Why is Fedora a multimedia disaster? - Here is why.

[Dotan Cohen]

On 18/04/07, Rick Stuart <stuart.cr at gmail.com> wrote:
> Valent Turkovic wrote:
>
>  >> But please, please make it a lot easier on non-geek people so that
>  >> they can also use this great stuff called fedora. And belive me there
>  >> are people wanting to do so, but they can't because we don't let them.
>  >> They need some features to be enabled by default or else they won't
>  >> know how that they even exist.
>
> I feel like the real concern voiced by Valent Turkovic has been missed
> by all three of the responses I saw.  What are we expecting the average
> Joe who wants to try out this cool new thing called Linux to feel?  He
> can load it up and see a pretty twisty graphic but then can't get the
> simplest thing like web browsing to work without installing a lot of
> extra packages that are only obvious by a long Google search, abuse on
> the forums (RTFM) or a previous experience.
>
> If you are going to build a live CD (Excellent Idea by the way) for
> people to try out Linux, then concentrate on the total experience.  Look
> at what "typical" users do and make sure they have success.  Valent hit
> the nail on the head....KDE...GNOME....why should that matter?  GNOME
> doesn't work any better with Totem BTW.

That's actually a good argument for NOT releasing a live CD. I've
always run by the rule that if I can't deliver what a customer (or
woman) wants, then I don't do it at all. Why disappoint by explicitly
demonstrating that you cannot deliver?

If Fedora is bound by law NOT to deliver a comfortable user experience
for those unfamiliar with it, then why is effort being exerted to make
Fedora accessible to them via LiveCD?

Who is the LiveCD intended for? What is it's purpose? If it's purpose
is to show off Fedora to those unfamiliar with it, then what are we
showing them? That they cannot play media files, that functionality
has been removed from the standard Open Office, and such? Without so
much as a link to the documentation that explains the situation, and
what one can do to enable these features?

Fedora is obviously a fast learning curve distro: one cannot simply
walk right up to it and use it without some prior knowledge. Thus,
creating a LiveCD and making it easy to walk right up and use it will
only show these people that Fedora (and possible Linux in general) is
difficult to use.

Dotan Cohen

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