
Tolchi의 생각…
The Great Ubuntu-Girlfriend Experiment 문제는 여친이 있어야 컴 앞에 앉히기라도 하지……
sheep's me2DAY
April 29, 2008 at 1:42 am
[...] I’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 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 Linux. There are a lot of little things that could be done to make the experience a lot more friendly for non-computer-literate people – some of them easy to implement, others not at all. Read more at Content Consumer [...]
Ubuntu Look » The Great Ubuntu-Girlfriend Experiment
April 29, 2008 at 1:43 am
I think a few Ubuntu users are taking slight offense to this article as a “make it more like windows” approach, and justifying their claims with counter examples of how windows can be very unintuitive to use also.
So should the Ubuntu community as a whole say its ok for their OS to be slightly unintuitive because windows is too? This is basically an admission that you do not care about the development and overall progression of the OS nor the increasing of the user base to make Linux a more recognized and utilized environment.
Firefox is a prime example of how to make a good product that is very similar to its competitor while still retaining a lot of its core individuality. They did this by making it so easy, the every day mum and dad can google it, download it and install it usually without any problems what so ever. It even grabs most of their settings, bookmarks etc to boot just to make the transition all the sweeter.
Ubuntu is supposed to be the windows user friendly Linux alternative, this article is just the tip of the iceberg of issues to address if any actual care bear windows user perception is to be changed. Ideally, Linux wont be a serious contender to Mac OS or Windows, until a mum or dad user can pick up an install disk, set it up and learn how to use it all on their own with limited instructional guidance. (this is for Ubuntu only obviously, as its the kiddy version of Linux.)
*waits for flame from that last comment
*
Brad
April 29, 2008 at 1:46 am
In the Mandrake distribution there
is a “what-do-you-want-to-do” menu.
And in the submenues you can select something like
“watch a movie”
“make a picture”
“write a document”
etc.
So you just have to know what you want to do.
You don’t have to know
a strange name of a application.
This is perfect for new users, and I don’t understand why it is not
standard in all desktop distributions.
Svend
April 29, 2008 at 1:48 am
I don’t know if this has been mentioned yet, but several of these “problems” are things that a first time Windows user would have a hard time with as well. Just because a person is used to Windows doesn’t mean that it was perfectly accessible the first time they sat down to it. Likewise with OS-X.
Also, the “problems” encountered in several of the applications mentioned would be encountered by a Windows user entering the world of OSS (such as not immediately knowing how to set up Pidgin; an issue that anyone new to Pidgin would encounter regardless of what OS they were using).
Then there’s the ever present Google. Can’t figure it out? Somebody probably has, and the answer is waiting online somewhere.
I won’t argue that Linux isn’t technically challenging at times, but I will argue that most people that complain about how hard using Ubuntu is should actually be complaining that they are too lazy to put five minutes into learning something new.
Dan
April 29, 2008 at 1:50 am
As someone else mentioned, alt+drag will let you move a window to get to off-screen bits of it.
Also, GIMP is not designed for new user transition. It is designed for power users. I keep all of my GIMP controls on one monitor and the image itself on another.
Those points out of the way, I want to point out that Kubuntu, the Ubuntu branch that uses KDE instead of Gnome, solves a few of the problems you have covered.
‘Start’ menu items have both a name AND a description in the menu (Krita – Painting and Image Editing, etc), and if you have a real UI newb you can choose to have the description come first (for sorting and searching purposes).
Krita and Inkscape are better for windows converts than GIMP and OOo Draw by a HUGE margin.
sparr
April 29, 2008 at 1:53 am
I would point out that number 9, windows suffers from the same issue nowadays.
The problem lies in that Linux IS NOT Windows. If you think of animals windows is the cow and linux the horse, both eat grass and have 4 legs but thats pretty much where the silimarity ends.
The “problem” IS NOT that Linux is not ready for the desktop, the “problem” IS that windows is sold OEM and has been for the last 13 or so years, so people are condidtioned to it and alot of software is only available on it because of this. A good eg is Apple, they have a pretty good OS but comparing application availablity you will find windows has a lot more choice than Apple.
If Vendors started developing their apps to be cross platform then this would remove 70%+ of the issues of different OSs.
If you got 2 twins and gave each a computer at the same time one with linux and one with windows and never exposed them to the other then you woudl find each would say htat theirs is the most useable and that the other should be more like theres.
The comment about GIMP should be more like photoshop is very naive imo. Thats like saying that a corsa should be more like a jaguar. (Appoligies for implying that GIMP is the corsa). I use the example in the sense that if it was more like a jag then it WOULD BE a jag. You only say that because you & your g/f are used to photoshop. If you were used to the GIMP then you would say that photoshop should be more like it.
All OSs have their own merits, I use windows as my primary OS because all my games work on it. However I also dual boot with Linux and have a linux server in the house.
The only reason people have problems switching OS is because by doing so we remove them from their comfort zone.
Just because you are used to doing something a particular way doesn’t mean that your way is the best way to do it..
Ryan
April 29, 2008 at 1:55 am
[...] some half-assed test of the latest version of Ubuntu this weekend. The writer has put his computer-illiterate girlfriend behind a fresh Ubuntu install, [...]
Deprogramming the members of the Redmond cult : I’m Not Here
April 29, 2008 at 1:57 am
To #17: ” You literally have had to have been phucking around with these things since the 80’s to really understand what’s going on with them and the mentality to use them.”
I don’t really agree with you on that. I’ve been using Windows not Ubuntu for 8 years only & I’m obsessed with computers & rarely do I have trouble with them (presently). I think it depends on the person. Because for me, I think that I had serious difficulties & obstacles which stood in my way throughout those 8 years & which I learned from (I overcame them on my own, rarely did I seek people’s help.), but what made me overcome the problems was my insistence on solving the issue however difficult it was. Of course, I needed hours to solve some “serious ” issues & sometimes it’s just too frustrating but before you know it, you solved the problem after hours of trying. And no, after reading this interesting article and the comments I am now sure that I wouldn’t want to use Ubuntu.. at least not in the next 5 years.
BTW: I’ve never used or heard of Ubuntu before.
Excuse my grammar & sorry if my response is off-topic.
Cheers
Ankaboot
April 29, 2008 at 1:59 am
nice post
http://www.redesignyourbiz.com
RedesignYourBiz.com
April 29, 2008 at 2:00 am
The point of this article is useless. Everybody knows that people who use linux dont have girlfriends.
inhumanbean
April 29, 2008 at 2:02 am
Regarding the resolution issue with it being too small for dialog box to fit — to be fair, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X have the same problem. Lower the resolution to SVGA or VGA and watch all of the limitations show up.
Lucas
April 29, 2008 at 2:10 am
Great post! The comments are even more interesting, it is so funny to see how the fanboys desperately try to prove how your experiment is all wrong
ICT Blog
April 29, 2008 at 2:11 am
Ok, Do this and I bet ubuntu is more usable than windows. Install both windows and ubuntu on seperate machines and update them with patches. Don’t change default screen resolutions, add drivers, etc. Just what the base install provides. See which one is more usable.
I’m tired of people slamming ubuntu because MP3 or Flash isn’t installed out of the box. Both of these install very easily. When is the last time you’ve seen what windows can do right out of the box? It’s not much so flash and MP3 seem trivial compared to the windows problems.
John
April 29, 2008 at 2:12 am
I think that a lot of people have lost the point of Linux, or even Mac OS X and have forgotten one of the key reasons why Windows is starting to fail.
Windows (especially Vista) tries to dictate to the consumer what they can and cannot do with a system. It also tries to automate way too much than it can really handle. Scripts work fine, IF it is used on a computer that meets all the scripts requirements.
I am not saying the same thing doesn’t happen in Linux, because it does. But it is extremely easy to get that dependency for the script to work. Windows just shoots an error with no hint on how to fix it.
The other thing that you have to consider is that people do not like change. Erin is extremely brave to just agree to try and use Ubuntu like that. I know my girlfriend would get frustrated and stop at the 3rd task.
Like many people have already said, it all depends on what you are comfortable with. Unfortunately, there is no way to get the entire world to just stop using Windows. What we need to do is have it be the first OS that our children use. Get them to learn Linux or OS X first. If everyone does that, then 20 years from now, Microsoft will lose footing.
People think that this is some kind of battle that can just be “won”. It’s not that way at all. I have spoken to people who would rather use Vista then even try to use Linux.
Finally, the other thing that is really working against Linux is the support. Ok, fine, us “geeks” know that we can go into an IRC chat room, or on some message board, and get our issue resolved. Your average consumer though, would never do this because they are uncomfortable getting support from basically random people on the Internet.
Consumers crave official, licensed support. They like the ease of calling a phone number, because there is a chance that their issue will get resolved right there. Posting on a forum can take days and sometimes more than a week for someone who is familiar with your issue to respond. And IRC chat… most people do not know about it, and as much as I love FreeNode, the fact that it requires you to register your nick and then requires you verify your identity, would seem as ridiculous to your average computer user.
It’s not Linux that needs to change. It doesn’t need to conform to how Windows does things. What needs to happen is a change in perception as to what computers really are, what they are capable of, and how they do things. Then and only then will we get a massive amount of the current generation to make the switch.
Unr3a1
April 29, 2008 at 2:12 am
“Clearly, Win2k was not ‘unready’ for the desktop when it was first introduced, and even today some still prefer it. So, obviously ‘polish’ is not the defining requirement for desktop readyness.”
As a win2k user for the last 6 years at least I’ll agree with this one. I like 2k much better than XP.
I’ve played with Linux in various distros myself, years ago when I was in high school. I had a dual-boot machine for a while but it had issues so I wiped and went completely over to Debian Linux for a while. It did everything except play music or sounds – I could never get it to recognize my speakers. It also didn’t do internet connections, despite my trying every suggested setting given to me online (luckily my mother’s Win98 computer could handle dial-up, even if it wouldn’t work with mine!).
Linux has come a LONG way since then. My fiance’s grandmother is using Ubuntu now (forget the release, I think it’s Gibbon) and has had no linux-related issues, just ones related to her being unfamiliar with technology (like she doesn’t know how to upload pictures from her digital camera). Then again he set it up for her with most things pre-installed the way she is used to and walked her through finding her programs for email and such. Even installing a fresh copy of windows for someone would lead to issues, I think, when they looked for MSN and their bookmarks folder and found neither one there. I know many people who don’t even know how to get to a website except by clicking a link or using a bookmark – the address bar is a foreign concept. Pre-setting machines to a user’s comfort level isn’t anything new. The difference is that with Windows an average user can usually ask a household member for help (or the neighbor) while with Linux, you have to go look up the documentation yourself, and you better hope that your internet connection works to do so, because paper documentation doesn’t come with a download of Ubuntu, and as far as I know there’s not hotline for technical issues.
Fae
April 29, 2008 at 2:18 am
One comment on the GIMP interface discussion – I was somewhere any noticed someone running a machine with multiple monitors. I was unable to determine the machine, OS or application in use, but they were image editing. They had the image taking up the whole screen on one monitor and had all the tool windows on another, rather than being in the way of the image. I can imagine this is one very good reason to keep the windows separate in an image editing package, although whether the same is possible with GIMP I don’t know (never having owned a machine which supports multiple monitors).
Ed
April 29, 2008 at 2:19 am
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
I got a better idea – how about if it just worked?
Not that I would ever expect that of Linux.
Peter
April 29, 2008 at 2:28 am
To be fair, flash isn’t installed initially in FF or IE in Windows, same with DVD format support. Also a person use not accustomed to Windows would have trouble with a lot of these tasks as well. I’ve seen people who have trouble with the simplest tasks consistently not just the first time. (I have experience at a college help desk). Other than that, yea a lot of things I see as obvious in Linux or even Windows are not that obvious to a novice user. This study was interesting to read. I saw a comment suggesting this could be done with Windows too, I’d love to read that article, and what about Mac OSX?.
coldhandshake
April 29, 2008 at 2:28 am
We were watching a DVD on my girlfriend’s mac book and it locked up, I thought I’d have a go at fixing it since her attempt was to use the “first aid” program and scan the hard disk drive.
I’m a programmer by profession. I used Windows for years and still do at work, I run Gentoo, Debian and Ubuntu and consider myself reasonably well versed in technological issues.
The only way I could find to kill the DVD player was via a bash prompt (thank god OSX is based on BSD eh?) and it drove me nuts that the damn thing has only one mouse button; how am I going to paste the PID now?
I eventually found that she had VLC installed and we used that to watch the rest of the DVD. I don’t know why the Apple DVD player locked up, I don’t know how to kill it. I don’t know why on earth there’s only one mouse button. And I don’t know how to fix the HDD problems the First Aid program found on her brand spanking new mac book.
But at least it’s pretty eh?
Adam Piper
April 29, 2008 at 2:30 am
I suppose no operating system is so easy that anyone can install software and maintain it. Windows has for a long time been something that’s considered “ready for the desktop”, but still I suppose not 80% it’s users can install/configure anything on it. They just ask someone to do it.
The point is, PC comes with Windows preinstalled and preconfigured, bundled with software so people can think Windows is easy (and they can think they can use a computer), though it’s not.
Markus Vuori
April 29, 2008 at 2:33 am
I think you pointing out the most common hurdles for a newbie (linux virgin), nobody is saying we want a Ubuntu to mimic Windows, if an OS want to attract standard users it has to be intuitive as much as it can.
There is a lot of Windows users as me, craving to use any of the many Linux Distros out there, personally I do not have any doubts about the quality of the Open Source software, but something is missing.
Do not miss understand me, it have to be much more easy the transition for the neophyte, until that task is accomplished, the users will continue waiting…
monchester
April 29, 2008 at 2:34 am
All you folks blowing off the experiment because “Linux isn’t Windows” should take a step back. Your attitude is PRECISELY what this experiment highlighted.
Linux developers should either 1) accept that the OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of computer users are familiar with Windows, and accommodate them in some fashion, or 2) publicly and consistently declare “This isn’t Windows, so you won’t be able to use it very much at all until you spend XX hours of your valuable time parsing megabytes of MAN pages and USENET forums. Since you’re a Windows user, we hate you. We’re not going to make it easy for you. Our free OS will cost you WAAAAAAY more in terms of time than Windows ever will in $$. Have a nice day.”
Terry
April 29, 2008 at 2:38 am
Well Done.
dublpaws
April 29, 2008 at 2:39 am
Here is the problem I see with your article. If you took someone who had only ever lightly used a Mac and sat them at a Windows machine, they would be lost, or someone who had ever only lightly used Linux and sat them at a Windows machine, they would be lost as well.
It’s like assuming that someone who has driven a car will know how to drive a motorcycle at the exact same level. It just isn’t going to be that easy. Of course there are going to be some things that are confusing. Linux is not the same as Windows and this whole article is written on the premise that it should be.
Even if took a person who had only ever used a completely pre-configured Windows system, and only used the applications that are on it, and asked them to install a program, without any sort of hint as to how to do it, they wouldn’t have a clue. They wouldn’t know to open a web browser and do a search for a program, then download and run the file. Not a chance, they would be lost. However, if you told them, ok, download a program from such-and-such a website and install it, they likely could. And by that same token, if you had told your girlfriend that if she wanted to install a program the first place she should look is in the package manager, she would likely come away thinking it was the most simple task of all.
My point in all this, is that you took a Windows user, and said, “do things as you would in Windows, and I am not going to help” and this is definitely set up for failure. Had you said “Linux is a little different, and I will point you in the right direction for the areas where it differs” it would have been much smoother sailing.
You can’t put the driver of an automatic transmission car on a motorcycle and assume they will know how to shift gears or even use the gas without at least some assistance.
ken
April 29, 2008 at 2:44 am
[...] Päris asjalik artikkel Ubuntu kasutajasõbralikkuse katsetamisest ühe itimehe sõbrantsi peal. Järeldused on head ning Ubuntu kokkuseadjad võiks neid arvesse võtta. [...]
Jora » Arhiiv » Ubuntu tibitest
April 29, 2008 at 2:52 am
“AMEN!” to #88
H.Kruger
April 29, 2008 at 2:56 am
I installed Ubunto 7.10 at my girl friends computer recently and helped her upgrade to 8.04 last weekend.
Here are a few glitches that took me some time to solve:
- Printing. That was a hard one, as Ubuntu renames the cups config files. (Fax still requires the command line)
- Chinese keyboard. She prefers to read menus in German, but types Chinese from time to time. Setting that up was not supported by default.
- SynCE doesn’t work yet, but she can plug the SD card into her computer
- Openoffice file formats did confuse her, as did MP3 export.
Among the “non-free” issues are:
- GoogleEarth refuses to work after the upgrade
- NVidia accelerated graphics crashes the computer after hibernation
Now, let’s talk about the things that DO work and which won’t make her return to Windows any time soon.
- Security. As a matter of fact she even paid for updates of an anti virus software, but a quick look into the task manager still shows running processes like a.exe, etc.
- Speed. The huge amount of malware certainly slowed down her computer. Thas is gone forever now.
- Safety. No more popups and fishy download dialogs. (Admitted, she could have had that with firefox on Win too)
- Mikrophone. After the onboard sound card defected, Windows refused the second PCI card. (Reinstall Windows could have solved that)
- Wine works in 8.04 for her television program viewer.
- It’s legal.
dadim
April 29, 2008 at 2:56 am
Well done. I liked the way you specified real world tasks, instead of the usual “copy a file from A to B & then rename it to C”.
TC
April 29, 2008 at 2:57 am
I totally agree with Mark’s comment
http://contentconsumer.wordpress.com/2008/04/27/is-ubuntu-useable-enough-for-my-girlfriend/#comment-229
Thanks for the article!
Daniele
April 29, 2008 at 2:58 am
There are some good points about naming conventions and labeling consistency.
However, welcome screens and built-in tutorials are intrusive and annoying to the knowledgeable user.
A computer shouldn’t be designed to tell the user how to operate it. It gets in the way of designing the computer to be useful and efficient. It is more beneficial to provide clear access to operating instructions.
Linux is different. My girlfriend just needed a little time to learn a few new things. She still asks me questions from time to time — but nothing new there; she asks me questions about Windows too.
nutwing
April 29, 2008 at 2:58 am
I really like what you’ve done here. Usability testing like this (with a fresh unbiased novice user) should be done with any new product.
I see a lot of people saying: “Well, we all had to learn Windows (or other OS) at some time to, so its not surprising your girlfriend would have issues with Ubuntu.”
But thats not the point. The point is, if Ubuntu (or any Linux) wants to compete with Windows, it HAS to be better and easier. HAS TO. It should be intuitive and well documented and you shouldnt have to modify system files or edit in a terminal window to configure things. I dont have to do that on Mac. I dont have to do that on Windows.
Look. I love the idea of Linux. I’ve got a big stack of distributions here on my desk and I fool around with them everytime a new revision comes out. I certainly agree that Ubuntu has come a long way and is probably the leader when it comes to “ease of use” of Linux. BUT, it still isnt “desktop ready” (in my opinion). Articles like that that take a novice user and show some of the basic usability problems are great testing functions to give feedback to the next version.
Great job man.
Jason
April 29, 2008 at 2:59 am
[...] Or your girlfriend… 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 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 Linux. There are a lot of little things that could be done to make the experience a lot more friendly for non-computer-literate people – some of them easy to implement, others not at all. [...]
Pirates! Man Your Women! » Blog Archive » Linux for Grandma?
April 29, 2008 at 3:00 am
[...] http://contentconsumer.wordpress.com/2008/04/27/is-ubuntu-useable-enough-for-my-girlfriend/ [...]
Ubuntu a prova di fidanzata? « fox91’s blog
April 29, 2008 at 3:00 am
I see that sh’es holding a bottle. Was this used as inducement to try the test or reward for making it through?
Ted Rolle
April 29, 2008 at 3:07 am
I set up a Windows box for my wife, who had up till then only used Macintosh. Two days later and with frustration seeping from her pores, she demanded it be removed. I installed Ubuntu for her and although she wants a Macintosh again, I don’t hear tirades against the computer.
Her experience suggested two things: one, on a level playing field of newbishness, Ubuntu is easier than windows; and two, a user to a new OS is going to require some hand-holding in the beginning. E.g., I have little doubt that Macintosh’s way of packaging folders into a single icon, or using .dmg is going to confuse just about everybody who has not read of had explained to them what is going on.
I think that the idea of basic video tutorials is spot on. Either that, or a friend who will be available to help with common but different ways of doing things on the new OS.
In my house family support of Ubuntu often is either:
1. Use Synaptic ! or
2. Read the Wiki !
Cheers
Eric
April 29, 2008 at 3:10 am
I don’t think making it “simpler” (i.e. more like windows) is the answer. I feel ububtu is simpler than any other OS on the market, most users make it too hard on themselves trying to use a more difficult method they learned from another OS. I converted a co-worker to ubuntu a couple years ago and once he stopped making it too hard on himself he fell in love with it. Add/Remove programs has 99% of what your looking for it just doesn’t install them by default (nor does windows). There should be some retraining involved or else you’ll run into people running around as root and downloading trojans.
Pete
April 29, 2008 at 3:11 am
Well, what about a boyfriend usability test, you macho.
stephanea
April 29, 2008 at 3:13 am
Hahahah, excellent. =)
Guilherme
April 29, 2008 at 3:14 am
Nicely done posts with a good methodology.
Later, after Ubuntu will pass the girlfriend test, it’ll be time to move on to the parent test.
0ccan
April 29, 2008 at 3:20 am
I think it would be interesting to do a similar test with, say OS X using someone who only ever used Windows, or vice-versa. In other words, it would be interesting to see how Ubuntu stacks up in relation to other OSes for platform switchers.
While I don’t mean to suggest that “Switching to Ubuntu is no worse than switching to OS X or Windows” should be the goal or that this be used as a justification for not making further improvements, it would still be interesting to know.
Meter
April 29, 2008 at 3:20 am
I think this was a great experiment but the premise, however, is not okay.
This is not the correct experiment to see whether a computer illiterate can do what he/she wants to do with little effort, what you are testing here is how easy it is for a Windows user (even if not a power user) to start using Ubuntu.
If you want to compare ease of use in both OSs, you should get two persons which are real computer illiterates (ie, with no previous computer experience in any OS -say, most grandmas perhaps) each in front of a vanilla new install of Ubuntu and Windows.
And then give tasks for them to complete.
I think in that case the results would be very similar…
regards!
Fede
April 29, 2008 at 3:20 am
Sometime last year, my girlfriend’s Gateway laptop with Windows XP Home had died (the charging circuit went out). I set her up on one of my extra Dell laptops with Ubuntu 7.10. She loves using Ubuntu. She does all her homework in OpenOffice.org, browses the web in Firefox, and even enjoys “that cute little penguin” in a lot of the games. We haven’t bothered to get her Gateway repaired, and I doubt we’ll ever use Windows again…
Greg
April 29, 2008 at 3:31 am
Okay, maybe this has been said already, but I don’t really want to read ~190 comments to see. If this HAS been said before, then I apologize and you can remove my comment.
This is with regard to comment #22:
I’ve done several Windows reinstalls for friends and before I turn the return the box to them, I always do little tweaks such as installing Java, Flash, etc.
In fact, when I do this I always get from the person a list of applications to install and a list of things they want to be able to do when they themselves cannot think of a specific application (Playing DVDs for example)
So yes, I think that doing some initial tweaking would have been better for testing then sitting the woman down in front of the PC cold and asking her to do stuff.
Personally, in this day and age, I think your average user would get lost if they had to install say, Java or flash in /Windows/ much less Linux
Chris
April 29, 2008 at 3:43 am
Couldn’t agree more, I have always said that about Linux based OS, it’s a geek toy and pretty much useless for the average Joe Blow user. Bitch as we geeks might about Microsoft but they have improved the user experience to a generally acceptable for an average Joe Blow user. IMO having a near-monopoly by Microsoft for PCs is a good thing for consumers because all consumers care about is that it is easy for them to use. Otherwise, try asking a consumer to pick a version of Linux and install it themselves and you will turn them off so quickly they will simply stop using it. Another example why choice is bad for consumers, take a look at the fragmented mobile phones OS. Yes the consumer has choices because every carrier practically have their own OS, it useless because no company can write software that works across all the different OSes. Hence not enough traction and no mass adoption. So before we knock companies like Microsoft, realize that a monopoly leads to standardization. No, I am not an employee of Microsoft nor affiliated with them in anyway.
Bob Ngu
April 29, 2008 at 3:46 am
@141 erik:
The package manager should probably be advertised better. E.g. an icon on the desktop; though the wording could be tricky. If it said something like “Get Free Software”, people might think it was advertising adware.
“…why you can’t simply run .exe in linux.”
Why *can’t* you simply run .exe in linux? When trying to run a .exe file, Linux should pop up a window saying something like:
“This looks like a Microsoft Windows program. Support for Windows programs in Linux is experimental. Support for this program is reportedly:
Poor or Fair or Good or Excellent or Unknown
Would you like to try to run this program?
Yes; No; More info
[] Don’t ask me again for this program.”
Support level info should automatically be downloaded from the Wine site. “More info” should bring up a help page describing Wine, and mentioning that a virtualized Windows installation might work better.
I understand support for uTorrent is good or Excellent in Wine, so she could have run the program just fine.
Ken
April 29, 2008 at 3:55 am
Okay I did not read all 189 posts but, I bet if you showed her how to do a couple of the harder tasks, if she had to do it again she would have practically zero problems. I remember back in the day figuring all the same things out with windows. Took me forever and then I showed my friends who didn’t have the desire to figure things now they new as well.
I see no difference. And like the one poster said. The preconceived ideas that people have are the killer.
Bondo
April 29, 2008 at 4:00 am
“Fifth Task: Burn an album from my music collection.”
A few others have chimed in, on this, but I didn’t spot anyone with my particular point: I just installed Ubuntu 8.04 on my Wife’s laptop. One of the options that I noticed in the installation process is that you can tell the installer to import all your music and such. Now, I’ll grant you that you have to use the media folders (e.g. My Music) provided by windows, but telling windows that “D:\media” is now your My Music folder isn’t horribly difficult.
My second point is an elaboration on something already said up-thread: Dell, HP, Gateway and all other major hardware distributors understand that users don’t really know what plugins and such they neeed. So these companies pre-install them. Well, those of us who give our friends and family members Linux machines need to understand this too. To make an analogy,
– Ubuntu is akin to Microsoft. All they do is provide the platform for the user.
– Linux geeks are akin to the hardware distributors (Dell, HP, etc). We provide the hardware with all the software pre-loaded for them (including Flash and the like)
– The end users are still the end users and will go to the “hardware distributors” with their troubles. When (the geeks) make the software provider (Ubuntu) do all the software pre-loading and customization, the users come to us and ask why it doesn’t work, we respond, “I don’t know, that’s just Linux.” Which makes the users then believe Linux is the problem when the fact of the matter is, it’s perfectly fine, it just needs to be fine-tuned to the particular users in question.
Alastair
April 29, 2008 at 4:00 am
[...] a funny/cool post over on Content Consumer about a guy who let his girlfriend lose on a copy of Ubuntu 8.04 and asked her to do some basic [...]
Ryan Stewart - Rich Internet Application Mountaineer » Could We Make The Flash Install More User Friendly on Linux?
April 29, 2008 at 4:05 am
Congratulations, you’ve shown that Ubuntu isn’t Windows.
Try having somebody ignorant of the way things work on Windows do the same task on windows and I’m sure you’ll find that things are even harder. Linux distributions shouldn’t pander to Windows converts. They can have their own conventions, so long as they’re for the sake of usability and not just to be different. I’d rather use something that’s harder to learn and easier to use in the long run than something that’s easy to learn and hard to use.
atrophic
April 29, 2008 at 4:14 am
[...] The Great Ubuntu-Girlfriend Experiment [...]
Austoon Daily » The Great Ubuntu-Girlfriend Experiment
April 29, 2008 at 4:17 am
Not a fair test. You took someone that only knows one thing and I am sure it took her time to learn windows and how to download, how to find things, how to install properly etc. she wasn’t born with that knowledge, someone had to show her at least once.
To be fair have her do the same things on a MAC or take someone who has only ever used a MAC and have them do all those things on Windows.
I have converted 3 people in my office to Ubuntu after using windows their entire lives because they had older hardware and were tired of all the viruses they were getting.
In each case I set up the systems with the stuff they use all the time (which is what vendors like Dell do with windows machines) showed them how to install extra software using synaptic. showed them how to find things in the menus.
In every case they are happy as pigs in shit and don’t miss windows at all. One guy, who is probably the most computer stupid even has even downloaded a couple of command line scripts on his own and after I showed him once what to do has been happily using the command line for those and some other scripts he found on his own.
Bart Burroughs
April 29, 2008 at 4:24 am
+1
Brilliant article and I hope the developers at Ubuntu hear it OVER and OVER AGAIN!
Cheers!
Rudolf
April 29, 2008 at 4:25 am
I was under the impression that Ubuntu was supposed to be a version of linux that was easy to use and ment to entise people from other another os (like 90% windows) to switch to Linux. I know that windows is also complicated to use sometimes, but most people use windows and are used to it. I’m not saying that linux should be like windows. I just think that the migration from windows should be a major concern if they are trying to gain marketshare. I’m probaly wrong about my assumptions of the intention of Ubuntu so please forgive my ignorance.
BTW great article.
Justin
April 29, 2008 at 4:28 am
An interesting read. I think the one task you didn’t cover was hardware. You should have had her try printing or making a call with Skype. Maybe you’ll get lucky and your sound, graphics, and printer all support Linux. But more likely is you’ll find yourself searching through help forums for some obscure package to load or script to run to get your existing hardware to work, only hours later finding that you can’t get it to or your hardware isn’t supported.
Average users don’t want to work this hard on their OS. They want to use the applications running on top. Until they can get more or less ubiquitous hardware support for Linux ‘out of the box’, it’s unlikely to cross over into mainstream.
Dan
April 29, 2008 at 4:33 am
Great article. One idea to deal with the issue of the help bubbles scaring off the more geeky users would to have an install option that is by default set to display or not display those bubbles.
Austin
April 29, 2008 at 4:38 am
I would suggest installing flash from http://markusthielmann.com/blog/defusing_one_most_annoying_bugs_ubuntu_hardy_heron_stop_flash_killing_firefox
as it will prevent any crashes from firefox.
http://digg.com/linux_unix/Ubuntu_Hardy_Stop_Flash_from_killing_Firefox
mikal
April 29, 2008 at 4:38 am
I like these kinds of articles, but the issue is always that problems arise when a new system is unfamiliar to an understood system (IE: Names of apps, or filesystems, etc).
Fundamentally, I feel that if you took someone who only knew linux and asked them to do these tasks on windows, they may have trouble too.
Some things are easier (plugins, more .exes. available to just install stuff (we know this is a security issue, but basic users don’t care)), but they would be new and different to someone who had not used them.
Personal comment. How on earth can you even bring up photoshop in an article about regular users? Talk about a brutal piece of software.
TuxLives
April 29, 2008 at 4:38 am
[...] an interesting experiment. Take a novice user, place them in front of a Linux distro (in this case Ubuntu Hardy Heron), and [...]
Hardware 2.0 mobile edition
April 29, 2008 at 4:40 am
This is an ace article, and it reveals lots of problems someone will have to solve.
I teach at a university, and I’m pushing for open source stuff because of cost and security. But I had doubts about ease of use, and this article confirmed them. I can’t put students through this.
OK, Windows is just as bad – worse in some ways – but they’re used to Windows, and so are our support staff. Linux has to be better. Until it is, it will be geeks only.
nk1
April 29, 2008 at 4:42 am
“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.”
Someone who’s computer illiterate can’t sit down at a Windows machine and do what they want to do.
I really wish people would give up on the idea of making a general-purpose user interface as easy to use as a damn toaster. It’s not gonna happen. If you want Uncle Jim Bob to be able to watch YouTube videos with no instruction on how to use a computer, you need a radically different user interface. Likely, it won’t be an interface that anyone who’s computer literate will want to use.
Josh in California
April 29, 2008 at 4:47 am
BRAVO!!! Excellent article!
TWo items I’d like to comment on in your article, and then a bit
about my own experience with Ubuntu…
1) First to everyone griping about “these aren’t Ubuntu/Linux
problems, these are the problems of a user that’s new to the OS”.
This is true, but check out this direct quote from the article:
“I was interested to see how far Linux had come since then in
terms of being used easily by the mainstream.”
Now, I don’t know the exact numbers, but I think Windows has not
just a majority of the OS market, but the MAJOR majority of the OS
market. Therefore, a Windows user is THE mainstream user, and
should be considered if Linux wants to bring its distros to that
mainstream market. I’m not saying Windows is “better” at all, I’m
just saying that it is the standard.
Now the #1 standard thing about Windows, and in my opinion, one of
the things that does actually make it “easier” (IMHO) is the GUI.
These other commenters got right on that point, and how it affects
Linux adoption:
Post 117:
“Windows users do not understand Command Line requirements. When
Linux is 100 per cent GUI then it will be ready for non-geeks.”
Post 163:
“The truth of the matter is that Windows has the bulk of the
market share. If Linux is going to grow quickly it will need
Windows users to migrate to Linux. This will require that some of
the things that Windows does will need to be mimicked on Linux”
Post 183:
“I’ve always said that the biggest problem with linux is that it
despite its graphical interface, it still relies almost entirely
on the command line to do installations and updates or anything
remotely technical. Average users don’t know how to do that, and
savvy users like my self think life is too short to google ‘how to
install flash on linux’.”
…now off to my second comment…
2) For the love of God, please do not add an annoying desktop
pop-up for everything that Ubuntu does. That feature drives me
absolutely batty in Windows. I LOVE how clean the Ubuntu desktop
is by default, and how installed programs are automatically placed
in the correct category in the program menu. Other posters are
correct in stating that given a week or less of use (I would guess
only a day or two), a new Ubuntu user will find out where things
are and where they will eventually show up.
All those little helper pop-ups are nice for the first five
minutes that a novice user is being introduced to Windows, but
after a week, they are nothing but annoying. Microsoft would do
their customers a favor by adding a little checkbox at the bottom
of those windows: “I know what I’m doing already, leave me the
#@#$# alone.” That would be my favorite feature EVER.
… This post is actually getting a bit long, so I split my own
Ubuntu experience off as a second post…
FatRichie
April 29, 2008 at 4:51 am
@6 Jonathan – you’re completely wrong and illustrate exactly what this blog post is about. Have you ever heard of Apple’s OS X? They idiot-proofed BSD and now it’s a genuine competitor to Windows (at least to Windows Vista).
cinco
April 29, 2008 at 4:52 am
kinda what i went trough when i went from win98 to macos…
computer illiterates that decide to switch usually have a bit more motivation to google up some questions, bud indeed all linux distro aimed at the general public should start implementing one of those guided tour like in XP
Zak
April 29, 2008 at 4:55 am
[...] que eu descobri hoje foi um método novo de profetizar isto. Um individuo decidiu testar a namorada com ubuntu. Assim conseguiu várias coisas: entreter-se, passar a palavra sobre o opensource e linux, ver o [...]
Blog dos #abandon@dos » Blog Archive » Ensinar linux às FCs
April 29, 2008 at 5:05 am
[...] system until the average user can comfortably use it. The Content Consumer checks it out in the The Great Ubuntu-Girlfriend Experiment: I’ve toyed with Linux since 2002, when I first installed Mandrake. With the latest release of [...]
Introducing Linux to new users: The Great Ubuntu-Girlfriend Experiment | Cool Tech Reviews
April 29, 2008 at 5:05 am
All this just goes to prove your girlfriend is an idiot.
TurkBack
April 29, 2008 at 5:11 am
That was a great read, thanks for that.
Paul
April 29, 2008 at 5:16 am
I sent had my mother (a 56-year-old grandmother) download, burn, and install Ubuntu by herself. She was fairly successful. She uses it on her laptop and seems pretty happy.
http://hexmode.com/493342.html
Which isn’t to say that it went off without a hitch. But I think it works fairly well.
Mark A Hershberger
April 29, 2008 at 5:20 am
You have a number of valuable points there. Linux really needs to merge its different package formats into a single one. Also, I’m all for putting little information pop-ups and guided wizards everywhere to help out newbies, as long as it’s also possible to turn them all off with a single system setting. I don’t much like when I can’t get rid of “user-friendliness”.
It seems to me, however, that some points are a bit unfair. There’s a certain point in adapting to the market leader, sure, but if the goal is to behave exactly like Windows, Photoshop and MSN you might as well run those programs. Unintuitive or unhelpful behaviour is quite another thing, and should be squashed whenever found.
Magnus
April 29, 2008 at 5:27 am
I had #9 happen to me, and I think I somehow tabbed out of it as well. I am a serious computer user although a major linux newb. I remember thinking that whoever programmed the dialog box so that it could have the ‘ok’ button off the screen hated me. He/she hated me the same way m$ does when they make crappy UI decisions.
#9 is a killer for some people. That will leave them tearing their hair out beating their computer with a 10lb hammer.
Otherwise, I think linux is pretty awesome. Once it’s working, it tends to stay that way and its free.
zug
April 29, 2008 at 5:28 am
Interesting test and discussion. I mainly use WinXP and Vista, but have a dual boot machine and just upgraded to the latest Ubuntu (which should allow an upgrade from the standard desktop CD, but that’s another conversation).
Point well taken on menu choices that have only the program name, not a description of what the app does.
There’s a (geeky?) tradition in the *nix world to give programs whimsical names, though certainly not all Windows or Mac programs are intuitively named either (Excel? Safari?). After a while one gets used to the name. In the meantime, though, is there a way to manually edit the names that appear on the menu?
ArtMan
April 29, 2008 at 5:29 am
Excellent article. I think you’ve really hit on why Linux isn’t ready for prime-time. While Ubuntu continues to make HUGE strides in usability, the fact that you need to use the terminal AT ALL limits the audience significantly.
Velkymx
April 29, 2008 at 5:30 am
Excellent review and test. Good for someone to take the step and do this kind of test.
My father has been using computers for some years now, but is not an expert. He tryed Ubuntu some months ago and have some of the issues pointed in this review. For example, he bought a Linux Magazine with CD and was unable to install many of the programs since they were .tar.gz, and AFAIK no distribution provides an easy method to do that. Linux hackers (and companies) should start working together like in other open source projects and come to an standard way of installing software (command line/gui) even if the backend is different (.deb,.rpm,etc)
Mario Vazquez
April 29, 2008 at 5:31 am
Thanks so much for taking the time to do this test. It’s the only real way to test the potential for Linux systems to become more than a niche activity. I’ve worked on Ubuntu since Dapper Drake, and I not only find it does everything I need, but I also kind of enjoy the tweaking. Maybe this is the main problem. I am, like the vast majority of Linux users, am a bit of a geek (as my wife knows too, too well). I wonder if distrowatch or any Linux magazines have every surveyed the gender of their users (or even the age – I’d guess, male and mid twenties to early forties). That’s a huge gap in the market that some bright spark is going to plug. Fembuntu or Greybuntu anyone???
Andrew Missingham
April 29, 2008 at 5:34 am
I just installed HH last weekend. I am a noob as far as LINUX is concerned; although I have been working as a computer professional since 1984 and have used things like CPM, DOS, and Windows in the past (not to mention Corporate software apps and platforms). I started using the WEB in the days of Mosaic. So, I was new to LINUX but not totally ignorant of PC things in general.
My experience:
- Was able to use the live boot easily
- Was able to set up the dual boot with WinXP easily
- Ubuntu could not recognize my wireless card on either my laptop or my wife’s laptop (both Compaq). I had to switch to ethernet – which worked. Then I got a pop-up message telling me to upgrade my wireless router firmware. I did this (point and click only) and then my wireless worked.
- However I have had a hell of a time getting the settings to work with a hard-coded IP address (I have multiple machines and NAT on the router). I really haven’t gotten this to work yet.
- I had the same problem with the flash plug-in on firefox. I was able to get the plug-in to load using point and click only, but I think I kinda got lucky (after reading more about this in the article – I really didn’t know what I was doing).
- I didn’t like the multimedia software that was included with Ubuntu, but I was able to download and install VLC with no problems
- Overall it certainly hasn’t been totally simple – but then again last time my hard drive crashed and I had to reinstall WinXP it took my about 3 – 4 hours to get all the software loaded and configured. So all in all I think Ubuntu as easy to install as Windows. But most people don’t actually install Windows, they get it pre-loaded on their PC. So for non-technical folks they really need to have access to someone who knows has at least some technical skill or else they will only be able to do very simple things.
BobOran
April 29, 2008 at 5:39 am
Extraordinarily well done.
This is why people use Windows rather than Linux; Microsoft actually do these kind of tests before releasing an OS.
Kudos!
name
April 29, 2008 at 5:41 am
…oh, and nice girlfriend
~.
name
April 29, 2008 at 5:42 am
(also, what’s the idea behind the smiley at the bottom? funny..)
name
April 29, 2008 at 5:43 am
Very good article. Your girlfriend is obviously more computer literate than average – so Ubuntu clearly still has a way to go to make it usable for average users. I studied usability and it constantly amazes me how basic usability is lacking in most open source programs such as Gimp. I think every open source programmer should do an experiment like yours at least once. It is amazing how exceedingly rare usability talent is in comparison to the abundance of programming talent. Why is that?
Frank
April 29, 2008 at 5:50 am
It’s good of you posting this and pointing the weak spots of Ubuntu. There are some great ideas to impelemnt *thumbs up*
Sergei Sergejev
April 29, 2008 at 5:51 am
This is a bogus test. Your conclusions are far from being either interesting or useful. Ubuntu is crap. YOU LIKE MANY OTHER BLOGGERS HAVE ONE PROBLEM:
YOU LIKE BEING A FANBOY.
Enjoy your immense stupidity.
zedman
April 29, 2008 at 5:53 am
To those who are defending Linux usability – that it should always be a learning experience – that is not the right approach. Take the example of a well-designed TV remote or mobile phone (e.g. iPhone) – in most cases you can use it straight away without a ‘learning curve’. That should be the aim – it shouldn’t be assumed that one needs to be taught and trained before being able to use a computer.
Frank
April 29, 2008 at 5:53 am
Great experiment. Really points out the little things that can’t allow to proclaim Linux ready for the desktop yet.
Yogiz
April 29, 2008 at 5:54 am
Great article! My gf would kill me after the third or so task
Tim Stoop
April 29, 2008 at 5:55 am
To the folks who want Gimp to work like PhotoShop, unfortunately the arrangement and presentation of the PhotoShop menus and palettes is protected by software patents.
Tommy
April 29, 2008 at 5:57 am
Hello,
Interesting test, and very useful in a sense, but you forget one important thing. Linux/Ubuntu is not windows, does not intend to be windows, and will never be windows. In my opinion Ubuntu is to much like windows, because it looks like windows, and people assume it will be the same, and they are confused if it is not. Some things will be different, and that is good. If you want a drop-in replacement for windows and every application it has, just use windows. If you just want to get things done, you will need to learn how to do that. Just as you did when you started with windows. Your article was one that took windows, and checked what was different with ubuntu. Your test would have been better if you would have taken your grandmother in stead of your girlfriend and let her compare ubuntu with windows… (taken that your grandmother does not know anything about computers…;-)). So I totally agree with comment number 188
.
Dirk
April 29, 2008 at 5:57 am
Good Experiment. I repeat a few points that have already been said:
The Ubuntu user base comes first.
If you want something better than windows, it will take some effort on the user’s part. The more the user knows the more secure/capable they are. No pain no gain.
Ubuntu (and windows) programers already thought of the solution to ambiguous program names problem. Hover the pointer over one and a *magical* description appears!
Roberto
April 29, 2008 at 5:59 am
Here’s the reason PhotoShop SHOULD have toolbars scattered as well, like GIMP:
Working on a dual monitor system, it is very handy to have the image full screen on one monitor, to get the most out of the resolution, and have the tools on the other
kvantum
April 29, 2008 at 6:02 am
Interesting test. In Linux’s (and your girlfriend’s) defense, I think we need to recognize that some of her problems were just due to the fact that applications have different names and things may need to be done in a different way on Linux than in Windows. It’s not necessarily worse or less intuitive, just different. The goal for linux shouldn’t be for everything to work in exactly the same way as it does in Windows.
When I switched to a Mac at home, my wife got very frustrated with the Mac at first, simply because the way she knew how to do things in Windows didn’t work anymore on a mac. Sometimes it takes some time to realize that a different operating system, while different, can be just as easy to use as windows.
If you would have done the same test with a mac (assuming that she’s not familiar with MacOS) you might have seen her run into some of the same issues.
People tend to forget that it took them several years to learn everything they know now about windows. It’s not reasonable to expect that when you switch to any other operating system, you’re not going to need a little time to figure out how things work there.
That said, Linux definitely has some areas that need more work. Installing the flash player in a browser could be made much easier.
Peter
April 29, 2008 at 6:09 am
Some people are getting stuck on use of words, that the article confuses people who is computer illiterate with people who are used with Windows XP/Vista. That may be true, but it’s a fact that the great majority of computer users are actually using Microsoft’s operating systems. So yes, most people are used to Windows. Does that mean that for a user to switch to *nix, they have to relearn the basics? Why would they want to do that, when Windows is sufficient for most people? If the community has that kind of attitude, then Ubuntu and other Linux distributions are doomed to stay with the geeky masses.
Wall
April 29, 2008 at 6:14 am
Nice article.
It reminds me to when I found myself for the first time in front of a computer where a black screen was waiting for input commands. When you find yourself in front of something new you are quite forced to do a little bit of research, the same way they did the first time they got in front of a Windows PC. Yes, it is easier under Windows, but it does not take a hell of an effort to understand basic Linux maintenance in the same way an average Windows user does; it’s just something different where new names, procedures and conventions come to play. If you put someone who’s never used a PC before in front of a Linux based PC he/she will end up getting used to it the same way I had to learn how to work under DOS.
Windows is like a modern car. You are not really driving anymore nowadays …. breaking control, steering control, automatic shifting, etc, that makes driving easier, but thats not really the basic essence of driving, like getting your hands on a car without all that with plenty of horse power. Some people don’t need/want to go through that, but those who dare usually end up delighted with the experience after some scary initial control moments.
People nowadays want to live very comfortable and expect many things to have been chewed up for them in advance to just sit down, press a button, and if nothing comes up on the screen they are are already complaining to customer services.
It’s taken mankind a couple of million of years to be able to stand on their feet and only two centuries to sit down again complaining about an overcrowded subway where they had to stand for half an hour because there was no place left to settle their lazy bottoms.
The article shows very well what migrating from one architecture to other involves, learning to understand it, because ending up confused is just plain ignorance, and that issue will trigger what is needed for you to get your hands on it with a little effort, or just give up because you feel like you are wasting your precious time. I’m not saying Windows is for dumb people, it’s just another way of doing things, like the driving example I’ve mentioned. For more in-depth comparisons there are plenty of flame-wars based posts for you to enjoy
Regards.
johncp
April 29, 2008 at 6:19 am
@ guma: I’m a translator… and I’m a geek
leorockway
April 29, 2008 at 6:41 am
Excellent experiment although there are a few problems. If you wanted the experiment to go better or for Ubuntu to get easier, you should have had her use Linux Mint. It’s to Ubuntu what PCLinuxOS is to Mandriva. One other thing. GIMP is the way it is because the developers knew that many people don’t need to full Photoshop setup, hence the multiple windows (panels, modules,etc…).
Soul_Est
April 29, 2008 at 6:57 am
I think It’s just SO stupid to talk about how a system should be only because a silly user doesn’t know how to read a manual or a howto.
Computers are hard to use, so Operating Systems are.
Get a fucking brain and learn at leas how to use a so simplistic desktop like Gnome … Oh, and don’t try with a woman, they’re dumb.
Stupid Review
April 29, 2008 at 7:07 am
To be fair, my grandparents have just as much trouble running Windows XP.
Tyler
April 29, 2008 at 7:10 am
I’ve missed something somewhere – I’m running an elderly Gnome 2.16 desktop, and the Applications menu entries are conveniently short (including Transmission). But if I hold the mouse pointer over the name, the tooltip shows up. eg:”Bittorrent client”. The Open Office menu entries have long, multi-line tooltip entries. Isn’t this feature generally available?
And WindowsLinux confusion works the other way; I haven’t used Windows much since Windows 3.1, and get really baffled when I try to use my sister’s XP; I sometimes can’t even find where its put a file I created, and the lack of file extensions doesn’t help (yes, that’s configurable, but it’s not my machine). However, my sister finds it entirely straightforward.
However, Linux does have some way to go; I generally find installing printers via CUPS a real nightmare, and well beyond anything any reasonable end user should have to undertake. However, there may well be distributions with tools that simplify this; I’m not really interested in experimenting with different installations.
cwr
April 29, 2008 at 7:10 am
Quick fixes dude, seems the problem is not your girlfriend, but YOU didn’t configure an app for each task:
first:
Install Linuxmint (it has codecs and flash)
second:
Gimp replaced with Krita
Pidgin replaced with emesene
third:
resolution fix:
hold down alt in a window now you can move it anywhere no matter what resolution.
fourth:
are you sure you’ve been using linux since 2002?….
i only have 4 months and i know all this..
fifth:
make it prettier, install “Avant window navigator” (in add/remove or synaptic)
sixth:
i would like you to make a review of gOS space. It was clearly made for Girls and myspace users
http://dev.thinkgos.com/
manny
April 29, 2008 at 7:10 am
I wonder how she would have faired trying to burn a CD in windows using a music library stored on your linux partition. Interactions with other OS’s filesystems are always hard, and they’re harder in Windows than linux. A complete switch (no NTFS on board) would be a better test.
Disregarding the OS differences, sharing large file sets between two systems is not easy even with two windows machines (I had to watch my brother try that last week, and correct many things when he was done).
I think maybe your knowledge of how the system worked complicated the test. How many non-techy switchers are gonna dual boot and expect files to be available in both places? How many non-techy switchers will know what dual boot means?
Ben
April 29, 2008 at 7:10 am
nice article ! i did similar test too
and my girlfriends expierience was not better at all 
ubuntu is on right track, but still lots has to be done! cheers
Greg
April 29, 2008 at 7:13 am
Linux Mint FTW
Linux Mint is basically Ubuntu but with Flash, Java, DVD & media codecs installed out of the box. It would have made several of these tasks much simpler.
Mark
April 29, 2008 at 7:19 am
Yea but can she use windows without help?
Max
April 29, 2008 at 7:21 am
Windows is windows, OS X is OS X and linux is linux. If a user wants to learn something new.. they should go and learn it. If you have no desire to go out and learn it then say with what your comfortable with. Every OS is different.. Linux is my choice because there are many distributions to chose from and its free..
As a side note, I would rather it be that Windows users stay as windows users. If your not going to take the time to learn it don’t use it. example [ I don't use nor am I a big fan of Novell. Now thats not to say I'm oblivious to it. I just don't use it. Yet if the time comes that I have to use it... then so be it I will learn it.. not too soon I hope
] — Just my opinion
Oh.. it was still a nice article though..
–E
epsalon135
April 29, 2008 at 7:21 am
The funny thing is that I’ve had essentially all the same problems, but I’m a 20-year veteran programmer and Windows user. It never really gets easier.
Even the simple stuff is frustrating. Just where the heck did it just put that file? –because the user interface gives me no frikken idea. Exactly the same Flash problem, and the forum mumbles something about installation bugs. Somehow I crashed through and installed Flash–I have no idea how. I managed to damage my NTFS file system. About half the apps I’ve tried just crash. And on it goes.
All this is just basic usability. Doesn’t anyone just look at this stuff or give it any thought at all?
But here’s the kicker. Compared to the alternatives, Ubuntu still looks pretty terrific.
Windows is smoother in some ways, but then I’ve had 20 years to bang my head on it. Let’s face it, the computer industry has screwed up royally. 
VanillaMozilla
April 29, 2008 at 7:21 am
I did the same thing with my wife some time ago. I installed an Ubuntu box (I think it was Dapper at the time). I even tweaked the system a lot. But not only she did a lot of trouble using it, but she simply lost interest in it (she is much less tech savvy than Erin here).
Then I bought a Mac Mini, from there on, she not only had less trouble but the more polished overall look of the environment made her feel more ‘confortable’ and motivated to try a bit more.
I am sorry, but in overall ‘looks’, OS X still is king. Gnome is just plain ugly, while Windows is just plain ‘flat’ and boring.
It is the old wrapping issue: it doesn’t matter at all if the product is good in the inside if the wrappings don’t communicate that. If I don’t like the wrapping I won’t buy the product, period. And it is more so for noobies.
I don’t matter using a GUI-less OS for work, but I would definitely not be motivated to do so unless I am paid to do so.
AkitaOnRails
April 29, 2008 at 7:25 am
Absolutely brilliant article.
It’s these little annoyances that make switching from Windows to Linux so difficult. We already have the major software in place, we just need to clean up and polish the GUI. The vast majority of people look at computers as tools equivalent to refrigerators or lawn mowers. They should not have to Google their way around these simple tasks.
akkibaba
April 29, 2008 at 7:33 am
I’ve just gotta follow up my comment. I DO hope you are in a position to do something about all this. Please tell me there is someone listening. You’ve filed bug reports–right? Or you’ve got Gnome/Linux people studying your words–right? (Ha-ha)
About the problem when changing the resolution, I have to say that EXACTLY THE SAME FRIKKIN THING HAPPENED TO ME WITH WINDOWS! I was really sweating it out.
Oh, just one more thing. I sure wouldn’t say that Linux is particularly expensive getting it to work. I can’t begin to tell you how many countless hours I’ve spent trying to keep Windows secure and get stuff to work–and my needs are VERY simple.
VanillaMozilla
April 29, 2008 at 7:34 am
I see two issues that have and continue to plague the whole linux desktop movement. The first, is the unnecessary level of complexity necessary for the user experience, and secondly, the resources available for help with linux are seriously lacking.
If I have a problem with my Windows PC, I can ask one of my co-workers or the IT PC tech and he will help me out. I can go to Best Buy and ask the Geek $quad if I’m willing to pay. If the problem is with an application I can call the vendor.
With OS X, take me to the Apple genius bar or a coffee shop.
With Linux, text files, howtos, IRC channels (the CB radio of the Internet), forum posts, all self-serve. I have yet to find the phone number for the BASH tech support line.
The guy earlier said “Linux is free if your time is worthless”, and he hit the nail on the head with this one.
What this all boils down to is what level of complexity do users have to experience in using an operating system and associated programs.
OS X has done an excellent job at reducing the complexity of interacting with the OS. Vista has improved in some areas over XP, and fallen behind in others.
What you see in OS X and Windows is consistency with the installation of new applications. Linux app installation in general is more complex than either Windows or OS X because there are more variables to account for, such as…
Which distribution are you using? Which package manager are you using? Is it tar.gz’d? Do I have to use a command window to install it?
Windows is “Click the EXE, next, next, finish”, or perhaps open the ZIP file first, opened by the OS automatically. OS X just requires that you drag the app into the Applications area.
My Ubuntu 8.04 experience has not been a nice one. I have a brand new high-end computer with common but new parts, and Ubuntu won’t boot when installed in my computer.
Vista’s installation was a dream come true.
Dude
April 29, 2008 at 7:37 am
Keep in mind that I am a giant n00b when it comes to Linux. After reading about easy Linux had become to use for a year, and how Dell was going to some of their PC’s with Ubuntu, I thought it was time to try my own install of Gutsy Gibbon.
I would rate myself as an expert PC user, with just about all variants of Windows for the last 20 years anyway.
As I started writing about this install, I found it was turning into a massive essay. So, I think I’ll just list the hightlights…
Install: The installer ROCKED. I chose automatic everything, and just let it rip. It blew my socks off. Seriously… I still have not found my socks. I was quick, it was easy, and all of my hardware seemed present and accounted for.
GUI: Clean and intuitive. I jumped in installed all pending updates and started using apps. Firefox of course was a piece of cake (I almost exclusively use IE, but despite the fanboyism out there between IE and Firefox, for Joe Internet Browser, they do the same thing). I was flying through GIMP easily (I’d been using GIMP for a few months in my attempt to wean myself from Photoshop, which I BORROWED from good ol’ Uncle Bittorrent.) Email was up and running in Thunderbird in no time at all — config was was intuitive to this lifetime Outlook/Outlook Express user. I even browsed out to my Windows shares on my workgroup with no problems, and had my shared music and videos going in VLC in no time.
Problems: I could not get my screen resolution to change from 800×600. Then later I tried to install a (supported) scanner.
Again and again, I’ve heard people talk about how robust the Linux (and specifically Ubuntu) forum community is. The problem, despite there being so many people willing to offer the answer to problems, there are VERY few people willing to take the time explain how they implemented that answer. Telling me to edit “Display” subsection in xorg.conf to fix my resolution problem would actually be helpful IF I knew where xorg.conf is located. Further research told me I needed to know how to use “sudo”, how to use “nano” and where to find Terminal.
Those Ubuntu veterans out there are probably going, “Well, DUH!”. And I certainly concede that point. “DUH, indeed sir!”, I would reply. I obviously have to learn a bit about the OS I’m trying to configure.
My point is this: Windows users have been conditioned since Windows 95 to point, click, configure and be done. And yes, Mac users, you guys have been doing that for another ten plus years. Props to you and the revolution you started… now go right-click on something.
Now, I wasn’t saying that having to type a command is better or worse than strictly using a mouse, but I am saying that if the Ubuntu/Linux development community wants to gain Windows converts, they NEED to provide a more robust GUI. Novice windows users are deathly afraid of using a keyboard. Any fix that requires editing the Windows registry is pretty much a call to Geek Squad.
Summary: I love Ubuntu for what it is. And right now, it is a hobby OS for me. It actually works for most of what I need out of computer, other than running specific programs, or using specific hardware. As long as I can use a Microsoft-alternative application, and as long as I only order hardware that states it has Linux drivers, I’m fine. But it’s that 1% of programs or 1% of software that won’t run that is a deal breaker (and I feel I’m being very generous saying only ONE percent).
“I NEED Microsoft Office to run on this computer for work.” — ummm… well…
“I just bought this no-name MP3 player and want to install it.” — good luck!
I would just never recommend giving Ubuntu to a novice user that I know, because I will be the one getting the calls to fix their problems. Until I am proficient with the OS, I am not willing to spend hours and hours trying to fix their problem. Especially important to me is the fact that changing the resolution of their desktop or installing USB connected hardware should not require “fixes” on my part.
I can still hear plenty of readers saying, “well the problem is STILL the fact that you or your novice friend/customers are learning an new OS — this is not necessarily an Ubuntu problem.” This is mostly correct. My point of contention is that in Windows, I’ve become very dependent on the GUI. If I can find the device/program/window I’m looking for, then I want a right-click and Properties to give me access to everything I need to know or configure. I have that same expectation in Ubuntu. If you give me a GUI, I expect it to be a true INTERFACE, not just a skin. (and believe me, when I run into worthless dead ends like that in Windows, I’m screaming profanities about the developer that made that application/driver/window as well.)
Once Terminal is relegated to the minimal role that Command Prompt has been given in Windows, then Linux will truly be ready for the desktop.
FatRichie
April 29, 2008 at 7:38 am
Let