Re: Something is very wrong with this group
Hi,
>>"bruce" == bruce <bruce@va.debian.org> writes:
bruce> Sure, we won't give the naive user all of the power, but it
bruce> should be easily possible for someone to install Debian and use
bruce> it to connect to the net, process documents, do spreadsheets,
bruce> print, etc., without learning much at all about the
bruce> computer. When they want to peek under the hood, the
bruce> possibility is there.
We should only do this if we are sure that the user can indeed
handle the system without knowing the details under the
hood. Starting by naming things differently is not a good place. UNIX
is not yet an automobile (appliance); it is closer to a chainsaw.
You can't just let a user loose with a menu system and a MC
interface, and say, lo, you can edit files, you are on your own.
You are just setting up their expectations that Linux is an
appliance, and they are going to be frustated, angry, and alienated
when they learn the truth: there is a monster growling under the
hood; a monster that can only be taed by climbing a learning curve.
Not what the Ad copy said.
bruce> But Manoj makes it clear, too. There are a number of people on
bruce> the lists who are not interested in the naive user. That is
bruce> fine for them, but not fine for the project as a whole or Linux
bruce> in general. I'd prefer not to have to use NT at work. That
bruce> means we have to make Linux able to compete with it.
I do not, of course, speak for the whole project, since I
think that this is an issue which is controversial enough to require
a poll to determine where the project wants to go. After all, the
project is the people who do the work, right? We have no CEO.
I would like to be inclusive. I like to be able to help naive
users. A person dear to my heart is a naive user. But I like users
well enough not to dissemble to them. And for the naive user who does
not have the time or the inclination to learn about computerese,
Linux is not the way. Windows 95 is. Linux is not for everyone.
Nothing is for everyone. We'll never be able to get rid of the NT at
work (well, not until the next generation of kids, anyway). We should
not want to.
manoj
--
"Once contraception is accepted and the purposes of sex are separated
from procreation and marriage, sterilization and abortion become
acceptable, and then infanticide, the precursor of outright
euthanasia. Furthermore, homosexuality and unnatural sexual
activities become `natural and normal,' the venereal diseases get out
of control, divorce and illegitimacy rates mount, and the family
swiftly disintegrates." Valerie Riches, Family Planning Educator, in
her brochure, Contraception's Legacy, as quoted in "The Far Right,
Speaking For Themselves," a Planned Parenthood pamphlet
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@acm.org> <http://www.datasync.com/%7Esrivasta/>
Key C7261095 fingerprint = CB D9 F4 12 68 07 E4 05 CC 2D 27 12 1D F5 E8 6E
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