On Monday 23 February 2004 12:21 pm, deedee wrote: > In an earlier paragraph of the same post, I note the following: > >> If your computing life has been primarily with ms win and ms dos, then > >> you should know it is a completely different way of doing things. > > The experts I know who have all along been using several OSes don't > have the same problems as those who have learned about computers > and whose experiences are primarily with ms win. It is the ms win-only > people who will find Linux a completely different world. Other people > know that every system is its own world.
Yes, I suspect that I was aware of what you meant but wanted to throw my .02p/c in about "experts." I have met Win "experts" with MSC*'s out the yahoo that I wouldn't credit with being able to troubleshoot a problem properly, much less figure out a solution. Then again, I have met some power-users that were far better/more knowledgable at figuring out solutions to problems than some experts I know. The devil is always in the details. > I was debating with myself whether to refer to them as advanced > users or experts, but power users works just as well, and I have no > problem with that terminology. I just want to make clear that I'm > talking about a particular group of experts which I defined, albeit > inadequately, in an earlier paragraph of the post you refer to. I am just being a curmudgeon of late. "Hey, you kids, get out of my yard." ;-} > > The expert, OTOH, even in Windows, fully expected to devote the time > >to figuring out how to adjust the system. The end goal is not to have a > >customized system but the knowledge gained from learning how to adjust. > > I'm not sure that I agree with this as a generality. You are speaking as > a support person. I am a user. I've used many systems over a period of > 30 years -- dedicated systems, mainframes, miniframes, as well as > several systems on PCs. That is the problem with generalities, in general. There are always exceptions. I would still probably stand by my classification in general, noting inevitable exceptions. Power-users want to alter a system with the end-goal of making that system fit their own desires and notions of how to get things done, customize, personalize, improve their personal performance. Experts tinker with the system out of a desire for knowledge/to seek improvement of the system itself. I say that because experts on anything are almost never one-trick ponies. I deal in multiple operating systems as a matter of course. As do a lot of software developers, administrators, etc. I must alter my workflow to match the OS in some way shape or form. Thus, getting a directory is "ls" in Linux, "dir" in Windows, etc. I can create aliases to shape the command structure anyway that I like but since I am constantly moving from box to box, depending on that puts me at a disadvantage. I must alter my knowledge to suit the system ultimately. Developers, Administrators, hackers, all would generally fit that same bill. A power-user, OTOH, learns very deep skills at a specific function or set of functions and stays using the same system for long enough that customization is not only possible but preferable for them. So, just because I say power-user doesn't mean that I am disparaging the skills they possess, but that I define experts as those that have to generalize somewhat, if only to keep up with the march of technology. Power-users, in my mind, are like eye surgeons who use lasers. They need to alter the use of tools/tools themselves to insure that the surgery is performed in the best, most efficient way possible. The expert would be the engineer who builds the laser. By definition, he needs to learn more general things about lasers because he will be building the next generation and can't necessarily depend on how the other ones work as he moves forward. > I always go in expecting a basic system to be able to do certain > things and that the problem I face is learning how that system > does them so I can customize the system to do what I need. I recognize > that this will require effort on my part and some portion of time on a > learning curve. > > My goal is to customize the system to work for me. I have no interest > in computers as such or in systems as such. For me, they are strictly > tools or appliances, if you will. I'm just trying to get the appliance > to work as productively as I can. Which would fit my definition of a power-user. Again, not saying anything about the depth of skills, just the direction to which those skills are put. > > The > >newbie just wants to color, the power-user wants to put the exact right > > color in the spaces, the expert was probably always the type of person > > who was not content to color within the lines at all. I think that that > > type of mentality is rewarded much more in Linux than in Windows. > > I think getting the exact right color in the spaces is also rewarded > much more in Linux than in ms win. From my very first experiences > with ms win, I noted that the choices provided in ms win systems were > more cosmetic than real, because my choices were not available. I think that it is possible to alter Windows far beyond what is provided on the surface. I just can't think of a reason that you would put the extra effort into doing it with Win, when it is so much easier to do it with other OS's. -- Bryan Phinney Software Test Engineer
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