One person wrote:
>Some people missed the points I was making and now I know why Linux is
>going to have problems as long as the people who write programs for it
>don't drop this geeky attitude.
And another wrote:
>But, if you don't get them to learn, then they will always need a
>tech-support person. So if it's for a home system (the environment
wasn't
>clear, but I assume from the tone that no local tech-support was
available)
>then the user needs to learn the basic tools. So make it easy.
For mainstream this is really a big problem. (As are the still thin i810
support, lack of support for the now popular software modems, and -
unless
HP is really telling the truth in their announcement this week about
supporting Linux - the now ever present host based printers.) The fact
that
I've gone out of my way to shield the ordinary users from vi (and a
bunch
of other stuff no sysadmin would have trouble using) presupposes that
even
after I left those jobs there would always be some sysadmin around
to do the geeky stuff.
That assumption isn't true in the typical home environment, which is
partly
why Microsoft shipped Windows 9x full of security holes. It had to be
that
way to be easy. And as long as most machines weren't connected to much
of
anything it didn't matter much. Now that they're everywhere and have
open
TCP/IP links to the whole world it's a real problem. Linux could be the
same way. Ship it wide open like W95 and let the user beware; I have a
problem with that. Ship it in a straight jacket and make the user figure
it out - like OpenBSD; the average person will pass, thank you very
much.
But to gain widespread acceptance there has to be a balance of some
sort, and that balance might be very tricky to find. If you want only
geek systems then just stop now because the true geeks will configure it
like they want anyway. If you really want a kindergarten safe system
then
wall off the modem and the NIC and make everyone use the same desktop.
Neither of these choices makes any sense from a business perspective
unless you're trying to go out of business.
Now, in the Mandrake model there is a server install, a developer
install,
a desktop install, and some more. Perhaps the install needs another axis
to select related to the geek level of the target user(s). I could
certainly
see the utility of a server install with a novice user option. You end
up
with even root having pico as a default editor. Ultra-geek systems make
everybody use emacs from the command line. (Ducking the flying objects
from
the emacs lovers!!)
Or perhaps, since there can be multiple skel directories, prompt for a
geekness level at install time, make that level the default skel, and
build
a geekness level choice into a new replacement useradd frontend that
selects
the skel directory based on that level.
Keep the choices limited to about 5. 1)safe for children, 2)newbie,
3)been around the block but not with UNIX, 4)used UNIX some in a former
life,
and 5)UNIX god.
This ought to work whether it's a home install or a workplace with
technical
support available round the clock.
Michael
--
Michael R. Batchelor
(Why do I bother with this next line? I've got to copy and paste it in
anyway.
Maybe I'm just a showoff.)
7:10pm up 223 days, 3:17, 1 user, load average: 0.06, 0.11, 0.09
