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 :).
Jim March
27 Apr 08 at 9:50 pm
regarding number 9: you can hold alt and lick on anywhere on an application to move it around.
Amir A
28 Apr 08 at 4:55 am
[...] Source: Content Consumer [...]
The Great Ubuntu-Girlfriend Experiment | Don't Copy That Floppy
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 at 11:41 am
best regards 3 yr gf!!
Ksawery
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 at 11:49 am
You don’t have a girlfriend
jerkstore
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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.
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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.
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 at 12:04 pm
Haha, should have asked her to play an mp3. That would have been classic.
Ericson
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 at 12:07 pm
Well…agree with buster…
I have a client likes to double-click the links in IE
T
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 at 12:09 pm
#10 I don’t think Erin is a virgin.
fen
28 Apr 08 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.
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 at 12:18 pm
Hold down Alt to click and drag a window–including past the desktop borders.
totobu
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 at 12:24 pm
[...] found this article on digg and I found it very [...]
Mindfock » Blog Archive » Ubuntu-Girlfriend Experiment
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 at 12:29 pm
Check out GIMPshop, its like a hack to the GIMP that makes it look and feel like Photoshop.
atarijedi
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 at 12:34 pm
Skype is free on Windows.
TheCat
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 at 12:56 pm
I would have kicked your ass if you made me do that.
Joe
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 at 1:50 pm
*wasn’t the smoothest *transition* in the world, to linux.
see above post.
Ashley
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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?
28 Apr 08 at 2:24 pm
“btw, gimp won’t, ever get a full window, ”
you obviously havent read the plans for 2.6
Ashley
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 at 2:37 pm
alt+f2
‘gnome-terminal’
$ sudo umount /girlfriend
oh and RTFM of course.
ubuntugeek
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 at 3:01 pm
i wonder how many of those tasks i’d have managed on an operating system other than *nix?
howlingmadhowie
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 at 3:34 pm
To the OP–is that a sash you’re wearing in the pic?
rhabhekkha
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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?
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 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
28 Apr 08 at 4:25 pm
pretty sweet. I’m going to put my GF up to the same test
Tynen
28 Apr 08 at 4:26 pm
dude your girlfriend has the body of a dude! and she wears kilts!