[TriLUG] User Friendliness

[Ken Mink]

On Jun 4, 2004, at 2:07 AM, Timothy A. Chagnon wrote:

> I applaud your effort. Here's my $0.02.
>
> On Fri, 2004-06-04 at 01:00, Jeff Tickle wrote:
>> Because if there's one
>> thing Microsoft got right, it's making a computer easy to use...
>
> I disagree with you here.  I think Microsoft has done much harm by
> making things "user friendly."  They have essentially lowered the bar
> _so_ far in this respect that users don't learn anything about what's
> really going on in the background.  Plus, doing anything slightly more
> advanced takes that many more steps to get past the user friendliness.

I have to seriously disagree with you there. I am no fan of MS, but 
they have made the PC accessible to the masses and that is a good 
thing. They've gotten complacent. Since you used the analogy of 
teaching someone to fish, I'm going to use one too; the automobile. Any 
one can purchase and safely(if they want) operate a car. The modern 
automobile is an incredibly complex piece of equipment. From ABS 
brakes, to variable transmissions, to traction control suspensions. Do 
you know how these subsystems work? I don't. Yet we drive a car 
everyday, mostly without issues. Yes, in the early days of automobiles 
everyone was a mechanic. Now the car is user friendly and mechanics are 
a specialty. Yet, if you are so inclined, you can learn about the inner 
working of your car and modify, fix, whatever.

This is where Linux and PC computing in general needs to get to. I 
recently ditched Linux on my laptop in favor of a Powerbook. Why, 
because I needed the easy of use to be more productive at work.

And in reply to another part of the thread, GIMP is a bad example. It 
has one of the worst UI's I've ever seen. There is great power there, 
but finding it is a nightmare. Bad example, bad.


Ken