Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 6th Jul 2007 10:56 UTC, submitted by michuk
The article 'Understanding the Common User' points that "everything should be as simple as it is... Or even simpler" and warns that converting a common user to Linux without giving him enough protection leads to a imminent failure. A rebuttal, 'Get Real or How Not To Convert Your Grandma to Linux' stresses that dumbing down is not the key to success, understanding is.
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Member since:
2005-12-31
It's too bad that these articles show a black-and-white view of the world where computers either have to be learnt for years, or are dumbed-down to the point to be useless.
The truth couldn't be farther away. There are many aspects of a computer system (hardware, OS, applications) that can be made simple, yet powerful. Just some examples:
- Hardware support. If your hardware works instantly without having to install drivers, your system is more simple, yet as powerful as before. This also includes things like keyboard layout, which nobody cared to implement realiably on PCs since their creation.
- Sensible defaults. As long as you can change them, sensible defaults make life easier for everyone. Result: less complexity for the beginner, yet as powerful as before.
- Standards. Standards make separate components work together without much hassle. This includes network protocol standards, file formats, file system layout, ... If standards are implemented properly, users don't *have* to look into the internals, but can do if they want.