Re: [TCLUG:14414] Usability (was Ghost for Linux)

["Eric M. Hopper" <hopper@omnifarious.mn.org>]

On Mon, Mar 06, 2000 at 08:00:43PM -0600, Ben Kochie wrote:
> 
> it's not a question of if they can..  the should be requiered to know
> how to use standard tools that have been used for system duplicating
> since unix was designed.  the point of linux is not to create lazy
> admins.  it's there to teach good admins.  and a proerly setup boot
> utils disk could be made with standard tools to allow for system
> copying.  an experienced admin can create such a mini distro with a
> little bit of dialog scripting to allow grunts to dupe
> systems... insert floppy, insert cd, folow some instructions, and
> bam.. new linux box, windows box, whatever.

	I strongly disagree.

	You should make it possible to do as much as possible without
being forced to learn a lot of things.  There is a real shortage of
people who know anything.  And this shortage will never go away, and
trying to force people to learn things in order to do stuff won't help
it at all.

	Most people have other things they want to learn besides
computer stuff.  Computer stuff is actually a small part of most
people's lives.  Not saying that this is somehow better, it's just the
way it is, and the way it always will be.

	You have to entice people into learning computer things.  Make
it easy to do things, but also easy to peek under the surface to find
out how it's done.  Do as much as you can to allow the learning curve to
be as shallow or as steep as people want it to be.

	BASIC was popular because people immediately felt some sense of
control.  Even if it was somewhat illusory, they had least had it within
a certain framework.  That's what people need.  Don't hit them with a
thousand acronyms and commands they have to learn.  Give them a neat
tool that you can peek beneath the covers of.  If it doesn't do exactly
what they want, they can spend a little effort and do some minor
tweaking, or they can spend a lot of effort and get total control.

	I would only want Ghost for Linux under these terms.  Have it
use dd and friends to accomplish it's job.  Have it give enticing little
tidbits about devices and drives and network stuff, but don't make it
necessary to know these things to do basic tasks like stamping out a
bunch of drives with identical stuff.

	Make it easy for people to do stuff, and make it easy to learn
how its done so if they want more control, they can get it.  Have as
little in-your-face complexity as possible.  Computers should patiently
teach people how they work.

Have fun (if at all possible),
-- 
Its name is Public Opinion.  It is held in reverence. It settles everything.
Some think it is the voice of God.  Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet
broke a chain or freed a human soul.     ---Mark Twain
-- Eric Hopper (hopper@omnifarious.mn.org  http://omnifarious.mn.org/~hopper) --

PGP signature