Re: My views on openSUSE

Paul J Gans wrote:

I'm sorry. You've missed my point. YOU can do those things
because YOU know they exist. A newbie doesn't.


No it is a few years since I accepted that as a valid argument. The only
reason that users don't have the same problems finding their way around
Windows, is because they have been around Windows for a longer. But still
the users tend to not go further than the application menu if they can help
it.

Example, I often have to talk reps or remote stations through a problem. The
first problem for me is getting them into the control panel, 'where is
it?'. So I take them through the menu to the control panel, there is always
a long pause while they find the part in there that I want them to go into.
From then on I have to have a good memory for how the dialogs look and
which part of a dialog the user is likely to be looking at right now,
because even though the items I'm asking them to check are in front of
their eyes, they are universally blind to them, if you don't know the exact
words on the screen's labels then they can't find them.

I'm not saying MS users are thick by saying this, but this word blindness
when it comes to anything outside of their regular applications is pretty
much universal, even those of the Windows ilk who claim to know Windows
well.

Some of those same users are now coming into Linux, there will of cause have
the same problem with that word blindness as they had on Windows, except
for one very important point.

A lot of work for me in the past was related to science labs of various
kinds, I once went to work in a lab where the scientist I was working with
I was told was a leader in his field. But what had happened was that he had
sussed his work out so well that he had narrowed it down to 5 simple steps.
He had done this particular series of tests exactly like that for about 15
years.

It had dulled his mind such that the only way to describe the man I met when
I walked into that lab and for a couple of weeks while I studied his work,
was a gormless moron.

As a programmer I was there for two reasons, first to model the processes in
code and second to restructure the process. But I wasn't getting the
information I needed out of this moron, I had to find a way to wake him up.
So I broke his pattern, he had asked me to fix a problem on his lotus and I
deliberately broke it. I forced him to change his 5 step pattern.

Of cause he hated me, called me every possible name etc. But it did wake him
up, he had to think about his job again, then after a time I could get into
his head and get the information I needed. That same 'awakening' carried on
through his whole life, he wasn't the dull none speaking moron in the
coffee room anymore. Even looking at him around his lab you could see he
was more awake and much happier.

He still hated me though, didn't even take me to the pub when I left.

The reason I'm telling you this is because the same thing can happen to
Windows users. They get themselves into a tiny pattern, a bit of Word or
Excel, but only in the parts that they have used regularly, because they
know they work, attempt to take them outside that tiny area and they are
lost. Loading a game, but so used to the game loading and running itself
that if the load doesan't work they have no choice but to go looking in
news groups and forums and the answer they need must be to the same
question as they ask it, simmilar questions don't work on them, only exact
answers will do.

So, even if all Linux does for them is wake them up and make them realise
that they computer in front of them is capable of a lot more than those
tiny patterns that they were stuck in, then Linux is doing a great job.

But still, I have said this before and I still claim that it is true. When I
put a DVD into the drive to load Linux, I do nothing other than answer the
same questions as the newbie answers. You can pop openSuse DVD in and get
all the way through to a working system with just two inputs from yourself,
the root password and the first user.

I haven't had a distro not load straight from the CD/DVD/web install for a
lot of years now. Then after install I still don't do anything special, of
cause I know the places to go for codecs and extra package sources I like
to use, but that information is universally available on the many forums
etc anyway.

I suppose experience must count for something, but so far in the load and
the setup all I have gained from it really is the codec locations. So I
don't accept that a newbie would have more difficulty then I would. Maybe
more timmid when asked a question by the system, but all I say is accept
the default, the vendor wouldn't offer a default that will do damage.




.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: My views on openSUSE
    ... Windows, is because they have been around Windows for a longer. ... So I broke his pattern, he had asked me to fix a problem on his lotus and I ... tiny patterns that they were stuck in, then Linux is doing a great job. ... same questions as the newbie answers. ...
    (alt.os.linux.suse)
  • Re: Linux, X, ld, gcc, linking, shared libraries and stuff
    ... which is similar to "lazy binding"...but goodness knows what linker ... way of the "paging mechanism" to only load those pages which are actually ... > patch the pointer thereafter (i.e., dynamic linking). ... mechanism _IS_ there with Windows (though, ...
    (alt.lang.asm)
  • Re: Slow windows xp startup
    ... do you know how/have tried to boot into safemode? ... >> here is a copy of the Microsoft KB article for a clean boot in winxp: ... >> conflicts when you start Microsoft Windows XP. ... >> File, Process WIn.ini File, and Load Startup Items check boxes. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
  • Re: Studying abroad, devastating weird laptop problem
    ... - Normal Mode, Safe Mode with Networking, etc.), but no Safe Mode works ... load but it quickly slows down to a crawl, and takes about a minute to ... After this, Windows Calendar ... I've tried several things but I haven't had any success. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.vista.general)
  • Re: memory reading and writing
    ... And, of course, during the boot process, it's mostly ... Plus, remember that Windows uses "on demand" loading...hence, an ... This conspires to mean that once initialisation is run (which is ... "avoiding" to load things until strictly necessary... ...
    (alt.lang.asm)
Loading