On Sun, 20 Aug 2000, Fred W. Noltie Jr. wrote:
>
> > As a reluctant windoze developer newly encountering the Linux
> > learning curve, I may have a few useful observations to
> > contribute. I lurk on this development forum because I'm hoping
> > to eventually port my software products to Linux, but so far my
> > company only uses Linux for its servers. The bottom line for me
> > is that regardless of how much I might like Linux, in its current
> > state Linux is unusable as a desktop OS for my customers.
>
> It is ironic that you would write about this today, since I was just
> discussing this very issue with others earlier. Please note that I
> don't write the following as a criticism of you personally; you simply
> created an itch that I must scratch :-)
>
> What is *really* ironic, in my book, is that Microsoft and its merry
> band of Windows-only software producers seem to really think that they
> are making software that is "easy to use."
>
> I did some tech support for a family member yesterday. This person has
> been using computers for at least 15 years, including almost 10 as a
> home user. On the face of it one would suspect that such a person
> reasonably could be expected to know how to install a hardware
> driver -- particularly when accompanied by instructions -- onto a
> Windows 98 Plug and Play computer.
>
> And yet this person could not do it, and it's not for a lack of
> intelligence, either.
>
> The simple fact is unavoidable: Microsoft et. al. have *failed* in
> their efforts at making computers "easy to use." Have a listen on the
> real tech support lines and I'm sure that you will be forced to agree.
>
> In light of this, it seems entirely disingenuous for Microsofties to
> complain about Linux being "hard" to use. Obviously "hard" is a
> relative term. Personally I found it rather simple and logical to
> learn Linux -- and I have about one-half the computing experience of
> the family member I mentioned.
>
The fact that Microsoft products may be difficult to use sometimes does
not make Linux use any easier. I seriously doubt that he tried to start a
Microsoft vs. Linux flame war. To me, his points seem to be well thought
out and considerate of alternatvie operating systems.
In any case, I agree with you that Windows is considered more
"user-friendly" mainly because it is the OS we see everywhere. I mean,
the first time I ran a Mac OS I found it really difficult to use because I
had never seen it before. "User-friendly" is too subjective of a category
to be meaningful at all, but it is true that Linux still forces users to
have a certain degree of expertise in order to achieve simple tasks.
Microsoft products can and do fail sometimes when trying to configure a
printer. However, the very same process is extremely painful in Linux,
and most computer illiterate users would find it nearly impossible to
do. And I'm not even talking about the filesystem, the fact that it is a
multiuser OS and users have to get aquainted with the idea of file and
directory permissions, learn some basics on system administration, etc.
> People rant about writing "intuitive" interfaces, but really: how is a
> GUI any more 'intuitive' than a command line? Again, it's a matter of
> perception. Neither a GUI nor a CLI is "intuitive" to a man who has
> never before seen a computer, which suggests that the reality is this:
> "intuitive", in relation to human interfaces, is really far more a
> matter of experience than anything else. To me it's obvious that if I
> want to know what a file's contents may be under Linux, I simply need
> to run the 'file' command. On the other hand, it was completely
> NON-intuitive for my relative to figure out from an icon what a file
> was under Windows, even with years of experience (the file in question
> was a text file, with the usual memo-pad icon).
>
It's pretty clear to me that the GUI _is_ more user-friendly. Just think
about it. If I'm not familiar with a given OS I can always open the
Preferences or Settings GUI and take a look around. However, if the OS is
CLI-based, then I'd better know the exact command I'm supposed to enter
and all its flags, ect.
------------------------------
Nitebirdz
http://www.linuxnovice.org
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