I think you missed the point. If a user doesn't need to see something, don't show it to them. Everything should just work. The user should only see error messages if something fails. Too much explanations in Software of everything the system is doing implies the developer is drowned in the code rather than thinking more about the interface to the user.
Professionalism doesn't have to do only with how beautiful it looks. It has more to do with how obvious the interface looks and how it doesn't get into the way of the user. The interface has to show that some thought has gone into the placement of almost every pixel on screen. It should feel natural. It doesn't mean that it should loose functionality, but that it shouldn't ask the user to make too many choices. Designing for newbies does not mean that the interface is meant for newbies. It means that newbies are the bottom line. It means that the interface should behave like what a reasonable person should expect it to behave if using it for the first time. Newbie != idiot Newbie != anti-geek Your last statement may have been meant as a joke but if you give a little bit of thought to it you realize it makes some sense, although you incorrectly implied that a newbie will not need a compiler. Just because somebody never used Linux before doesn't mean he doesn't need a compiler. Besides, why is Mandrake so poplular? Because they have a lower bottom line that most other distributions. Let me end by quoting Joelonsoftware: " http://www.joelonsoftware.com/uibook/chapters/fog0000000064.html ... there is a much worse kind of arrogance in software design: the arrogant assumption that "my software is so damn cool, people are just going to have to warp their brains around it." This kind of chutzpah is pretty common in the free software world. Hey, Linux is free! If you're not smart enough to decipher it, you don't deserve to be using it! " On Thu, 2002-08-15 at 05:06, Yura Gusev wrote: > I dont think that those messages make linux unprofessional or difficult > for newbies. They simply have to wait 10 sec for the GDM login screen (or > even autologin) and then login in their KDE and open StarOffice XMMS and > Mozilla. > Remember: > a) Build a system that any idiot can use and they will make a better idiot. > b) Build a system that any idiot can use and only idiots will use it. > Just a joke ;-) > > For the complete newbies i think we should make a new Mandrake distribution: > one CD, no compilers and development packages, no emacs ;-), > pre-configured programs and only one package for a task. > >
