Why Ubuntu is not ready for prime time

[Mat Tomaszewski]

Nathan Dorfman wrote:
>
>
>
> You're right, I wouldn't expect my mom to be able to RTFM and figure 
> out how to, say, recover a corrupt grub installation or set up LVM. 
> Similarly, I wouldn't expect her to be able to recover a corrupted 
> registry on a Windows box without a lot of help.

I agree entirely, yet the point is slightly different here. I guess the 
issue is with the basic help/support, this reassuring "I'm here in case 
you need me, even though you probably never will".
>
> Documentation simply isn't going to be read by this class of user, 
> regardless of whether it comes from ubuntu.com <http://ubuntu.com> or 
> microsoft.com <http://microsoft.com>. When a problem or question 
> arises, the course of action is the same regardless of what OS is in 
> use: first, ask my dad; if that fails, ask me.
We recently run some user tests and one of our subjects turned out to 
have been trying Ubuntu "2-3 times a week", but still wasn't quite ready 
to abandon Windows entirely. Asked why he said "with Windows there's 
just so many people you can ask, and so much information on the Internet 
that if anything goes wrong there's always someone who can help". Ubuntu 
user base is still fairly small and for many potential new users (like 
our subject) there simply is no "dad" they can ask. The importance of 
good basic support online becomes even greater. By the way, I agree that 
official product documentation should not serve this purpose.


M.