On Sat, 23 Jan 1999, Paul Seelig wrote: > Please don't let's start *this* kind of discussion yet again. It's > *not* about appeasing to the masses of unskilled consumers. It's > about increasing ease of installation, use and maintenance. Skilled > people definitely benefit from such time saving aspects in their daily > jobs. Even professionals don't want to always have to deal with > things which explicitly require a professional. Excellence in design > doesn't necessarily have to result in awkwardness. The fact that even > the "mass of unskilled consumers" benefit from this is a completely > different issue. The point is that what's good for unskilled people > can be equally good for skilled people who no by themselves how to > provoke trouble if they really want it. ;-)
As an experienced Debian user, I'll second these sentiments. Since buzz I've been waiting for the Debian installation process to become a (as it should be) 30 minute process, hopefully with some tools included for mass installations. I use Debian myself exclusively but have to hesitate before recommending it to others new to Linux because the process of getting started is harder than it should be. I also am disappointed with the attitude of some people towards making these things easier to do. Is it some kind of techno-snobbery, maybe? Making things easier does not necessitate dumbing-down things for more competent users. Once up and running, a Debian system is far more maintainable than the alternatives -- a great factor in on-going ease of use. Can some focus be brought to getting there with similar ease? I've been with Debian for over 2 years now and would be sad to have to abandon it in the long run because of 'we don't do that' politicking instead of pragmatism amongst developers. -tl ...... please forgive my abrupt ending hre - but my conection is xtrememleyyhiclmelyey BAD hiccuppy etc must sign off - EF D8 33 68 B3 E3 E9 D2 C1 3E 51 22 8A AA 7B 98
