Install OpenOffice.org 1.0.  No command line required.  It has yet to crash 
on me.  On a 200MHz Pentium, 128MB RAM, KDE 3.0, Red Hat 7.3.  I use it 
several times a week to read and edit MS Word and Excel files I get from 
people producing them with MS Office (2000 and XP) tools.  Once, on a 
complex vendor quote, it reproduced the file with 2 graphic lines out of 
place.  Utterly smooth otherwise.

However, I agree that a great many apps on Linux do still require a command 
line.  OpenOffice.org 1.0 is proof that this is improving.

Alan

At 04:44 PM 7/18/02 -0700, you wrote:
>Here's an exercise for you (one that was imposed on me
>this week):  help a Windows user step through some
>operations, such as installing a new program, without
>EVER asking them to type a shell command.  It was a
>sobering experience, and it reinforced the opinions
>I'm expressing here.
>
>Note that my friend is a highly experienced systems
>engineer who is not in the slightest afraid of the
>command line, has a longstanding and healthy dislike
>for Microsoft, and is acutely aware of the need to
>support Free Software; but he was there to test the
>desktop, and the desktop fell flat on its face.
>
>Vic