Unless those users are motivated to learn, rather than whine about needing to use the command-line from time to time or not having shiny app [x] that nobody has written.debiman wrote:there is absolutely no benefit from "recruiting ex-windows users" or some such
I've had people I'm trying to help get abusive because I suggested running something in a terminal or changing a config file, nobody needs this.
I've been saying it from day one.debiman wrote:there's no point in "masking" the configuration behind a "userfriendly" gui & overly-polite forums, only to get more users - more broken software - more misunderstanding - more problems.
Running GNU/Linux on the desktop, with a GUI, that's just is fine. And it works very well. Hiding the OS behind a shiny GUI and promoting it as "simple" and "newb friendly" just discourages users form learning how their machine actually works.
GNU/Linux is built and improved upon by its community, because a large portion of that community understands the plumbing. Hide the gearbox, and soon nobody will know how to drive a manual.
IMO, this is the same reason that while nearly everyone has a computer of some kind, very few can even code "hello world".
On a C64, you couldn't do anything without writing some rudimentary code, even if it was simply to load another file. On a modern Windows desktop you don't have a compiler installed by default, or even a usable command interpreter. WTH happened to MS-BASIC anyway?
Please, let's not make "desktop linux" like this too. Keep the gearbox where people can see it and mess with it.