Too much work
After a long afternoon, I’m ready to admit the inevitable. We’re not ready to put a Linux machine on the desktops of our neighbours, any time soon.
I’ve come to this point after years of playing in the deep end of the pool. I’ve compiled kernels, and taken those first hesitant steps with an X server. A warning that your screen could catch fire is certainly not “user friendly”. I’ve read, and typed and watched endless lines of script responses scroll off into the bit bucket. I’ve believed my own talk.
And yet, after trying to get four different Raspberry Pi boards to upgrade, I realize that only the hardy will attempt this more than once. Too many arcane twists to the story. I started with a preconfigured SD card, and then tested a “roll your own” that I downloaded from a distro server. Yes, I can get to a desktop, but it’s the next steps that are just too much for most of the people I know.
Getting Bluetooth to run took over an hour. Lots of reading and configuring and I’m not sure what else. There is an icon on the taskbar, but the speaker beside the desk remains silent.
Ditto for firmware updates. I believe the two new boards are now at the point I hoped for, but I had to watch those scripts unfold for the better part of the afternoon. Let’s be realistic; either your mother won’t bother, or she won’t care. “You do it!”. And that’s not what we hope for when we mention a new, cheaper alternative to the standard computer.
