Re: GNOME Usability Improvements - Fix the window manager!

[Tom Gilbert <gilbertt tomgilbert freeserve co uk>]

* sungod (sungod@atdot.org) [990806 20:59]:
> jack wallen, jr (jlwallen@iglou.com)'s email of 08/06/99 15:25 said:
> 
> >> Setting up ppp is something for root. If a user doesn't have root
> >> permission, he should ask root to set up ppp for him. That's the
> >> way it is now, and that's how it should remain (IMO).
> >> 
> >> Ronald
> >
> >this just doesn't make sense to me.  the new user, wanting to use Linux
> >for their desktop OS, doesn't want to have to muck around with priveleges
> >and the like.  yes, that's a linux issue of course i know that - but
> >that's the very attitude that's keeping the new users away from Linux in
> >the first place.  
> 
> What exactly is your goal? Would you like to see the power and 
> flexibility of Linux in the hands of every man? Would you like to make it 
> easier to learn? Easier to remember? More efficient to operate? Or would 
> you like to strip it of its power and flexibility by hiding all its 
> features and making it stupid, to leave only one big red button in the 
> middle of the screen that says "do my taxes, print my resume, walk the 
> dog, and pick the kids up from soccer"?
> 
> If you want the former, please join us in designing (and hopefully 
> developing) tools that DO make Linux more accessible and easier to learn.
> 
> If all you want is the latter, your platform awaits: use MacOS. No, I 
> don't mean that to be snide or offensive; if you check the headers of 
> this email you will see that I'm TYPING this on Claris Emailer in MacOS. 
> I use it, I like it, and I think it's a lot more stable and useful than 
> people give it credit for. My point is that you shouldn't want to take 
> features away from users (to include ownership and permissions); you 
> should be helping us SOLVE the problem of how to make them easily learned 
> and accessible to new users.
> 
> >no matter how close and dear Linux is to those using it - you gotta make
> >it simple if you want to entise new users.  and there is absolutely
> >nothing wrong with that philosophy.
> 
> Patently false. I didn't learn how to drive by doing it in a padded 
> arena. I didn't learn how to walk by living in a playpen. I didn't learn 
> how to read and write by only having access to ten of the twenty-six 
> letters. And I didn't learn how to use Unix by clicking on "My Computer."
> 
> Nor should we hide anything. If anything, the point of GNOME should be to 
> make all the wonderful features of Linux easily accessible, rather than 
> hiding it behind a cryptic command line; not to get rid of them. 
> Restriction is not the answer, good design is the answer. In this case, 
> you should be more interested in helping decide how to represent various 
> permissions to the user (and how to tell them nicely, "you can't use PPP 
> because the person who owns this box doesn't want you to") rather than 
> just saying "permissions are a bad idea; we should hide them."
> 
> So, got a better idea for handling PPP permissions?
> 

Right on.
-- 
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