Re: Don't overlook Simplicity.

[Michael ROGERS <M Rogers cs ucl ac uk>]

>> People this dumb or lazy will never move away from Windows, because they'll 
>> either assume all computers crash twice a day, or they'll come across the 
>> first obstacle ("Why can't Emacs read my Word 97 documents?") and give up. 
>> They are Windows' natural prey and there is no hope for them.
>
>I don't think "dumb or lazy" is appropriate labels for the vast majority
>of Windows users. Ignorant is a more accurate label. After all, their total
>knowledge of computers comes from Microsoft's marketing department. I do
>believe there is hope for most of them.

OK, I was being a bit harsh, but the underlying question is whether people
who know nothing about computers and people who know what they're doing and 
want to do it quickly can use the same software. Software that is loaded
with features that stop you from hurting yourself and stop you from having
to read the documentation (like talking paperclips) becomes irritating to
use in the long term. Even if you switch these features off, they're still
taking up memory and disk space. Documentation, by contrast, is very small. :)

>> Let's make Gnome easy to use, but not at the expense of power and efficiency.
>
>I see no reason why we can't have both. In fact I would demand both from
>any software I purchase.

I think there's a trade-off between features and performance. Obviously you
want at least some of each. :)


Michael Rogers