Is openSUSE for users with a little computer knowledge

or Protective vs. overprotective

One post on opensuse@opensuse.org made me think about what makes openSUSE a bit hard to chew for new computer users.

In particular the post was about NTFS usage.
There is a short article how to fix default settings:
http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:NTFS

openSUSE default settings are a safe for users with very little computer knowledge. You have to be a root in order to write to partition that is formatted with NTFS. 

Background:

Windows protects its system files from deletion, but only when it is controlling the system. When user is accessing partition with installed windows from Linux, that protection does not exist, so one can overwrite or delete important files preventing Windows from starting.

Restrictive settings that allow only root to write there are some protection, not very sophisticated, but it prevents users without basic knowledge to damage their windows, at least to the moment they discover power of root :)

Problem is that any other NTFS file system is not writable too, which forces users to either learn workarounds, or leave Linux. Taking that people with a little computer knowledge already demonstrated lack of interest in computer internals, second option is probably the most used one, unless they find Linux that is not overprotective.

Problem is similar to UAC in Vista. It failed because it was producing too many times warnings to make computer use comfortable.

Linux airlines

From friendly blog  via Planet openSUSE   here is part of the old Linux joke.

 .... Disgruntled employees of all the other OS airlines decide to start their own airline. They build the planes, ticket counters, and pave the runways themselves. They charge a small fee to cover the cost of printing the ticket, but you can also download and print the ticket yourself. When you board the plane, you are given a seat, four bolts, a wrench and a copy of the Seat-HOWTO.html. Once settled, the fully adjustable seat is very comfortable, the plane leaves and arrives on time without a single problem, the in-flight meal is wonderful. You try to tell customers of the other airlines about the great trip, but all they can say is, "You had to do what with the seat?"

Heh, if that would be so simple like installing a seat, but it is very close, which every openSUSE user can confirm :)

Bug days in openSUSE

We had quite successful openSUSE Bug Day organized by A. Naumov on Saturday, November 27, and once rolling we continued through Sunday.

The goal was to clear old bugs that refused to die for quite some time.

You can see what is done in the wiki article.

November 28th, evening by US Central Time:

• openSUSE 10.2:  Start 40 bugs now we have 14 bugs left.
• openSUSE 10.3:  Start 162 bugs now is 87 bugs left.
• openSUSE 11.0:  Start 526 bugs now is 346 bugs left. 

We started with 728 bugs and now we have 447, which is 281 bug lesser.

I hope that A. Naumov will repeat call for the next Bug Day right next weekend.