Star Is the Linux Desktop Too Much Like Windows, Mac OS X?
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 27th Aug 2009 19:08 UTC
Linux A complaint you hear quite often is that the Linux desktop environments, which mostly refers to KDE and GNOME, are trying too hard to be like Windows and Mac OS X. Now, even James Bottomley, Distinguished Engineer at Novell, Director of the Linux Foundation, and Chair of its Technical Advisory Board (put that on your business card) states in an interview that he believes the Linux desktop is too much like Windows and Mac.
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RE[3]: Yeah...
by setec_astronomy on Thu 27th Aug 2009 22:45 UTC in reply to "RE[2]: Yeah..."
setec_astronomy
Member since:
2007-11-17

People like car analogies, and I do like this one. But, allow me to mention this, people expect cars to follow some specific rules, even if they never drove one. For example, where is the steering wheel, how do you use it, where are brakes, where to shift gears, where to honk.


There is something about this whole "using car analogies for computer related scenarios" that I always thought of as kind of odd:

What is the equivalent of the driving license in relation to computers in this picture?

I don't know about the situation in different countries, but where I live taking (and passing) theoretical and practical courses is mandatory in order to receive a driving license. This courses include a very brief introduction to the inner workings of a car, (e.g. ignoring the oil pressure warning light while you drive is not exactly a good idea, how to roughly evaluate the safeness of your cars breaking system, which type of fuel is for which engine, how to estimate the necessary time and distance for (emergency) breaks, etc.) a laughable short first aid course and of course a rather detailed introduction to the topic of traffic rules.

In the 12 years since I got my driving license, I had to deal with at least six different ways to shift into the reverse gear (VWs try-to-push-the-gear-stick-down-and-then-select-the-first-gear method proved difficult to figure out the first time using the schematic on the gear sticks head while standing downhill rather close to a concrete wall, for example). And just don't get me started on the airplane-like cockpits of contemporary tractors and harvesters.

My theory: With minimal - and proper - training, people can adapt to the surprisingly large number of variations that occur in the operation of vehicles.

Edited 2009-08-27 22:48 UTC

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