Just the other day I bought a small cheap laptop running Ubuntu, and I'm surprised at how unhappy I am with the experience. The first thing I wanted to do was update to Firefox 3 and I'm shocked that I haven't been able to figure it out in an evening.
To put things in context, I've been a computer geek since the age of 10 and I've spent a lifetime in the technical end of IT. However Windows has always been the general business desktop operating system of choice. I have always thought Windows is average at best in meeting my needs. But now that I have something to compare it to, I'm starting to see it in a better light!
Where's the install executable in the tar.gz I downloaded and extracted from Mozilla? Why does the Synaptic Package Manager only list ancient alpha versions? Should I worry about the comments I've read out there which suggest I should use an Ubuntu specific install? It's truly bizarre that when I find instructions telling me to open up a terminal session, I feel relief!
I'm guessing the usual open source situation is to blame here: a complex compatibility matrix that's difficult to reduce down to a simple wizard.
But another big problem is open source documentation. Everyone seems to feel the need to chip in with blog posts that are intended to be helpful but clog up my searches with old, incomplete and poorly structured & linked information. I just don't know who to believe. Are you seriously expecting me to run a script written by someone called Psychocat? Sign me up for the phishing too please...
At this stage in my life I'm pretty time-poor, and I just want it to work with one click and a wizard. If there's one thing I've learnt from this, it's that a time-poor geek is hardly a geek at all.
Even Google, who you'd think would be fairly pro open source, are releasing services for Windows only. I guess they're not all in need of adult supervision at the plex!
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