[TriLUG] User Friendliness

[Jeff Tickle]

Arg, ok, I didn't say it was a good example of UF, I meant it was a good
example of power ;-)  Because it is extremely powerful... it's all just
hidden behind a very elusive menu system somewhere.

On Fri, 2004-06-04 at 11:11, Ken Mink wrote:
> 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
-- 
Jeff Tickle <jtickle at jtsoft.net>
JTSoft.net