Re: Difficulty finding documentation (and how to use the docs) for command-lineprograms

Thus quoth Jay Smith on Tue, Sep 09, 2003 at 03:29:28PM -0400:
> 
> I believe that you are identifying yourself as being TOO technically 
> oriented and TOO experienced to objectively judge how difficult this is for 
> the future average linux user.

The Linux user has to spend a few days to study documentation and configure
her/his system correctly, after which it usually keeps running along without
much further work. 

> If linux is going to grow into what I believe it can and should, the same 
> type of person that buys a Windows-based PC at an office supply store needs 
> to be able to deal with this stuff.

Windows occurs at the end of the alphabet between VxWorks and Xenix, so you 
will have to compare Linux to several hundred different OSes first or not 
refer to other OSes at all.

> I'm sorry, but if my mother (who has a Windows PC) had to figure out how to 
> install SGML tools and then convert SGML into PDF,just to read the 
> documentation on how to use a program, she would throw the computer out the 
> window.  That is assuming that the linux PDF reader (which one by the way?; 

I prefer 'gv' over 'xpdf'. Acrobat is only available on Intel Linux.

> Linux needs to present itself at a level that my mother can cope with. 

Half of the world can neither read nor write. If they are to use a computer,
it will have a simplified interface shielding them from its innards. A good
example is the Simputer (which uses Linux).

> Then, if you or I want to get under the hood and work from the command line 
> and do all sorts of other neat stuff, we are welcome to.  BUT, there should 
> be a front end on it that does not cause people get frustrated and give up.

The front end is the System Administrator who puts a pre-installed system
on your desk and writes the scripts and the helpdesk on the phone. 

> Am I frustrated?  Yes.  The reason is that I want to move my whole (small) 
> company completely to Linux, but there are still just too many issues -- 
> and most of the issues have to do with user interface and usability.

I am doing time as a sysadmin on a small school. The teachers are currently
annoyed about how Debian Linux on Imacs does not run their old apps. 

Kind regards,


Daniel von Asmuth


-- 
	wat heb je nodig bij een uitzichtloos leven? euthanasie?
	nee, windows.
	van microsoft?
	nee, van glas.