Re: SEUL: Is there a user for S.E.U.L.?

[Dave Close <dave@compata.com>]

 While the idea of making a simple-to-use distribution of Linux sounds,  at first, like a great idea, I think there is a contradiction involved.  Very few people use a computer just because they enjoy hacking around  with an OS; those folks don't need a simple version of Linux. People  who want to accomplish something while using their computer, even if  only entertainment, are more likely to need an easy installation. But  for those folks, you must ask yourself, what benefit would they accrue  by using Linux? Not because there are no benefits, but because they  need to perceive the benefits before they will be willing to try it.  And they must continue to perceive benefits after installation or they  will go back to M$.

Give a novice an easy-to-use version of Linux and the first question he  probably has is, Why? M$ is already fairly easy to use, or so he  thinks. And it is probably already installed on his system. He can  easily buy lots of software compatible with M$, including 500 different  games for all age groups at the local computer store. So he gets his  simple Linux up and running, what then? Tell him he can bring up a  simple text editor and (after receiving an explanation of what a text  editor is) he says or thinks, so why would I want to edit text? What he  wants is to balance his checkbook, browse the Web, and play a few  games. Of course, he can do all those things with  Linux but no one at the local computer store can help him.

It seems to me that the real benefit of Linux to the novice end-user is  that it is a more stable and extensible foundation for what he really  wants to do. But he doesn't care about those things directly. Those are  like trying to sell a car to the stereotypical "dizzy blonde" based on  the engineering; what's important to her is the color. There's no way  you could make a car easy enough to build that any end-user would  prefer that to buying one already built. And make no mistake about it,  Linux (and any modern OS) is more complicated than any car.

It may only take a few weeks before someone gets disgusted with M$, but  by that time the person is no longer a complete novice. Disgust doesn't  happen in a vacuum either: if the user is not aware that an alternative  exists, he will accept what he has. Glumly perhaps, but he won't make  an active effort to find an alternative without at least some hint that  he might succeed. Face it, very few M$ users have even heard of Linux.  And those who have heard of Unix recall only that someone told them it  was hard to use and unfriendly.

So, given that someone has to want a better OS before he will be  interested in trying Linux, it seems to me that we would be wasting our  time building anything for a true novice. What a novice wants is a  system that does what he wants to do. Out of the box. And which can be  extended later to do what he didn't initially know he wanted to do.
-- 
Dave Close, Compata, Costa Mesa CA  "Politics is the business of getting
dave@compata.com, +1 714 434 7359    power and privilege without
dhclose@alumni.caltech.edu           possessing merit." - P. J. O'Rourke


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