Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[Tanner Lovelace <lovelace AT wayfarer.org>]

Bill Geschwind said the following on 4/7/04 11:00 AM:

> And it's a mentality like that that will keep OSS from making the leap
> from something only for programmers/sysadmins into something for the
> mainstream. The commoners who these days use (and abuse) Windows don't
> know the first thing about programming, and once you put them in front
> of a Linux box with what to them looks like a bewildering GUI they will
> complain and whine about it without end, but they won't have the
> patience or inclination to work through the rather steep learning curve
> to learn how to program and modify the UI to their own liking. I have
> used and admind Windows for more than 14 years but only have been
> putting a serious attempt into learning and using Linux since January,
> and as a Linux n00B I have to second Alan's sentiment that to the
> uninitiated Linux is a pain in the ass, and quite a royal one at that!
> (Installing it has become rather easy, however what to do from there is
> where the PITA starts).
>
> - Bill

Bill,

Who says that the people writing OSS want it to make that leap?  The
point is that the software wasn't written for endusers.  It was written
because the people who wrote it wanted what it does.  There's nothing
wrong with that.  The software I write (like
http://search.cpan.org/~lovelace/Gallery-Remote-0.01/) was written
because I needed it to do something I wanted to do.  Until you can
convice people that good usability fulfills something they need they
have no incentive to make it that way, just like Microsoft has no
incentive to make it's OS secure against things like viruses.

Cheers,
Tanner
--
Tanner Lovelace       | Don't move! Or I'll fill ya full of... little
lovelace AT wayfarer.org | yellow bolts of light! - Commander John Crichton