On Monday 04 Aug 2003 3:52 pm, James Edward John Taylor wrote:
Ok, those points are fair, that you can contribute. But as you pointed out, they are becomming more and more techincally capable as they procede (through asking questions, recieving answers and so on).
I dont disagree, Everyone starts off knowing nothing and learning/making it up as they go along, and its a brilliant way of learning.
But wasnt the point that this would be linux for everyone? that you would make your systems lovely and nice, so that people who didnt want to learn more could use them.
Im not saying people who are non-techincally minded cant come to learn stuff, im saying that some systems can not be used/installed (delete as apropiate) by non-techincal people, and that it is not nessicarrly "good" for them to use these systems.
And Im not saying that these non-techincal people cant BECOME techincal people (even if it is just specifically trained for that particluar peice of techincal stuff) - ive seen countless shopfloor warehouse assitants trained to be able to program power control units.
But what if they dont want to. I mean lets face it, thats a fair thing isnt it? some lovely old dear whos a much loved primary school teacher probably dosnt want to learn or become techincally aquanted / spend so much time learning, but they also shouldnt expect to beable to do sometimes quite techincal realated things on computers.
There are some intersting points here but some strange misconceptions. There are lots of products that Joe public does not fully understand; his car, his TV and his VCR to name but a few. It is reasonable for Joe public to expect his PC to work when he plugs it in and to do the basic things he bought it for - which is why I think some Linux distros are moving this way and why companies like Evesham micros supply preisntalled Linux. However, Joe public does not expaect his car to last forever or for it to cost nothing to run other than fuel costs. He expects to pay for it to be serviced/maintained and the same should be true of his computer. If he decides to have air conditioning fitted to his car he may decide to fit it himself if he has the skills but if not he expects to pay someone who can. The same should be true of his PC.
In this area Linux is no different to any other OS.
Ian