Linux, specifically Ubuntu, has seen an amazing amount of progress.

But Microsoft has nothing to worry about, and I will explain why.

The reason is in the mindset of its developers, and their ignorant dischord with my piano teacher.

My piano teacher is 86 years old. He is a brilliant pianist; he is also smart, witty, warm, charismatic, and an absolute computer novice. He uses Mac (OS X) for e-mail, web browsing, printing photos from his digital camera, and video conferencing with his friends in the United States. I regret that as we exchanged piano lessons for computer lessons we did not record the latter, as to see computers through his eyes was as illuminating an experience for me as it was to be immersed in his world of music.

I will now recount an experience I had while upgrading from 7.04 to 7.10. This is not to demonstrate bugs in the install process, nor to have people retort, "Oh, we can fix that." The bugs in Linux (and Ubuntu) run much deeper than a poorly resizing window, or a misconfigured button. Intertwined, I will give you an example of the questions my piano teacher would ask me during the upgrade. These questions do not need answers; they serve to exemplify his hypothetical first impressions of Ubuntu.

[UPGRADE] A window appears entitled, "Configuration File Change".

TEACHER: What is a Configuration File?

[UPGRADE] Inside this window reads a message, "Replace the customized configuration file '/etc/default/apache2'? You will lose any changes you have made to this configuration file if you choose to replace it with a newer version."

TEACHER: What does /etc/default/apache2 mean?
TEACHER: What is apache2?
TEACHER: We don't want to lose any changes, do we?

[UPGRADE] Click "Show Difference". The screen shows: "22:13:18.000000000000 -0700 +++ ath0^NO CARRIER", or some such garbly gook.

TEACHER: ...?

[UPGRADE] The window is resized to see the full diff. Even I would prefer to see a colour-coded side-by-side comparison, rather than a dump suitable for patch'ing. But there is an even better option, which I'll suggest later. I confirm the changes. The next time the same window appears, the sizing is all messed up. Strange.

At this point my teacher would not get frustrated, but would be woefully confused, and probably feel a little on the dense side. Let me reiterate: he is far from stupid.

Advanced users might want to see a diff of configuration files. Power users might want to see just the lines removed and the lines added. Regular users would rather a backup copy made and be done with it. Novice users would rather not have to think about configuration files -- ever.

You get the idea. Here's one way to fix it.

Give the user three choices at installation (or upgrade):

	1. Easy (i.e., Just Do It)
	2. Medium (i.e., Tweak Some Details)
	3. Advanced (i.e., Ultimate Power)

Easy (the default option) means "do the right thing". Make a backup of files that are about to be changed, and subsequently change them without pestering the user. Automatically partitioning the drive in an intelligent fashion (/, /home, swap, /tmp, and maybe /usr or /opt). Do not pose questions like "Replace the customized configuration file '/etc/default/apache2'?" My piano teacher would like nothing more than the limited time he spends in front of his machine to be easy and productive.

If you bright folks can make an operating system that even my piano teacher can use, then piano teachers will use it. And gradeschool teachers, and dance teachers, and English majors, and stay-at-home parents, and cheerleaders, and even football players.

This "mindset" (for lack of a better term) is everywhere.

I removed a harddrive a few months ago. Each time I reboot, my system constantly complains about a missing harddrive. I have to press CONTROL-D to continue the boot process. Why does it ask me this ... every single time? (The question is rhetorical, by the way.)

Such behaviour stems from not understanding the needs of average users, and even average software developers. An understanding that Microsoft had, long ago. Something which most developers who write Open Source Software are aware of, yet do nothing about.

When developing software, ask, "Would this confuse a piano teacher?" Or, "Is this simple enough for a piano teacher?" When the answer is "no" to the first and "yes" to the second, Microsoft will have cause to worry.

Keep up the great work, you're definitely on the road to get ahead of Microsoft.