True but this graphical no-window animated desktop ( From now on, lets term this desktop as Animated Desktop ) will fill the gap between users and non-users.
I totally agree with you. I remember seeing something similar in an 1996 compaq PC (with win 95).. basically, on top of the OS, compac had some layer which provided that kind of an easy interface.. i dont know the full details... but my cousin's computer illiterate family realy used to prefer that over navigating complex menus... A primary Fitts' law on UI design is about making targets easy to acquire .. all menu based navigations violate that .. and can be surprisingly complex for newbies.
India still has a lot of scope for adding new users who otherwise keep away from PCs. This is also aimed at helping senior citizens. It is not meant to be used in a professional environment. In linux we have the facility of switching desktops so by default the new animated desktop automatically starts and when an advanced user from the same family wants to sit on the pc, he/she will switch to the normal desktop till the machine reboots again. In windows we can't do that so we got an edge over them.
I agree, FLOSS can gain significant market share and penetration in the currently untapped markets like India where many middle class or elderly people are still not using computers because of accessiblity/localization issues. What you are asking for is a really nice idea, but I think we can create some easy solutions within existing and popular linux desktop environments.. hence maintaining compatiblity.. for example, Is this close to what you are talking about? http://kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=29692 or maybe you can use this as a starting point, and amend it suitably in any way you deem fit. maybe there are simlar ideas on having some kisk mode "animated desktop" on gnome/xfce too.. ? otherwise, multiple desktops also give us an ability to configure the UI in any way.. for example we can rename desktop 1,2,3,4 to somethng like multimedia, internet, Office, games.. etc.. and then have very large and visible, easily identifiable, relevant icons on each of them.. (just an idea) -- http://mm.glug-bom.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxers
