Date: Sun, 15 Sep 2002 03:46:51 +0200 From: "Anthony Atkielski" <anthony@freebie.atkielski.com> To: "FreeBSD Questions" <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Windows as opposed to Other OS's Message-ID: <000601c25c59$c481c980$0a00000a@atkielski.com> References: <Pine.LNX.4.44.0209112012550.1224-100000@janeway.vonbek.dhs.org> <007301c25b88$b9083d40$32040101@hume> <00ff01c25bc8$004c1c50$0a00000a@atkielski.com> <20020915010429.GA15368@labs.gr>
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Giorgos writes: > Try convincing my friends and all the people > who have asked me for ways and tricks to stabilise > their Windows installations over the years. No need. The fact that they are running Windows demonstrates that they are comfortable with it. If they were not, they'd change operating systems. > Nevertheless, I can name one too many cases > of people who are comfortably using Windows > for a not-so-extended period of time and then > run to me screaming for help. Being comfortable with a software product doesn't mean that you'll never need assistance with it. > Windows is not such a perfect place to be, when > you are an average user. It's a lot closer to perfection than the alternatives, which is one reason why it is the leader. > But because their ease of use tends to drive > you away from learning how things work, and you > tend to make many more mistakes along the way. You betray an example of the standard geek attitude. Why must anyone learn how a computer works? Should everyone take apart a television set and learn how it works before watching it? Did you learn human nutrition before eating your first meal? Do people learn how electricity is generated before plugging their hair dryers into the wall? Why should they? Only geeks care. > The answer to the problem of the complexity > that computers present the average user > with, is not making the computers "tools" > like you have pointed out so many times on this > list, but educating the users to know and use their > tools in effective ways. I'm afraid that isn't how it's going to happen. Computers will be simplified until there is virtually nothing to learn in order to use them. That has been the trend since the beginning, and it continues unabated. Any software product that does not follow this trend will not succeed in the mass market. > When someone asks you why and how he is supposed > to use a hammer, I'm sure you don't point him > to a plastic, pretty, and safe toy-hammer, > but start talking to him and explaining to > him the dangers of using a hammer in an inappropriate > way. Then hand them a real hammer :-) Nobody asks how to use a hammer. It is self-evident. Computers will be that way one day. > There is no such thing as an "easy" system. Not yet, although today's systems are child's play compared to their early predecessors. > Education *is* necessary for all of them OSes. When education is no longer necessary, computers will have joined the mainstream definitively. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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