[H-GEN] Windows to *nix

[David Duffy]

Anthony Irwin wrote:
> <snip>
> Windows: In the windows world developers have the mind set that their
> users are afraid of computers and don't know what they are doing and
> don't want to know and that they should hide as many options as
> possible and create friendly terms that make it easier for people who
> know nothing but when you do know what you want you never seem to be
> able to find what you want because its called something that has
> nothing to do with what you want or is hidden several layers deep
> through menus and pop up windows to avoid scaring their users and in
> many cases the options you want won't exist because thats to hard for
> people to understand and why would anyone want to do that.

I have two Linux boxes (both servers) but ten or so Windows ones and
I've developed a number of Windows (GUI) applications and never found
the need to hide options away where they can't be found. Compared with a
Linux GUI application I can't see how this is any different from a
developer or user perspective. You can generate a crap application in
either environment! I program in Delphi. I could probably port some my
apps to Linux via the Kylix compiler if I wanted to, and I may even do
that one day.

> *nix: In the *nix world developers have the mind set that their users
> are only going to be newbies for so long and that they will learn the
> terms and what they are trying to achieve. Once the users know what
> they are doing they will be able to do more use the correct terms and
> have more power and flexibility. *nix developers will create lots of
> small utilities that can be used together to do things that they never
> thought anyone would want to do. It means learning how to use these
> tools and thinking about how to put them all together to get the
> result you want but in the end it means that you have no restrictions
> and can do anything provided you are willing to learn.

This is what will hold back the take up of Linux then. Most PC users do
not care for the details. They *want* point and click. Windows gives
them that. Job done. Don't over estimate the requirements of the great
unwashed. Most of them just want to switch it on and do fairly
undemanding tasks. They'd whine about Linux the first time something
doesn't behave as expected the same way they whine now about Windows.

> The joining of all these programs may result in a really cool user
> friendly gui program or a bash script that is run in a cron job it
> doesn't matter because you have the power.
>
> Now I know that you are not always going to want to learn the ins and
> outs of everything I know I don't and sometimes I just go find a gui
> app to do what I want and don't look at all the cli tools. A perfect
> example of this is burning a music cd, I don't want to find out how to
> convert every mp3 to a wav file and type a big long list of wavs to
> create a music cd I will just use the k3b burning program and drag and
> drop the files and click burn. But if I want to burn a iso cd image I
> will use good old cdrecord at the command line as I find it faster
> then trying to load and navigate through the menus of the gui app.
>
> This is they type of power and flexibility that windows users will
> never experience because of the mind set of the user base. Now these
> days there are more and more user friendly programs linking all these
> tools together to make it easy for people to do things and thats a
> great thing.
>
> Now I realise that this power and flexibility comes at the expense of
> a longer learning curve. But realistically most people will continue
> using computers for the rest of their lives so spending a bit of time
> to dramatically increase their productivity and increase their ability
> to get things done is an invaluable investment.

A lot of PC users have the attention span of a Gnat and will never be
tempted to really look seriously at something that's different to what
they have now.

> <snip>
> Also in a *nix system everything is open you can find everything and
> see what is happening to help diagnose problems or just to understand
> whats happening. Windows seems to try and hide everything and make it
> secret and obscure making it harder for people to know whats going on
> and fix problems in fact all the windows people I know say the only
> real way to fix windows is to format and reinstall.

I'm not sure I agree on this. I only re-install Windows (XP) when I get
a new HDD or such. Earlier versions were not as good in this regard I'll
grant you. My early fiddling with Linux had me re-installing it when I
had got it screwed up too far for me to rescue. No different to Windows
in this regard too.

> Sure being able to diagnose problems, read through logs and manually
> changing configuration files can be a steep learning curve but once
> done you control the computer not the other way around.

Again, most PC users not not want to know *how* it works. They just want
it *to* work.

> I guess I feel it would be extremely cruel to introduce someone into
> the *nix world without releasing them from their shackles that were
> put on them when they learned the windows way. By removing them of
> their limiting mind set given to them by the windows world they can
> become free to use their computer anyway they wish and if that is
> point and click then so be it but at least show them the light so they
> can decide for themselves.
>
> I guess I am being one of those traditional *nix bigots. It would be
> interesting to see how others feel about it but the only people I know
> that only use *nix systems are hard core *nix people that see a lot of
> the new windows world methods for doing things bloated, cumbersome and
> bug ridden.
>
> I for one hope that people continue to learn the *nix ways and that
> the user friendly *nix distros don't completely hide the fact that
> there is more to life then the point and click gui.

There's nothing wrong with a "point and click GUI", just like there's
nothing wrong with command line stuff. It's all horses for courses. You
use what's the most efficient for *you*.
David...

-- 
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David Duffy        Audio Visual Devices P/L
Unit 8, 10 Hook St, Capalaba 4157 Australia
Ph: +61 7 38235717      Fax: +61 7 38234717
Our Web Site: www.audiovisualdevices.com.au
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