Mark Pilgrim moved his parents to Linux because their Mac experience was souring.:
I had originally chosen Kontact/Kmail for their email needs, but I ran into some strange bug where Kmail refused to send messages. Basic functionality, right? You’d think someone would, you know, notice. I realize email standards are wide and complicated, but still. An email program that can’t send email is pretty fucking useless.
my father threw me for a loop and asked how he could realign the print heads and check the ink levels. I have owned printers for many decades and I have never done this, but apparently it’s a regular occurrence for him, and the Mac printer driver let him do it. So OK, I poke around Google, and lo and behold, there’s a package for that. But it doesn’t work. Oh wait, I need to install gimp-print too (God knows why). Now it aligns the print heads, but it gives an error message while checking ink levels. But it works from the command line. But only as root. Weird. Unresolved. Grr.
Sounds like they’re off to a great start!
CLEVER USE OF SELECTION EDITING! A+++ WOULD READ AGAIN!!!!
Oh come on, it’s not like I made up sentences. These are entire paragraphs. In fact, in truth they constitute the majority of the data.
I’m not sure that forcibly moving a family to Linux is any better than forcing family to move to any platform. I moved my family to the Mac because I didn’t want to have to support any other platform. When I visit family I like to spend time with them and not with their computer. That’s also why having friends with Macs is easier too.
Mark’s issues with the Mac were not all they seemed but highlighted the fact that he simply wasn’t a Mac techie. And the fact he keeps inadequate backups. No foul. But when he says “Everything else worked – he refers directly to OpenOffice being able to open their Office documents and their ability to play Mahjongg. Brilliant.
The extracts illustrate the grass is not really greener. You just have to be willing to be the tech support. For better and worse and all that jazz. MArk is simply much too bitter to be a Mac user 🙂
Unknowingly, Mark has severely reduced the choices of his parents and therefore made both heir lives easier. He should work for Apple.