The KDE team has released KDE 3.5.8, a maintenance release. New stuff: "Improvements in Konqueror and its web browsing component KHTML. Bugs in handling HTTP connections have been fixed, KHTML has improved support of some CSS features for more standards compliance. In the kdegraphics package, lots of fixes in KDE's PDF viewer and Kolourpaint, a painting application, went into this release. The KDE PIM suite has, as usual, seen numerous stability fixes, covering KDE's email client KMail, the organizer application KOrganizer and various other bits and pieces."
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Member since:2005-09-21
Yes, the average computer user has become less knowledgeable, but the average person (that's what I should have said) is becoming more knowledgeable. Yes there are plenty of people out there with no clue, but anyone under 25-30 these days knows at least enough to use a computer with some competency (even if that is only to create documents in Microsoft word, browse the internet, and send emails). Although that doesn't sound like a lot of knowledge, it is actually quite a bit of user interface experience.
Member since:2005-12-31
The problem I've experienced with many of these users is that they become incredibly retarded computer-wise the moment they are placed in front of something unfamiliar. Move the windows start-menu from the bottom to the top of the window, and they're completely lost ... user interface experience isn't always an experience that is worth anything ...
Member since:2005-07-06
Yes there are plenty of people out there with no clue, but anyone under 25-30 these days knows at least enough to use a computer with some competency
That is probably true. Unfortunately there is a lot of people out there that still holds jobs that are a lot older than that, and they may not be all that computer literate. So if we want the free desktop to succeed we still need it to be very simple to use.
If it is just as usable as MacOS-X or windows why should the user switch, after all if he sticks to windows he is much more likely to exchange files and experience with his neighbors or colleagues, as windows applications are much more common among the general public.
Member since:2005-07-06
Nope, I think the exact opposite is happening. I was recently talking with a friend of mine about this and we noted how, for example, when we where kids, just about everybody who had a computer at least knew a little bit of programming.
Computers did far, far less back then.
As computers become more pervasive the average computer user becomes less and less techno-savvy simply because more an more techno un-savvy people get computers.
How on Earth do you think people would have reacted to the interface of a mobile phone twenty years ago? How do you think most people have got used to features like predictive text?
Member since:2005-08-15
Member since:
2005-07-06
The average user is becoming more and more techno-savvy as computers become more pervasive,
Nope, I think the exact opposite is happening. I was recently talking with a friend of mine about this and we noted how, for example, when we where kids, just about everybody who had a computer at least knew a little bit of programming. Everybody was reasonably comfortable with editing text files to make things happen, where perfectly happy using the command line, and on the whole had a reasonable grasp how computers work. This was all obviously because computers where far more rare and if you owned and used one you where almost per definition a computer nerd.
As computers become more pervasive the average computer user becomes less and less techno-savvy simply because more an more techno un-savvy people get computers.