the problem with Linux?

[Peter Hiscocks]

As a general princible, a good user interface should not require much reading
of manuals or one-on-one instruction. So anyone familiar with the general
princibles of a GUI (eg, double clicking starts a program) should be able to
use the system to Do Useful Things. Of course, installing a new program is
in the category 'Useful Things'.

I think it is reasonable to expect people to do some reading of manuals or
engage in the Unix Oral Tradition to learn how to use the command line and
other such behind-the-scenes arcana. Once a person can use the system on a
basic level, then they have some motivation to look behind the scenes to
tweak it in various interesting ways.

So the cry to 'RTFM' is misplaced for the average user: they shouldn't have
to.

Peter



On Wed, Apr 07, 2004 at 04:04:26PM -0400, Jeremy Wakeman wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 07, 2004 at 03:26:33PM -0400, Lloyd Budd wrote:
> > On 6-Apr-04, at 23:23, Jeremy Wakeman wrote:
> > >I have heard dozens of people complain about how difficult Linux is to 
> > >use
> > >and configure.  In almost every case, the complaint was not actually 
> > >about
> > >the relative difficulty as compared to...
> 
> > This is a fantastic assertion, that is also very easy to be demonstrated
> > to *still* be false (at least in the case where one is setting up the 
> > operating
> >  environment for home use).
> 
> Sorry, let me explain that better.  People tend to, in my experience,
> complain more about the differences rather than the difficulty.
> With that in mind, I agree that Linux is, in general, more difficult to
> setup for the average home user as compared to Windows or MacOS - even if
> that average user did *not* buy a computer with an OS already installed.
> 
> What I am saying is that even if Linux was easier, many people that I
> know would not use it due to the fact that it is not familiar.  The way
> I see it, there are several solutions to that problem.
> 
> 1) make Linux more like Windows (ick).
> 
> 2) make Linux more integrated, more intuitive, and more familiar so that
> switching is easy (it seems that some applications are doing this fairly
> well, including KDE and GNOME, though I don't use either on a regular
> enough basis to vouch for that).  This is the situation where a good GUI
> that doesn't take away the power of "edit the /etc/program.conf file"
> approach would be good.
> 
> 3) help teach newbies on lists, irc, one-on-one, etc (a good short-term
> solution, and, I think, something the community in general and TLUG in
> particular is quite good at).
> 
> 4) teach new computer users about Linux (CLI and GUI) before Windows
> becomes what's familiar (not an easy solution atm - only people whose
> parents are geeks learn Linux as kids, at least in Windows-happy North
> America).
> 
> > The problem here is choice.  Most computer users simply want it to
> > work... this is case on MSWin for CD, DVD players, sound, printers,
> > and even more so on Mac OS X , with it's greater application 
> > integration.
> 
> Yeah, driver type stuff needs to be easier.
> 
> -Jeremy
> 
> --
> 
> Jeremy John Wakeman
> cael-JTkAzvGkdyMrpQx6IzTi3laTQe2KTcn/@public.gmane.org
> www.polarhome.com/~cael
> linux registered user #125171
> --
> The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org
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-- 
Peter D. Hiscocks                         	   
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering    
Ryerson University,                    
350 Victoria Street,
Toronto, Ontario, M5B 2K3, Canada

Phone:   (416) 979-5000 Ext 6109
Fax:     (416) 979-5280
Email:   phiscock-g851W1bGYuGnS0EtXVNi6w at public.gmane.org
URL:     http://www.ee.ryerson.ca/~phiscock
--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
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