Shall we support the autorun feature?

[Mark C]

Karl Hegbloom wrote:
> On Tue, 2005-01-04 at 14:37 +0000, Martin Alderson wrote:
> 
>>It also improves the user experience by miles. Look at how hard it is
>>for the average user to install a game. On Windows it's insert the CD
>>and click next. On Linux it's open terminal, goto root, type some
>>cryptic command with symbols that users do not use normally, and hope
>>it works. This is not acceptable.

I agree, but then again, it will depend upon the user as well,
I've been using GNU/Linux for around 6 years now and I've got to the 
stage of getting fed up going to the command line for certain jobs, it 
should be at the state now where most every day tasks do not need the 
use of a command line (granted I still find it quicker to enter mkdir 
blah, than use Nautilus, but only because I always have a terminal up 
somewhere)
But if you are aiming for either a new user (not techy), corporate or a 
home user who only wants to surf and install the odd app, they do not 
want to use the command line, let alone know what to type.

> 
> They can insert the CD, get an icon on the desktop of a CD-ROM disc, and
> either an automatic or double-click to get a Nautilus view of it.  They
> can then double-click the 'setup' program icon.  Inserting the CD,
> typing 'pmount cdrom', then running the setup program from the command
> line with /media/cdrom/setup is really not that difficult either.

Again I agree, but joe sixpack, who has problems, user a web browser and 
typing in is name (probably will not use Linux anyway) should not be 
faced with this and to them it IS hard.

> IMO it's not acceptable to not teach users how to communicate with their
> computers.  Face reality --- a computer is a complicated tool, and will
> never really be an "appliance".  It is only truly useful when you have
> some training.  People cannot even use a web browser without at least
> _some_ training.  "Teach a man to fish ..."

but to what degree? thanks to countless t.v programs, adds computers are 
sold as appliances.

> So, rather than spending a lot of time on trying to hide that reality
> from the user, why not spend a little time educating the user? 

Because most users do NOT want to be educated, they are lazy,
in reality most people who have heard of Linux are probably going to 
have a better understanding than joe sixpack.

I feel the best way would be to somehow decide what they are doing and 
give them a dialogue box to allow them to install as root using sudo or 
install into their home dir.

P.S I have nothing against Joe or Sixpacks ;)

Mark