Desktop Linux (fwd)

[Jeff Kinz]

On Thu, Feb 26, 2004 at 08:15:52AM -0800, Michael Costolo wrote:
> --- Jeff Kinz <jkinz at kinz.org> wrote:
> > You have it backwards. It shows that a completely random and untrained
> > population sample will be able to use Linux when it looks and acts
> > exactly like what they already know, Windows. 

> > They didn't have to learn a new application. 
> 
> They weren't using Word, were they?  They must have had to learn how to use Open
> Office then.

So - You are saying that using OpenOffice writer, a clone of MS-Word,
constitutes 'Learning a new application" for a Microsoft Word user?

hmm - lets see - what did they have to learn that was new:

           WHAT LEARNED                                 NEW?
===========================================================
Click on the icon to start the application              NO
Click on File menu to open a file                       NOPE
Click on File menu to save a file                       NOPE
Click on File menu to print a file                      NOPE
Type words in so they appear in the document            NO
Select and apply format, styles and fonts               NO
EDIT menus                                              NO
VIEW menus                                              NO
INSERT menus                                            NO
FORMAT menus                                            NO
TOOLS menus                                             NO
ETC... Ad Nauseum

Every operation that people commonly use in MS-Word was invoked and
operated EXACTLY the same way in OO as it was in Word.

That is NOT "learning" a new application.  


> 
> > The Library users had no problems (They still had complaints :-) ) using
> > the application because it worked and looked exactly like what they
> > already knew how to use - Microsoft Word.
> 
> I could make a lot of programs *look* like Microsoft programs.  It doesn't mean they
> would be easy to use.  

???? pointless. - easy to use wasn't the issue- Already knowing how to
use was the issue.

> > If they had had to learn a new word processing application, it would
> > not have been successful.

> Honestly now, how different are word processing applications? 

You obviously never had to help people move from WANG, to Wordperfect,
to Word.  Total freakout for many of those folks.  Remember that 
unlike the people in high tech, most people "learn" how to use their
program by sheer rote - Click here, click there, click that.

They have no idea or understanding of what they are doing.  They don't 
even understand the basic principles of the what a document is or what a
file is.  All they know how to do is repeat exactly the same steps, over
and over again, then press print.  Some don't even now that they can
save their documents and access them again later. 

> Honestly now, how different are word processing applications? 

Scribus, Applix, Wang, Interleaf, Adobe Publisher, Wordstar,
COBATEF,LXRTF, ana-systems, CatTrax, CSSC, Homecraft Software, Kudo,
Informatel, and others - some vertically integrated word processors used
by the newspaper and publishing industries. All very different, some
requiring specialized training.





-- 
Jeff Kinz, Open-PC, Emergent Research,  Hudson, MA.  
"jkinz at kinz.org" is copyright 2003.  
Use is restricted. Any use is an acceptance of the offer at
http://www.kinz.org/policy.html.