our aims, wrt audience

[sun <as387 yfn ysu edu>]

Tom Vogt wrote:
> Dan Effugas Kaminsky <effugas@best.com> wrote:
> > >who's it then?
> > >the poweruser doesn't need a damn gui at all, I'll be faster and more
> > >efficient on the console any time, no matter what gui.
> > Fine, give up, KDE has won the newbies, it's just like Windows 95.
> > Gee, can't I have a powerful GUI?  Is that impossible?
> 
> cool down, guys. :)
> 
> I was not discarding the powerusers. I  simply say that we must aim at the
> newbies, because otherwise gnome will end up a tool for  some gurus and
> that's that.
> of course we must allow  advanced features and all  that. it's just that
> the prime targets are the newbies.

if i may provide a bit of direction without inflaming (if that's
possible), i must again point out my experience with the macintosh and
mention that the mac user interface has always been less aimed at a
particular user _level_ and been aimed in general at people who want to
get lots of work done, fast, with minimal effort.

it doesn't matter if you know a lot about computers or a little, if a
gui doesn't speed up your work and make you more productive in less
time, you shouldn't be using a gui. this, too, should be our approach.

of course, a text prompt is often faster than pointing and clicking for
complex jobs, but the gui is justified in that 1.) the learning curve is
eliminated, so a lot of time is saved learning, and 2.) textual commands
must be committed to memory and entered perfectly or they won't be
understood, so it isn't exactly effortless.

anyway. the point of this digression has been to say that our aim should
be less "level"-based and more productivity-based. back to our
regularly-scheduled harangue.
--
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety
deserve neither liberty nor safety." --Benjamin Franklin