SEUL: Re: DRAFT: End-User Application Comparisons

[Malonowa <malonowa@wanadoo.fr>]

Roger Dingledine wrote:

> I forgot to include "html editors" in the original list. (Should
> I include this? Bob had problems with this before.)
>

Yes of course. Linux is the web. More and more people develop web pages these
days and not all of them would want to get into HTML coding. This goes for
seul-edu as well - if anyone knows of a simple html editor that even YOUNG kids
can use then this should be listed.

>
> Good point. This is probably something that "end users" do a lot of.
> Pete suggested irc clients, but I wanted to avoid starting an irc client
> war among the hack3r d00dz. (I also am unconvinced that irc is an end-user
> activity. :)
>

most people I know here who are "end users" use irc. - contrary to popular
opinion, it's not just a techie thing.

>
> > - knowledge base/expert system tools
>
> Is this really a typical use for a computer? Feels like if I put this
> in, I've got to put in "graphing tools" and other special-case activities.
>

Great for kids and teachers as are graphing tools so put them in. You'd be
surprised just what "end users" may want to use. People have many and varied
hobbies/interests that sometimes require special-case activities. One shouldn't
exclude software under the belief that it's not a mainstream activity. One of
the strengths of Linux after all is that it can and does provide for the
minority.

>
> > It could be also interesting approach not to dissolve
> > the feature Unix-like system are good at:
> >  - the ability to make a what-ever-you-want by combining single-task tools
>
> This is an extremely powerful feature, but it's not a mindset we can
> expect (new) end-users to have. Their goal is to use the packages
> provided for them. Our goal is to anticipate the whatever-they-wants
> and have them available; it doesn't matter to the user if we're simply
> combining single-task tools behind the scenes.
> All the mania about "you should have to fight to understand your operating
> system" aside, some people really do just want to type their letter,
> print it, and move on. (Er...not that I'm saying you said this.)
>

Having much experience working with people who have little computing skills I
would say that single-task tools prove very popular. New computing users don't
actually want huge packages with lots of features. Often they prefer something
which just allows them to do a particular task - especially if it's something
they do regularly. If they just want to print a little graph of something for
example, they don't want to use a spreadsheet - just a quick and simple graphing
program. Single-task tools, rather than making things more complicated actually
make the learning curve a great deal easier.

Roman.