Well IMO the problem isn't really with Unity, which is meant to draw a younger audience, not codgers like me, it is the fact that Unity still doesn't make Linux play Windows games, so their attempt to draw in teens will probably backfire (and WINE is still far too difficult to use in many cases, even if it works).
Try PlayonLinux - or fork out the bucks for Crossover, or maybe just run Windoof games under Windoof.
I've been helping a Linux noob, and several suggestions:
1) avoid acronyms and abbreviations. Everyone is guilty of this, but Linux is worst - do you think /dev/sda means ANYTHING to a Linux noob?
It /dev/sda means you need to learn uuid, 2009 wants its fstab back :-D
Well I can tell you for a fact that it doesn't, because I've been helping one. She didn't even know that was referring to her primary disk drive
It doesn't necessarily mean it's the primary drive.. and this is computers you're talking about, it's either exactly right or it's fucking useless, there is no "you know what I mean", or close enough. Having spent an evening trying to install packages by cutting and pasting words from a web page I'd of thought you'd learned that.
until I told her (and she's a tech geek in every way except Linux - and yes married [to my best friend, but he's less of a geek than she is]).
Let me remove all those acronyms for you, even the ones that aren't acronyms so you can "help" you best friends wife (though if she's the "technical geek" she's probably better off on her own without some patronizing bloke "helping" her). Lets call the first partition on the first drive C: shall we? Or maybe just replace partition with thingy.... Your problems start when you want to add other "thingies", the second one we'll call D:, but pretty soon you're simple system ceases to be "intuitive" or even understandable (so which one if F:?). And we've got such a nice naming system too! dev - it's short for devices 'cause people not only naturally shorten words, they complain more about long ones than they do about abbreviations. And it means nothing to you because the only system that you can conceive of is a standard desktop, our system is designed to describe *all possible configurations of hardware*, even the ones you can't conceive (like the one this forum runs on, and I don't mean just the cms) of - fucking amazing huh?
Keep reading for my explanation on why you shouldn't be allowed near an install if you have to make suggestions like that. I'll skip the whole Universal Serial Bus , Digital Video Disk thingy 'cause I don't agree with you on the abbreviation thing, (and I think you're full of it).
And good for your teeth apparently
(for instance, iTunes makes a pretty nice mnemonic for what it does, but they've had their failures too - QuickTime?! The only time I want time to go quick is when I'm working and not under a tight deadline).
Please post me some of that shit you're smoking - Outlook, what the fuck was Microsoft thinking - it should be called email client obviously, like Coca-Cola should be just fizzy drink. Can you see a problem here? I don't know about Gnome - though I'm willing to bet a large amount of money that's the desktop environment you're talking about, but most menuing systems allow you to show either the package name and/or it's function. Did you read the documentation?
3) Shortcuts for multiple package select that can be dropped in. Why? Because installing them from package manager is too tedious, so people knowing how always go to terminal and do an apt-get. I want to copy the names of the packages I need from a URL and drop them on an installer and have them magically appear.
And the only thing stopping you from doing that is your own ignorance or laziness - Ubuntu has a graphical package installer, it has a number of graphical package installers, it (like most distros) will handle packages from other distro, and yes Virginia there is "drop them on the installer and have them magically appear" program - it's distro independant... Kwiksomething, or Klicksomething (I don't remember, I'm happy with apt-get)
4) Icons should at least nearly always appear for new software, and if you need command line arguments there should be a way to add them and convenient help. I know that is a lot to ask, but for ease-of-use it is essential.
How does a n00b help a n00b? I mean, I don't want to upset you because obviously you're an experienced computer user, and obviously you understand the difference between a computer operator (user) and computer technician or engineer right? It's similar to the difference between a telephone user and a telephone technician - without all the ego.
If you're attempting to configure or install software, let alone an operating system, you are trying to be a technician. All the wishful thinking in the world won't bridge the gap between tech and user without an understanding of the system. That requires study - wishful thinking is what makes people without a clue about computers demand the "it should be simple". So should rocket science and brain surgery - but reality dictates that there's more to brain surgery than holding a scalpel. And more to being a tech than just moving a mouse and being able to type, or plug things into obvious sockets... like having a vague idea about a stack, or how a driver works, what happens on a bus, knowing that Harvard architecture is not an English style of building schools, the difference between hardware and software, applications and utilities - when those things are understood your suggestions (for which we all thank you, shed the scales from our eyes that did) become redundant. What you've failed to appreciate is the degree of complexity behind the system. Think about the difference between a telephone user and a telephone technician - and every time you get the urge to say "but.." smack yourself in the forehead. And remember - geeks are what we used to pay money to see in sideshows - having a collection of things too you don't understand but know the names of might make you a geek, but it doesn't make you informed, any more than knowing the all the trivia about sports cars when you can't build an engine doesn't make you an automotive engineer, or being able to drive doesn't automatically mean you can, or should be able to install an engine.
In many distributions there is also a program with an odd name that manages packages like Package Manager, and to a noob that means fedex packages, not software.
I think you're confusing a n00b with an idiot. How can a program that manages packages, called a Package Manager, be an odd name? Are you fucking retarded or just a whiner? What should we call it? A camel?
PS. nowhere in that comp-u-ta is there any 0s and 1s.
