Date: Sat, 13 Mar 2004 16:27:18 +0100 From: Lucas Czejgis <lucas@office.net.pl> To: freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Installation - More user friendly Message-ID: <200403131629.21662.lucas@office.net.pl> In-Reply-To: <4B3F673172B98D449EBCC3BE8316F524014B32@exch4.elcsb.net> References: <4B3F673172B98D449EBCC3BE8316F524014B32@exch4.elcsb.net>
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> Most non-technical people like GUI's because they neither want to know nor > should they need to know the gazillion command line entries and options. > That's the kind of thing that makes us "the pros" at what we do. PC's > didn't become popular for home use until the advent of the GUI. Apple, > despite many technical decisions that I can't agree with, are still with us > because of the wonderful user interface. Windows, all bashing aside, is > not the most desirable operating system for a variety of TECHNICAL reasons, > but it still maintains it market share. Why? Because it offers two things > 1) the comfort factor that comes with familiarity and 2) the "wizards" to > accomplish fairly complex tasks by making selections in a GUI. This alone > should point out that the user interface is NOT a technical issue. > > I think that the ultimate flaw in much of the logic I see here is in > assuming that we, being the programmers, system administrators, hackers, > etc., that we all are on list, know what end users want. We soooooo are > NOT the average end user. I think I can safely say that we left being end > users ourselves behind so long ago that we've forgotten what it's like. > Think about what your Mother (or at least mine :)) would want to use. > Actually having to go to the command line, when you've been trained by > decades of M$ products that this a very bad thing to do, and type stuff in > terrifies her. She's always certain that she's going to make a mistake and > blow things up. > > > 2 cents, > > Jimi I agree with you in 100%. I remember when I first tried to install FreeBSD. It was simply a Horror! After about three times, I decided that this is not the day, when I install FreeBSD. Propably, the reason why I decided to let it go, is that I was used to Mandrake's way of installing a OS. Now, I thing that sysinstall is simply great. I could install FreeBSD with my eyes closed. But then... I thing that the FreeBSD need to decide, if: a) FreeBSD is a OS for everyone = make a GUI installer b) FreeBSD is a OS for those, who know more, that a "ordinary" user knows = stay with sysinstall or something similar The decision must me made, sooner or later (propably sooner)... Lucas Czejgis
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