Re: Back to technical discussion? Yes! (was: network-manager as default? No!)
* Josselin Mouette <joss@debian.org> [110404 14:05]:
> It seems to be a common belief between some developers that users should
> have to read dozens of pages of documentation before attempting to do
> anything.
You mix two things up here: Almost noone demands a system that is only
configurable after reading a dozen pages of documentation to get it
work.
But what many people[1] want is that you can make it work if you read some
dozen pages of documentation.
It's the elementary freedom to "be able to fix it yourself". Having the
source and the right to modify the software is one part, but in practise
having a system that one can understand in depth and actualy force to
do what one want is an important aspect for people to choose Debian.
Having a nice automagic opaque interface with three buttons of the kind
"on", "off", "repair" might look very user-friendly.
But as every paternalism it is only nice as long as you want what your
superior wants.
And many people react very emotional to being the inferior of a computer
too stupid to understand anything.
Bernhard R. Link
[1] especially those that have always been a large group of Debian users
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