On 2005-07-08, Stephen R Laniel wrote:
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> On Thu, Jul 07, 2005 at 11:07:19PM +0200, Brice M=E9alier wrote:
>> Sure a GUI is not a bad habit! far from that! but it has the drawback to
>> lower the "brain use" of the user... A computer is a tool which use you
>> must learn and unfortunately GUIs tend to avoid any learning from the
>> user side.
>
> What's wrong with lowering the brain use of the user?
Atrophy.
> For a lot of us on this list, a computer is something we
> play with -- in our off hours, many of us (myself included)
> get a kick out of learning new things on these boxes,
> testing their limits, etc. To put it very mildly, I believe
> most users are not this way. They have some stuff they need
> to get done, and they do it: they browse the web, write
> email, do some stuff in their word
> processor/spreadsheet, etc. That's it.
>
> So an interface that stops most users from learning will be
> precisely what they want. And if we ever want to get a large
> share of the desktop market, we can't assume that people
> care about learning how to extract the most from their
> computers. Think about computers like cars: most drivers get
> in, drive to work, gas it up every now and again, maybe
> change the occasional fluid,
They had to pass a test to be allowed to drive, which probably
required at least a little reading and/or instruction.
They can get from point A to point B because they either know the
way, have looked it up on a map, or know how to read road signs.
> but don't care in the least about extracting the maximum efficiency
> and speed from their engines.
Hence we have pollution, global warming, and a criminal waste of
fuel (and, by extrapolation, wars in the middle east).
>> But I think that if we get this e-mail that means the sender wants to
>> learn, so why not try to give him some useful hints even if he will not
>> use them, at least he'll be aware of.
>> I don't think that normal users will approach specialized mailing-lists.
>
> The original poster wanted to know how to make Debian (I
> presumed GNOME, but I don't know) do something that Windows
> could do. It could be handled entirely through the GUI.
Too often operating a GUI is like stopping at every intersection
and consulting a map to decide which road to take, even after
you've driven the route every day for years.
> I've not gotten down to do it yet, but I set up a challenge
> for myself: spend one month in front of my computer without
> touching the command line, mutt, or vim. I want to sell
> Linux to my friends, and I can't sell it to them by doing
> anything at the command line or using an extremely arcane
> text editor.
Then teach them emacs. ;)
--
Chris F.A. Johnson <http://cfaj.freeshell.org>
==================================================================
Shell Scripting Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach, 2005, Apress
<http://www.torfree.net/~chris/books/cfaj/ssr.html>
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