Re: educating users

Deaf ears.

On 9/19/05, Andrew Gaffney <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> Paul J. Wilson wrote:
> > The way I see it, the problem is not about the gentoo installer, but a
> > problem of perceptions between the developers and the users. There is a
> > further division between the "power users" and the "noobs".
> >
> > It's easier said than done, but each side should step outside their own
> > experience. To a developer, "easy" meains opening VI and drawing on
> > their knowledge of hot keys and bash syntax. To the average user, "easy"
> > means selecting options from a menu , or not selecting anything at all
> > to have things turn out as intended.
> 
> To me, "easy" means following the very clear directions layed out for you 
> in the
> install guide and being able to use nano. I may be wrong, but I believe my 
> cat
> can use nano.
> 
> > Regular, everyday users tend not to have the time to spend on the finter
> > points of linux and gentoo in particular. If the aim of the gentoo
> > installer project is to make Gentoo more accessable to these types of
> > users, then it's not unreasonable to expect these users to reach out
> 
> That's not the aim. The aim is to make installs *faster* and more
> automated...not easier.
> 
> > It's also obvious from the responses that some users do NOT find the
> > handbook accessable. This can't be simply explained away by lack of
> > intelligence. Again, what is obvious to some is not obvious to others,
> > especially those who are not trained to think in technical terms.
> > Brushing off the questions of every-day users as the work of "noobs" is
> > a very easy and sloppy thing to do.
> 
> People who can't follow the handbook are people that can't pay attention 
> long
> enough to read a complete sentence. If someone can't install Gentoo 
> because of
> ADD, that's not our problem.
> 
> > There is a huge disconnect happening here. On the one hand, the Gentoo
> > front matter seems to state that Gentoo is "all about choices" and goes
> > on to strongly imply that the distribution can be all things to all
> > users. There are a sub-set of users who 1. don't find the detail and
> > fine-point instruction in the manual helpful 2. don't have the time to
> > manually configure everything or 3. are not computer literate. It's
> > obvious that there are large numbers of people who want to use gentoo
> > but whose needs are not being met. I have the impression that the
> > gentoo-installer project is an attempt to meet the needs of such users.
> 
> Gentoo is not exactly targeted at *any* of those groups of users. As 
> stated
> above, that is *not* the intention of the installer.
> 
> --
> Andrew Gaffney http://dev.gentoo.org/~agaffney/
> Gentoo Linux Developer Installer Project
> --
> [email protected] mailing list
> 
>