On 09/18/2012 12:12 PM, Camaleón wrote:
On Tue, 18 Sep 2012 11:54:07 -0400, The Wanderer wrote:
On 09/18/2012 11:41 AM, Camaleón wrote:
No, it means that panic can be treated with reading. Reading (and the
ensuing understanding on how this stuff works) is a "must" for every
computer user. There are no work-arounds, bypasses or magic hints to
avoid this step.
True, although there *is* a potential limit on just how *much*
"understanding on how this stuff works" is, or should be, necessary.
Okay, I agree the user does not need to hold a MS in Computer Science as a
previous requirement for installing an OS and managing a computer.
So we have an upper boundary. Do we have a lower boundary? I think that might be
part of what this discussion is (or should have been) trying to arrive at.
To look at things from a possibly different perspective: what are the
minimum advance-reading and resulting-understanding requirements, for
install and (separately) for basic system usage, for e.g. Windows?
For installing Windows "from scratch" I'd say the requirements are pretty the
same: the user will need to know about BIOS booting preferences, hard disk
partitioning strategies and filesystem formats, network settings and the
basic rules for choosing a username and password. And this is the bare
minimum they'll need to know.
Depending on the Windows version, I'm not sure you do need to know that, at
least not if you're willing to accept the defaults rather than clicking on
"Advanced" buttons.
I'll check on that when I have a chance; I work with Windows at work, and I have
access to installers for at least a couple of different versions. Did you have a
particular Windows version in mind?
Do we want to try to at least meet that same minimum threshold, or is being
harder-to-use than Windows an acceptable thing?
I realized after posting this that I should also have asked the more fundamental
question of whether we already *do* meet (or surpass) that minimum threshold.
As I've been saying all the time, I think the difference here is not marked
by the OS but the user attitude: when you compare both installation processes
in one to one, you realize that Windows is as easier/harder than Linux.
That's a reasonable position, but as hinted at above, I'm not sure it's actually
true. I'd like to do a side-by-side comparison and see what the "choice points",
and from there the necessary knowledge, for a Windows install actually are.
--
The Wanderer
Warning: Simply because I argue an issue does not mean I agree with any
side of it.
Every time you let somebody set a limit they start moving it.
- LiveJournal user antonia_tiger
--
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Archive: http://lists.debian.org/5058a363.8090...@fastmail.fm
