Is starting with Linux as hard as switching to Linux?
A good friend of mine is about to get his hands on a new laptop. He’s an interesting case — late twenties and zero computer experience. He’s an intelligent guy, more than capable with his hands, a quick learner. As a tradesman, he never bothered with college so he never really needed a computer for much.
A clean slate. He’s not bringing the prejudices of the Windows way to computer use — he doesn’t even know much of what Windows is. My first inclination — why not just set him up with a nice, well configured Ubuntu install? If I configure it to just work, he won’t need to fuss with it and he’ll just learn how to use a computer the right way, right?
I often see it argued that the biggest impediment to switching to Linux is knowing too much about how to do things in Windows. Users are stubborn. People aren’t willing to part with years of this accumulated knowledge. Right? If so, why not just start him off down the Linux road?
I’m beginning to think the problem is far broader than this. How is he going to figure out what he needs to do and how? Well, he can turn to the forums, but this is yet another learned skill — one I’m not even particularly attuned to after years of computer use. Like everyone else, he’s going to ask a friend. Now, if he’s running MS crapware, he’s got a huge pool of friends, aquaintances, collegues, etc to draw from. If he’s on a Mac, he’s got a handful. If he’s on Linux — he’s got me. To the best of my knowledge, that’s about it.
I wouldn’t mind supporting him — I see him all the time, and it wouldn’t be too much of a bother. Until he gets up to speed with how to seek out support on his own — no easy task, mind you — he’s got a single point of failure he just doesn’t need — me. Is that fair to him?