Green Tech Girl

I’ll admit, something rubbed me the wrong way when I read “The Great Ubuntu-Girlfriend Experiment.” There seemed to be this underlying message that women weren’t naturally “geeky” enough to get Linux, and that anyone who does get Linux must just be a “geeky programmer or designer.” His suggestion to improve Linux?

I’d love to see a welcome screen for the first time you open up your desktop, with little videos explaining a few key concepts to how Linux and Ubuntu work. Maybe it could ask “What do you want to do?” and then explain how they could do this.

Oh God no. The first thing I do when I get into Windows is turn off that stupid animated paper clip. You know the one I’m talking about, the creepy one with the happy face. But even Windows doesn’t assault me with cheesy training videos upon login - why should Linux?

If someone wants to start the “Linux for Dummies” distribution, that’s fine with me. But I actually think that this guy’s girlfriend did just fine for her first Linux encounter, and the expectations set were wayyy too high. Let’s not forget that people “get” Windows better if just that they have used it for years and years. If people had been using Linux for years, it would be just as easy as Windows.

Linux may be more challenging for a few things like troubleshooting video…but then again, my webcam broke in Windows and still won’t work despite my repeated attempts to fix it. I have given up. The same camera works plug-and-play in Linux though. So Windows is not necessarily easier to troubleshoot!

I certainly think a few things need to be improved in Linux. But most of my issues are in relation to hardware manufacturers who don’t put out quality drivers for Linux. Other than that, I find Linux works much better than Windows, hands down. And I don’t need a patronizing boyfriend to help me out with it either.