Re: About standards and politics (sorry, I had to fix it :-)

[R G Mayhue <rgmayhue@serenesoftware.com>]

On Fri, 06 Aug 1999, JF Martinez wrote:
>
> DOS was as difficult to use as Unix.  But PCs were cheap.  That meant
> using at home and learning alone.  That meant a strong demand for user
> friendly tools.
> 
> Unix was usedf at work and in addition mainly for "high tech" tasks
> performed by educated people.  Its users had people around them for
> softening the learning curve.  => Little demand for easiness of use.
> But Linux is different: it is not expensive and that means home use,
> people who learn by themselves without anybody to soften the learning
> curve. Those Linux users need easiness of use as badly as DOS people
> in the eighties.
>
Thank you Jean, "Softening the Learning Curve", yea, yea that's it! I
wish I would have thought of that. What Jean is saying is right. It
needs to be easier to use. 

I just returned from a tutoring session I entioned in the last post.
These people are in their 70's-80's and trying the learn about
computers for the first time. Mostly to use e-mail to keep it touch
with family. But that's how it starts out. Next thing you know, their
wanting to print greeting cards and use the internet. What I'm finding
is, that there is a great deal of people (espeicially in the older
communities) that are wanting to learn about computing, but arn't sure
if they can learn. A lot of them wait and see if their friends and
neighbors can learn and then they take the plunge. 

Windows is winning this war. If Linux can be softened enough to allow
these kinds of people to use it, and be very happy using it, the
computor makers will be tripping over themselves to put Linux on their
boxes. Then we will see the software makers follow, and well, you know
the rest.

--

R.G. Mayhue
rgmayhue@serenesoftware.com

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