Re: [Usability] user levels, etc.

[David Moles <david moles vykor com>]

On Mon, 2001-11-12 at 17:44, Luis Villa wrote:
> > use to make a simpler GNOME, capable of reaching a wider audience. [1]
> 
> I'm not at all opposed to making GNOME easier to use for the masses.
> C'mon... I work for Ximian. If we[2] don't make GNOME easier for the
> masses, I'll have to find a real job :)
> 
> That said... our core users- the ones who make GNOME go- are /hackers/.
> I believe very strongly that if GNOME is not hacker friendly they won't
> hack for us. And if they don't hack for us we're in deep trouble. 

Why is it that every "let's make this system easier for ordinary
users" project eventually turns into "let's make this system cooler
for hackers"? :)

I suppose it's a catch-22: it takes hackers to develop the system,
so the system ends up being hacker-oriented.

> More importantly, and this brings us back to where I started, I don't
> think we have to make a choice about being people-friendly and being
> hacker-friendly. It's a false dichotomy; it's the lazy way out. There
> are very compelling reasons to work past that and allow both camps to
> coexist, and so we should.

I certainly hope we can. But I'd like to see some concrete proposals
that don't depend on massive user training. (If that was workable, we'd
all be elisp hackers. :>)

--D