June 19th, 2007
Your mom Kubuntus!
Sorry, my students’ steady stream of “your mom” jokes brings out my inner 14-year old. However, this is the first in my series this summer of training for the masses (see * for dummies) and the point is that your mom (or your grandmother, or your most typewriter-bound secretary) could quite easily Kubuntu (or Ubuntu, or SUSE, or whatever). In fact, some fairly straight-forward training means that the only piece of mainstream Linux that will prove difficult for the technically-challenged user will be installation.
Given that, I’m not going to cover installation in this post. Not only can it vary radically by distribution, but you wouldn’t expect the little old secretary in the front office to manage hard disk partitions or reinstall Windows, so we can’t reasonably expect any different for Linux. What I do want to cover is what that little old lady will need to understand when she sits down at her desk for the first time in the fall after you’ve gone open source over the summer. Please keep in mind the audience here (your mom, assuming she’s like my mom and doesn’t know the difference between MSN and Internet Explorer, but at least knows the difference between a mouse and a keyboard). Also, feel free to talk back below with helpful tips, suggestions, or thoughts on this series (e.g., dumb it down more, give the audience more credit, cover additional topics, etc.). I envision the posts in this series being used as training documents; primers for students, staff, and parents; or talking points for presentations. Let me know if you come up with any other good ways to use them. Here goes…
The first thing we need to remember is that it matters little what operating system you use. They all work in much the same way. General navigation and some basic knowledge of applications are all we need to successfully run Windows, Linux, or even Macintosh computers.
Of course some of you may be asking what an operating system is. Or more specifically, what Linux is. Linux runs your computer and gives you a method for interacting with the machine in ways that both you and the computer can understand. Linux is more broadly referred to as an operating system. Operating systems open and close documents, start programs, display information on the screen, and interpret your mouse clicks and keyboard entries. Microsoft Windows XP and Macintosh OSX are other examples of operating systems. While they all do the same things, they do them in different ways and users need to know how to get their jobs done regardless of which operating system they might be using. The operating system shouldn’t be confused with applications. Applications, like Microsoft Word, Internet Explorer, and Microsoft Excel are also often called programs and help you do specific things (like write documents, surf the Internet, or create spreadsheets). The operating system, on the other hand, is what allows you to open the applications and switch between them.
One of the most important things to remember about operating systems is that certain applications will only run on certain operating systems. Thus, you can’t run Microsoft Word 2007 on a Macintosh. In terms of Linux, most applications (and the operating system itself) are free. The most important applications are ready to use as soon as you turn on a computer running a Linux operating system. Others can easily be put onto your computer using tools built into the operating system (more on this in a later post).
This brings up another important point: there are lots of Linux operating systems. Just as you can buy several versions of Microsoft Windows (XP Home, XP Professional, Media Center Edition, Vista Home Basic, Vista Ultimate, etc.), there are many versions of Linux. These versions tend to be created by many different groups, people, or companies, but all share common pieces so that they can run the same applications. The most popular tend to look and feel pretty similar to users.
There is one major factor that differentiates how users interact with Linux, regardless of its exact version. Most Linux operating systems let you choose your “desktop environment.” The person who sets up and maintains your computer may have chosen this for you already, but it’s useful to understand what you are running. The two most popular desktop environments are KDE (the K Desktop Environment) and Gnome. More recently, another environment called XFce is also gaining some ground. New users (and their administrators) should keep in mind that it is fairly easy to switch desktop environments (and even to use all of them on the same system), so if you don’t like the look or feel of one, you can try another. It may simply be best to use the same environment as others around you or the environment favored by the people who maintain your computer as they can most easily answer specific questions. For the sake of simplicity and comparison, however, I’ll just provide a picture of Gnome, KDE, and Windows XP.
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Follow Chris Dawson on Twitter! Christopher Dawson is the technology director for the Athol-Royalston School District in northern Massachusetts and a member of the Internet Press Guild. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations, but always keep in mind that the opinions expressed here are his own and not those of his daytime employer, even if he talks incessantly about his day job.
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| 06/20/07
