That is the exact same worn-out excuse as the Win-trolls keep on using, and it's bullshit. There are plenty of distributions in which you rarely — if ever — have to use a command line anymore. Besides, there are certain things for which you also have to use a command line in Microsoft Windows. And their PowerShell is just... perverse.
The problem isn't with GNU/Linux (or UNIX in general) itself. The problem is that people who use Windows have developed Windows habits, as well as completely erroneous beliefs about how a computer works, and that they're either unwilling or unable to let go of those habits.
If you take a person —
any person — who has
never in their life seen a computer from up close before and you sit them down in front of a Windows computer, then they'll have an equally hard time at best, if not a much harder time, to learn how to use Windows as they would if you were to sit them down in front of a UNIX workstation.
UNIX is logical, it doesn't use any fancy marketing talk, and it does
exactly what you tell it to do. Windows is full of fancy-sounding marketing vernacular, consumerist indoctrination, anti-competitive presentation of information, protection of proprietary products and so-called "intellectual property", and it only makes sense — remotely — once you've gotten used to how it all ties together.
There's an 87-year old man I know who sells computers, although that's only a market he got into in the early 1990s, because his shop had actually always been more about office equipment in general — anything from pocket calculators and typewriters over to fax machines and photocopiers.
He's a great salesman with a lot of experience in selling things to people, but he has always shied away from learning how to use a computer himself, because he said that if he were to get into that, then he'd become a maniac and he'd want to know everything there is to know about them. But a number of years ago he finally caved in, and he started using a computer for his administration.
He went straight with GNU/Linux — Mint, to be precise — and he's still using that very same system to this very day, without ever entering a single command. He primarily uses LibreOffice. And he's got an internet connection, but he never uses it. So he doesn't have a website or even an email address. He only uses his computer as a glorified typewriter. But he didn't find it very difficult to learn, because it all makes sense to him.
Surely you must already know by now how effective a bribe can be, and especially when dealing with government organizations? Microsoft owes 90% of its success to bribery and extortion, and the remaining 10% to lies and theft. Almost everything they sell was either bought or stolen from elsewhere and then rebranded.
That said, NASA uses a whole variety of operating systems. Its desktop computers are Windows machines, but its servers run GNU/Linux, as do most of its satellites and all of the Mars rovers. They also use embedded real-time operating systems — such as QNX, which is a small UNIX-style system — on a number of things.
Now, the US Department of Defense, that's a whole other matter. Most of their systems run Windows, and only the control systems on certain US Navy vessels run (a modified version of) GNU/Linux. And the rest of the US government uses Windows, because of Microsoft's bribery. And it's the same with most other western governments. Only a few have thrown Microsoft out and have begun adopting GNU/Linux. Because it's cheaper, more reliable, and more secure.
Originally posted by Wind
Steve said that many people are mentally running on the system of Windows 3, he helps them to upgrade to the latest Mac.
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