Re: Clueless users are bad for debian (was Let's CENSOR it!)
On Thu, Mar 25, 1999 at 11:10:55PM -0800, Steve Lamb wrote:
> On Thu, 25 Mar 1999 18:27:57 -0500, Andrew Pimlott wrote:
> >If you want help Debian, drop the macho "software has to be hard to be
> >powerful" attitude, and figure out how to make more of Debian like the
> >package system.
>
> I don't see him having a "macho 'software has to be hard to be
> powerful'" attitude.
Although my remark was pointed, I think it's accurate. Hi is right that
catering to beginners would be a mistake (fortunately, not one that the
Debian developers are about to make). But the belief that making software
easier will necessarily remove control and power from the user is dead
wrong, and will only impede the progress of Debian.
To want software to remain difficult, just to keep beginners from getting in
over their heads, is perverse. Yet that's what the poster was asking for!
If Debian is not suited for the "cluebie", we should tell cluebies not to
use it. Still, I want software to be easier for _me_!
> I see it as the same one I have, RTFM!
Amen! I don't ask for software that works without knowlege on the part of
the user (not yet, anyway). But this is largely orthogonal to making
software more usable (which includes, by the way, improving the manuals).
The association of "usable" with "idiot-proof" is what I'm trying to break.
With more thoughtful notions of usability, we can write better software.
Andrew
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