Jim Henderson schrieb:

> Yeah, I know - and yet there are still claims that Windows "Just works" 
> and Linux doesn't.

I can give (and actually did give, as you may recall :-)) an example of 
where Linux does /not/ "just work":

When I got my AMD Phenom machine, I installed Debian "Etch" 4.0r5 on it 
out-of-the-box. Everything /seemed/ to be fine, until I discovered that 
something was wrong with the system time: The clock ran double speed!

Now you would think that this is a pretty basic and non-complex 
functionality. Still Linux managed to get it wrong.

And it's not like fixing such things would be easy with Linux - at least 
that's how it appears to me: By now it "just works" in many cases, but 
when it doesn't and you don't happen to have administrative skills for 
Linux, you're perfectly screwed. With Windows, OTOH, at least for such 
basic stuff you're pretty likely to find something helpful on the 
mainboard manufacturer's website.

I think the observation of most Linux users that Linux "just works" is 
clouded by them typically having at least some basic experience in 
administering Unix machines.


To add another thought, the idea that /any/ existing operating system 
"just works" is pretty much a myth at present. I have /never ever/ seen 
anyone just learning how to use a computer who didn't at one time or the 
other have to get more experienced people fix things that got broken 
/somehow/ (or never worked in the first place).

Well, maybe Mac comes close, at least that's the impression I got from 
my first and only contact with a Mac and a user thereof.

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