Re: new rotate wish

On 01/06 06:02 , Rob wrote:
> On Tuesday 06 January 2004 17:11, Carl Wilhelm Soderstrom wrote:
> > here's what I'd do:
> > - create a directory called 'rotate'
> 
> Okay, my typical end user is *already* calling tech support at 
> this point.  

well, I did say this is what *I'd* do; and I said this to suggest an
alternate way of doing things, to a person who's obviously a competent user
(he's on this list, which puts him ahead of most of the human race).

I'm not saying this is for everyone. For most people; they now have an
option under the 'Edit' menu that will do this. :) (at least under Debian...
dunno how other distros might have it set up).

> Multiply by 150-200 and you might begin to grasp 
> the scale of the wrongness of this approach to solving end 
> users' problems.

but if you can teach a few of those users A Better Way; productivity will
increase substantially.

> Once you grasp just how little normal users *want* to know about 
> their computers, once you grasp that to most users, just seeing 
> a command line is enough to make you call someone and say 
> "There's an error message on my screen, it says C colon slash 
> and a pointy thing", 

having worked for a company that sold (and supported) a DOS application to
farmers; and remembering that back in college we taught any number of
computer-illiterate people how to send mail from the command line on VMS; I
*know* that users can be taught how to use a command line, if you treat them
as intelligent people who are capable of learning.

At work here, we even taught our salesdroid how to use the command line to
manage files (tho he's got a full KDE desktop as well).

if you simply say "oh, command lines are hard" (which is what M$ has been
doing for 10 years now); and don't expect them to think for themselves;
they'll be like that forever and you miss out on a lot of possible
productivity gains.

that's not to say that GUI interfaces; and even a desktop locked down to
some 'canned' applications isn't appropriate for some places (Secretaries
just typing documents and the like); I'm just saying that you should give
users a chance, and when possible, a little tutoring on how to do things
better.

> once you realize that this is not just 
> hyperbole *and* once you realize that *there is nothing wrong 
> with these people*.... 

I would posit that an intense disinclination to *learn* is indeed very
wrong. I have had users outright tell me "I don't want to learn"; after
gently pointing out something as simple as "type 'ctrl-s' to save your
document instead of clicking on the menu and following that. It's faster and
saves you wrist strain from the mouse."

Our species did not get where it is today by deciding that sticks were good
enough, and we really didn't need to learn how to use rocks. 

> then you will understand the mindset of 
> those of us who are actually serious, to the point of staking 
> our businesses on it, about getting people onto the Linux 
> desktop.

the time is coming, and I wish you the best. My company is trying to do the
same thing; but that's a whole new can of worms, and too far off topic. :)

Carl Soderstrom.
-- 
Systems Administrator
Real-Time Enterprises
www.real-time.com


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