Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 16:20:31 -0600 From: "Mike Meyer" <mwm-dated-1008541231.da3986@mired.org> To: Eric Melville <eric@FreeBSD.org>, Nils Holland <nils@tisys.org> Cc: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: EzBSD aint for me! Was: A breath of fresh air.. Message-ID: <15382.34479.632853.153669@guru.mired.org> In-Reply-To: <20011211140107.A67653@FreeBSD.org> References: <0112071641320B.01380@stinky.akitanet.co.uk> <01121010202100.00345@stinky.akitanet.co.uk> <20011211144049.A14693@acidpit.org> <20011211214943.A4489@tisys.org> <15382.29599.349155.309028@guru.mired.org> <20011211230257.A5157@tisys.org> <20011211140107.A67653@FreeBSD.org>
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Eric Melville <eric@FreeBSD.org> types: > > Stuff with pretty pictures that can be used by illiterates right out > > of the box used to be called "user friendly". A friend of mine called > > what you've described as "expert friendly". Systems which are "user > > friendly" without being flexible - like Windows - are "expert > > hostile". Systems which are neither user nor expert friendly, aka MVS, > > are "user hostile". > The term "user-friendly" is very abused these days. Experts are users too. > Nils Holland <nils@tisys.org> types: > User friendliness doesn't neccessarily have to be the opposite of expert > friendliness - contrary to popular belief spread by a big software company. > FreeBSD can suit both needs, on the one hand booting right into a KDE GUI, > on the other hand running entirely in console mode. That is friendly, as it > allows users to choose what they prefer and really need. You are both right. However, whenever I try to claim that Windows isn't as user-friendly as FreeBSD because it won't do what I, as a user, want it to do (see the ratpoison port for an example of what I want it to do) people tell me I'm crazy. The real problem is, as Nils pointed out, that once you start making things "user-friendly", experts tweaking the insides cause things that don't expect such changes to break. I've seen Windows software that had the CD-ROM wired to D:, and it wouldn't install if you had two disks in the machine. This kind of thing even happens with FreeBSD. I changed LOCALBASE, which means I generally can't use packages, and get to fix ports that assume that everything installs in /usr/local. The latter hasn't happened in a while, though. <mike -- Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/ Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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