OSNews

There are several flaws with the argument presented in TFA.

To start with, the crux of the argument seems to be: "Any time a technically-inclined user expresses opposition to changes to software, it's because they have an inherent, blind aversion to all change."

The most obvious & fundamental problem is that such an absolutist, sweeping generalization is a really poor foundation for *any* argument. Aside from that, it ignores two significant factors:

1) That argument makes no distinction between changes that result in real, practical benefit - and changes that are nothing but change for-the-sake-of change. Granted, some changes are actually improvements - but there's (at least) an equal number that are just "rearranging the deck chairs" to appease newness-addicts (the "If it's not new, it sucks" crowd).

2) And related to the above, it's usually the technically-inclined users who are in the best position to make an informed judgment as to whether or not a change is beneficial.

3) As others have already pointed out, advanced users are the ones whose productivity is most likely to suffer because of changes. If the cost of a change (in terms of lost productivity, time spent re-learning, etc) outweighs the benefits, then that's a situation where aversion to change is both informed and reasonable.

I also disagree with the notion that technically-inclined users have a greater aversion to change than non-technical users - at the very least, the reality is a little more nuanced than TFA paints it.

The bare, basic functionality of software usually doesn't change significantly between releases - and if someone doesn't use any features beyond the basics (more likely in the case of non-technical users), then there's much less chance of problems resulting from the changes.

And on the flip side, non-technical users are much more likely to depend on rote-memorization of a series of steps (without really understanding the overall path, or the reasons for the individual steps). Anyone who has done technical support or training of non-technical users can relate experiences where users become hopelessly-lost because of some minor change (E.g., one changed word in the label of a button or menu item).