[in the news] Review: 3 top Linux distros go for different users

[Paul W. Frields]

On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 09:03:41AM -0500, Kara Schiltz wrote:
> Computerworld
> 12.16.09
> 
> Review: 3 top Linux distros go for different users
> By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
> 
> [clip]
> 
> Paul Frields, Red Hat's Fedora Project Leader, described Fedora to
> me as being "first and foremost for users interested in and capable
> of contributing to open source." So if you're a Linux power user,
> you're going to love Fedora. If you're not, this probably isn't the
> distro for you.

Hm, that's an interesting takeaway from my quote.  Aren't non-power
users capable of contributing to FOSS?  Aren't non-power users
interested in contributing too?  I'll endeavor to make that
distinction clearer in future interviews -- I usually do so but
apparently it wasn't clear in this one. :-)

> It's not that Fedora is hard to use. While it's not as
> beginner-friendly as Ubuntu, most Linux users shouldn't have any
> trouble working with Fedora even if they're not developers.

Well, that's nice to hear in any case!  Does it partially contradict
the assertions above though?

> [clip]
> 
> For all of its many excellent features, Fedora isn't the best
> distribution for new or business users. But if you're a user like me
> who already lives his computing life on Linux, it's a great choice.
> 
> Full post:
> http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9142148/Review_3_top_Linux_distros_go_for_different_users?taxonomyId=18&pageNumber=1

There are a couple of puzzlers in this article, such as the
implication that being able to find lesser-known utilities makes a
distribution more suitable for the masses.  I would argue that the
masses don't care about such things.  What's most important is a
working set of well-integrated functionality that behaves consistently
and predictably.  The ability to fine tune that later is certainly
great, but the average user isn't interested in spending time finding
and learning new, off-the-beaten-path utilities.

-- 
Paul W. Frields                                http://paul.frields.org/
  gpg fingerprint: 3DA6 A0AC 6D58 FEC4 0233  5906 ACDB C937 BD11 3717
  http://redhat.com/   -  -  -  -   http://pfrields.fedorapeople.org/
  irc.freenode.net: stickster @ #fedora-docs, #fedora-devel, #fredlug