Morons and illiterates [was Re: Fax programs! help please.]
On Wed, 15 Jan 1997, Michael Stutz wrote:
> On Tue, 14 Jan 1997 edwalter@students.wisc.edu wrote:
>
> > I have felt for some time that a lot of people are
> > getting the wrong idea about Linux. I don't think linux is intended
> > to be a suitable replacement OS for "computer illiterates" and other
> > people who want to put no work into their system, and I hope linux
> > developers are not trying to make it that.
>
> I want to add some comments to this. First, you have some very good points.
> To try and make this OS usable for "computer illiterates" (which is, face
> it, a polite term for "moron") to install and self-maintain will not work.
> This "casual" computer user doesn't want to have to think while using a
> computer -- they want the software to be so transparent that its use is
> immediately second nature.
While I agree with some of what you say, you made some comments in passing
that are narrow-minded (IMO).
The vast majority of computer users, both at home and in the workplace,
use computers as a tool. As strange as it seems to us, they could care
less how the system works or who develops and maintains it.
Just think of the secretary tyes, engineers, geologists, geophysicists,
musicians, writers, librarians, medical researchers, etc. They all went
to school to learn their trade, their calling, their passion. They don't
want and shouldn't have to learn anything about computers more than
getting around their applications. And so it should be.
I don't _really_ know how the various components of my car engine work,
or how the phone system or my VCR (although I _can_ program it) work.
And I certainly don't know how I can flush the toilet and it manages to
go _uphill_ to get out of my neighborhood.
But I use these time savers every day. They free up time to diddle my
Linux system.
To call non-nerd computer users morons, illiterate or even casual is
ludicrous.
Don't forget, it was their mass consumption that made the cheap hardware
that we all use possible.
That all said, the community surrounding any given Linux distribution
certainly should decide to whom they care to cater their product.
Personally, I vote for a simple, fool-proof, don't-have-to-read more than
a couple-of-pages base installation, hopefully including X (tough, I know)
base installation. This wins over a large base of Linux users.
Beyond that, we already have come a long way with dselect/dpkg towards
easy to install specialized packages. And yes, dselect could be improved,
and probably made a GUI for those who want it.
Although two people say above that Linux won't work for people who can't
build their own system, I'm sure lots of people want to prove you wrong.
Caldera for one. It's not clear to me if the Debian distribution wants
to go that far. It's hard to acheive while supplying the 800+ and growing
number of packages that we have.
...RickM...
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