[TriLUG] User Friendliness

[Matthew Lavigne]

On Friday 04 June 2004 02:07, Timothy A. Chagnon wrote:
> I applaud your effort. Here's my $0.02.
<snip>
> 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 think this is why people don't want to use linux.  Most people that I know 
just "want it to work!" without having to look up how to do it.  Yes it may 
be dumbed down but the majority of computer users don't have the time, 
desire, ability or the combination of the three to figure it out.  If linux 
doesn't cater to these people then the OS will never get through the door for 
these types of people.


> <bad_analogy_pun>
> Teach a man to cat and he'll cat for a day.  Teach a man to man and
> he'll man for the rest of his life.
> </bad_analogy_pun>

True but man can be a hateful place to have to figure out things. Not everyone 
has the ability to understand and/or create the magic incantations to get it 
to work.


> Of course Linux could use more people making GUIs and user friendly
> interfaces, but I think we shouldn't hide things or dumb it down.
> Personally I think the better approach is just to provide more
> information at hand, and make advanced tasks more efficient.

See the first comment.  Making advanced task more streamlined is a great idea. 
Pratical execution is gonna be a PITA


> Here, here.  And it might even make people learn a bit and be more
> self-sufficient.
AGREED but some can not/will not be self-sufficient those are the ones that 
will annoy the hell out of the linux knowledgeable person very quickly when 
they can only run linux.. I know I have been down that road..


Matthew