Comment 2 for bug 145673

I don't really see how this would help anyone... the MS guided help is essentially just a way of showing people precisely what to click on for each step in a procedure. It is necessary because it is very difficult to describe, in an effective way, which button a person should click to do a certain operation (wait, should i click to button labeled "apply" or to check box labeled "apply on reboot"? or whatever...).

The example Jerome pointed out is, like its windows equivalent, just another solution to the "what do I click on now?" problem.

IMHO GNU/Linux already has an elegant solution to this problem: the command line.

It is infinitely easier, even for a novice, to follow a series of directions if all that is required is copy/pasting a series of lines into a terminal window. Try to describe, fully and completely using only words, how to install an app called "some crazy app" using synaptic. Now compare it to the description using the terminal.

type the following into a terminal window and press the enter key: sudo apt-get install somecrazyapp

One line (assuming the person knows how to launch a terminal, 2 lines if they don't).

I think the resistance among many people to using the command line is natural since the command line is seen as "geeky" and complicated. But the answer to this problem isn't "be more like microsoft", the answer is to make the terminal more accessible to beginners and to provide ample instructions in using it. Basically, we should be trying to make the terminal less scary rather than trying to make it less necessary.

This is a much easier task since it won't require thousands of lines of new code (that then must be maintained) and it is, inherently, distro-neutral (for the most part) since all the major distros (AFAIK) include bash.

People are ALWAYS resistant to change, no matter what it is, so it is to be expected that many people making the switch to ubuntu (or any GNU/Linux) from windows will dislike certain things about their new operating system and having to type commands into a terminal is only one of many many of these things (just google "going back to windows").

To sum up, the best way to help people make "the switch" successfully is not to make ubuntu just like windows, but to make it as easy as possible for people to learn to use the new and powerful features ubuntu has to offer (such as a fully functioning command line interface).

Just my opinion.