Linked by Charles Williams on Mon 7th Apr 2003 03:17 UTC
We have all heard the horror stories of how GNU/Linux is difficult, if not almost impossible, as far as general desktop usability is concerned. In particular, there seems to be a continuous stream of gripes printed across the Internet, from Microsoft Windows users who wish, or have tried, to migrate to GNU/Linux, yet gave up in frustration. But what happens when complete computer newbies are introduced to GNU/Linux? By computer newbies, I am referring to those who have no computer experience whatsoever, in either a Windows, Mac, Linux, Unix or other environment.
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This article was most interesting for the bit that proves something I've thought for a long time - the comment that the newbies didn't find *anything* unusual about typing commands into a CLI. Some people seem to be on a crusade to eliminate the console from Linux for newbie users entirely...why? CLI is as valid an interface as GUI, and I don't see why it's intrinsically any worse, more unsuitable for new users, or more "difficult". A proper operating system should have a good CLI for tasks for which a command line is more efficient, and a good GUI for tasks for which a graphical interface is more efficient, and someone who's NEVER USED WINDOWS - which started on the bizarre "typed commands are evil" crusade with Win95 - wouldn't see anything odd about that, as this article shows.