On Thursday 18 July 2002 04:44 pm, Victor Odhner wrote:
> Here's an exercise for you (one that was imposed on me
> this week): help a Windows user step through some
> operations, such as installing a new program, without
> EVER asking them to type a shell command. It was a
> sobering experience, and it reinforced the opinions
> I'm expressing here.
This depends on your distribution. There are many excellent graphical tools
for most common tasks. Yes it is a fragmented "market", but that is the
purpose of a distribution. Lycoris, Mandrake, Suse (?), Lindows, Xandros
(and I'm sure there are others) all dedicate a significant effort on behalf
of the casual user market.
I guess what I am trying to say is that the problem is being examined. Can
a casual user sit down and do anything they want without reading a manual?
No, but the answer is the same no matter which OS you are looking at. In
the end, a computer is a general purpose machine and we are still trying to
decide what is "best" for the user.
You say the "desktop fell flat on its face", but I think you meant to say
that it does not behave in a similar manner to Windows. That is certainly
a valid opinion, but distributions exist to deal with the "transition
market", as well. ;-)
- --
Logan Kennelly
,,,
(. .)
- --ooO-(_)-Ooo--
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