Uwe Thiem schreef: > On 04 September 2005 11:41, Holly Bostick wrote: > > I've tried to stay away from this thread but can't resist any more. > ;-) > > [ snip a lot of Holly's rant I mostly agree with ] > > >> This is why I can't deal with all the people I encounter who >> suggest that 'it' should 'JustWork' without need for instruction of >> any sort (whether that be a physical manual, man pages, READMEs, >> or Windows Help files). >> >> Like humanity is sooooooo good at making stuff, and 'users' are >> sooooooo brilliantly educated, that they should be able to look at >> a computing device and immediately know what it all means (like >> looking at a screwhole, a screw, and a screwdriver). >> >> It's not gonna happen any time soon, and it certainly hasn't >> happened yet. Operating a computer safely, reliably, and with any >> degree of competence whatsoever is a hard and complex task, and >> it's going to be hard for some time to come. > > > That is exactly the reason I feel I have to make sure I do not add > further complexity to it for my users. My users, or actually my > customers and their users, are mostly office workers, engineers and > journalists or other workers at newspapers. So it's mostly about > corporate computing rather than home users. They do not administrate > their boxes, they use them. Or, to use Holly's example of driving, > they are drivers rather than car mechanics.
Yes, Uwe, I see what you mean-- but do you see that they don't *have* to be competent/educated/committed.... because they have you to be that for them? My point was only that *someone* has to be, because we are not at such a state of technological advancement where it's possible for such a device to operate without somebody who knows what they're doing somewhere along the line. Behind every good (and bad) user, there's a frazzled admin keeping the channel clear for them. > <snip of Uwe's rant, most of which I agree with> > > If you geeks want to use whatever you want, that is fine. For *you*. > Don't even dream about converting the vast majority of computer > *users* with that approach. Hey, who you calling a geek? ;-) But seriously, where are you going with this? First of all, who cares about converting anybody? But let's say somebody does... and there are, naturally, those who do. Those who do are... let's see... commercial distributions like Mandriva, SUSE, RedHat. Seems to me that they already go to a lot of trouble to conform their environments to the type of standard you describe. Only a few apps like OO.o just won't get in line. So those who have a stake in managing such issues, manage such issues. Those who have a stake in such issues being managed, go with the organization that's managing the issues they need managed. So is there any reason that I, as someone not particularly interested in managing this issue, need to think any more about this :-) ? Holly -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
