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List:       kde
Subject:    Re: Worth reading...
From:       Waldo Bastian <bastian () ens ! ascom ! ch>
Date:       1999-07-19 11:19:57
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Derek wrote:
> 
> Here's an article which manages to summarise an awful lot of the
> problems with user facing UNIX:
> 
> http://www.osOpinion.com/Opinions/ToddBurgess/ToddBurgess1.html

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: OsOpinion
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 1999 17:08:23 +0200
From: Waldo Bastian <bastian@ens.ascom.ch>
To: tburgess@netcom.ca

Hi Todd,

With interest did I read your piece about Linux for the Masses.
I agree with you in the first two chapters, but I find your
recommendations in the last chapter "Linux For The Masses"
remarkable. 

You describe a system which can be bought today in the store. 
It is called iMac. It is perfect for a new computer-illiterate 
user. However, you underestimate users (Perhaps you secretly
consider users to be stupid??) by assuming that users will
always stay computer-illiterate. When people use computers for
a longer period of time, they start to learn more about how
the system works. Their knowledge grows and with their knowledge
their requirements on the computer system grow.

A truly well-designed system takes this into account and allows
the user to grow. And when the user grows, the system should
start to offer the user more of its potentials. 

Sure, a first time user should not need to touch a CLI ever. But
that doesn't mean it shouldn't be possible to use a CLI. Unix
has become a success because it is a very powerfull system. 
Sacrificing power for ease of use will turn it in a mediocre
system. The key to success is to make a system which is both
powerfull and easy to use. Unix has a track record of the first,
Apple of the latter.  Let's make system which combines the
best of both worlds.

Cheers,
Waldo Bastian
bastian@kde.org
-- 
The "gui" in "Penguin" is pronounced "K-D-E"
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