Linux - why you need a few basic skills

If you fire up your computer , for the first time, with its new linux operating system and expect everything to work right out of the box, you're going to be disappointed, and or disenchanted. You may even want to give up on linux altogether.
Take for instance the concept of users. In linux you need a working knowledge of the hierarchy of users. Users collectively ,or individually make up a group, and so on. This, together with permissions for running certain applications is not the kind of everyday computer skill, I suggest, you're average internet user has, or is likely to be interested in learning about.
In my Mandriva Powerpack, I wanted to add a printer to the system, for the first time. You have to add one when you need to print.
No big deal, I'm sure, from what I can remember, Windows can easily handle that.
My linux easily recognised the printer. You have to connect it all up to the computer first, and switch it on as well.
The problem arose when I wanted to print a colour photograph through Gimp. I had an error message, and no print. This problem is still unresolved as I write. I spent an hour on it a couple of days ago, and didn't find the solution.
I went to my other pc which runs openSUSE, and it printed without a hitch.
This is the kind of irritating problem that is fairly typical in linux, and it shouldn't happen.
Maybe it was me doing something wrong, I don't know yet. I'll go back to it later and let you know the outcome in a later post.
My point is though, to do these kind of basic operations you do need a few computer/networking skills, to make things happen. In my previous example, you need to know how to add a printer to the system, ie. tell it there is one, then you have to configure it. I'm obviously missing another level in Mandriva at the moment.
Linux can be very frustrating at times because of these simple failures. I won't give up on it though. It's too good for that.
It's a reliable and safe environment to be in and despite these minor difficulties I recommend it to all internet users out there.