Date: Sat, 23 Nov 2002 09:12:45 +0100 From: "Anthony Atkielski" <anthony@freebie.atkielski.com> To: "FreeBSD Advocacy" <freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: FreeBSD on the desktop (was: TheRegister article on Hotmail) Message-ID: <01e101c292c8$1aa8cda0$0a00000a@atkielski.com> References: <20021121161453.GA69019_submonkey.net@ns.sol.net> <008501c2917a$ac643080$0a00000a_atkielski.com@ns.sol.net> <200211221502.gAMF2a6a089963@catflap.bishopston.net> <20021122234047.GB60785@wantadilla.lemis.com> <014201c29296$f9cc4a20$0a00000a@atkielski.com> <20021123071534.GC39240@wantadilla.lemis.com>
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Greg writes: > You don't read your own messages? I'm an exception to the rule. > We were talking about desktops. We were also talking about bias. > I think you've either misunderstood or > misrepresented me. I don't recall addressing you specifically at all. > It's quite possible that Microsoft is easier > for beginners, though I'm getting the feeling > lately that it has become much more complicated. Actually, Windows XP is vastly simpler to use for most users, as compared with its predecessors. It's one of the most frequent comments I hear about the OS. > In addition, the screen on which I'm writing > this has a resolution of 2048x1536. What type of monitor is it, and how large is it, and what aspect ratio does the monitor have? > Just positioning the mouse on the correct > place is quite difficult. A graphics tablet can solve this problem in many cases. In any case, the problems you describe are common to all GUIs. And Microsoft software generally does have keyboard equivalents for everything, although they aren't very well documented. > By contrast, I make my slides with groff, and > I have a complete programming language behind > it to help me do exactly what I want. By contrast, I make my slides with Quark XPress, and I've never seen any need for any programming language when preparing documents. > Too often, Microsoft comes across like a child's > toy: brightly coloured and weak on functionality. That's what the market wants. > IMO the real reason why Microsoft is still used > so much is becausecomputer users are (still) mainly > newbies. When it becomes important for them to be > able to use computers effectively, more and more of > them will move on to something more powerful. No. The real reason why Microsoft is still used (or at least one of the reasons) is that most people couldn't care less about computers; they just want to get their work done. They do not share your interest in computers for the sake of computers, and thus do not want anything "more powerful," and do not care about using computers "more effectively." They have lives outside of computerland, and so they only use the computer long enough to finish some straightforward task, and then they go on to other things. Since this is not likely to change, neither is the dominance of software such as that produced by Microsoft likely to change, at least on the desktop. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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