Re: [chat] Re: [SLUG] OT: Vector data on Sydney CBD

[Jon Biddell <jon@xxxxxxxxx>]

At 00:45 3/12/01 +1100, invisible ink wrote:
> begin Jon Biddell quotation:
>
> > For you, me and most of SLUG, yes...
> >
> > For the weenies out there who *think* they need a computer, unfortunately
> > no...
>
> This is not true. The actual Linux system is very hard - the desktops are
> not. Certainly, some tweaking is required, and the kind of awareness of
> usability issues that runs through GNOME will assist third party developers
> to write good, usable software.

Sorry, I disagree (with the desktop comment). Give a Gnome desktop to a 
(l)user who hasn't used Windows and you might be right - but give one to a 
Windows user (and these are the ones we are trying to convert) and they get 
confused - yes, because of their expoeriences with Windows their perception 
is distorted, but they still "perfer" Windows.

> When it comes to a business environment, and plonking someone down in front
> of a machine to 'do work', any one of these three systems is appropriate.
> You simply need buttons to make applications start.

Been there, done that. Same comment as above, although telling them that 
they WILL use this desktop is easier !

> Windows has blinkered people into believing that its massive conceptual
> inefficiencies are required to perform tasks on any computer. That's the
> first mistake people make. The second can be argued thusly:
>
>   WHAT IS IT THAT MAKES YOU THINK WINDOWS IS EASY TO USE?
>
> It's not. It's just there a lot.

I wholeheartedly agree - but I still think we should be ailimg for world 
domination of the back end (server) area first...:-)

jon