Hi No need to CC me, I'm on the list -- otherwise I wouldn't have seen your email in the first place....
On Tue, 2013-02-26 at 21:35 +0000, Mark Filipak wrote: > On 2013/2/26 3:53 PM, Karl E. Jorgensen wrote: > -snip- > > Unfortunately, this is about as interesting to the average person as the > > engine manufacturer in their motor vehicle > -snip- > > Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! I'm interested in Linux. It's not Microsoft or Google. > It's open source. But I don't run Linux. OK - perhaps I misjudged your interest in engines - fair enough. But my point is (however badly expressed previously) that "most people" are really not that interested in what goes on inside their computers. They want to use them for a purpose (or their employer's purpose). It is a means to an end. It is a (quite complicated) tool. If they are not interested in what's inside the box, you need to take this into account in your advocacy. > > An OS that is difficult to install is not a friendly OS. People understand > this. True. And most people understand it so well that they will not even attempt to install an OS - they get the computers with the OS pre-installed. Surely it does not get easier than this! We may well disagree with their (possibly uninformed) choice of OS, but from their point of view, it is "easier". > > If documentation is vague or excessively wordy, the OS will be difficult to > use. People understand this. True. And if they do not have to use the documentation, so much the better. There's a saying in GUI design which seems apt here: "Do not make your users think!" - that slows people down and (apparently) annoys them too. Basically they want to concentrate on their jobs - if they need to know the underlying mechanics, this is considered an unwelcome distraction. And probably quite rightly so. > > The only installation decisions I should have to make are: What user name do > I want? What time zone am I in? I should not have to decide what GUI I want. > That should be determined later or not at all. That's pretty close to the default Debian installation :-) > > For everyone who doesn't have their own development department to adapt Linux > kernels to their widget, Linux has been a toy OS for technoweenies. That > hasn't changed in 10 years and Linux has made no headway on the desktop (or > the laptop). Why is that? I fear that you may have gone slightly overboard on that one... Regards
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