On Wed, Dec 05, 2001 at 01:37:56PM +0000, Michael Brown wrote:
I do have a problem with people customising their desktops - it's an inordinate waste of time. OK it might be a good way for them to familiarise themselves with the interface but in the long run it means that they'll end up wasting huge amounts of time prettifying and re-prettifying their desktops - I know since I'm guilty of it too. Time and motion studies of people at work at their PCs show that they spend >25% of their time doing just that.
That's interesting. On the other hand, maybe it's symptomatic of a deeper problem: the lack of really *interesting* thinks to do on a computer? I certainly remember that back when my old school changed BBCs for PCs people stopped writing programs in BBC BASIC and started fiddling with GUI settings instead.
I think you're right, it is symptomatic of a deeper problem. People are using computers for the wrong things and I think the GUI is the guilty party. I think that programming is the *really* interesting thing to do on a computer. People have forgotten that the primary purpose of computers is to do repetitive tasks - something a GUI very much gets in the way of. I kicked off on a computer writing DOS batch files because it allowed me to automate various tedious administrative tasks. Now I spend a lot of time writing shell and perl scripts for the very same reasons but I've now got the ability to write what could be termed fairly sophisticated programs. But what happens if your introduction to computing is fiddling with your GUI? Where are you going to go from there? In computing terms, nowhere. Which is why IMO kids at school shouldn't be learning to muck around with GUIs or use large monolithic apps such as word-processors because in computing terms these take you nowhere and should be learnt at home if they feel that they need to learn them - they've got nothing to do with IT really and shouldn't be taught in an IT class. It's been commented on here before that there is a dearth of people who actually know how to use a computer in any meaningful way and hence the pool of `computing professionals' is filled with people who don't actually know anything about computing yet waive their MSCEs around with the assumption that it gives them legitimacy - it doesn't. They're graduates with Hons from the GUI School of Fiddlers.
For anyone who hasn't yet come across it, I would seriously recommend taking a look at Squeak (www.squeakland.org) as an "interesting things to do with computers for just about anyone of any age" program. Squeak is currently my number two favourite application of all time. No description could really do it justice - you have to try it out.
Sounds intriguing - I'll look into it.
My experience has taught me otherwise. In addition, I have heard many more tales of problems caused by locked-down systems than I have heard tales of problems caused by systems left 'open'. (Obviously I'm talking about just the user interface here, not the underlying system security). What sort of problems?
Not being able to install software (business environment), not being able to save work because the floppy has run out of space and there is no access to the hard disk, not being able to diagnose faults because Start-Run was disabled, not being able to configure networking even with the administrator password (RM WindowBox), not being able to put in the *correct* proxy settings when the proxy server changed, not being able to shut the machine down cleanly because only administrators can shut down the machine, not being able to do *anything* because Win2K decided that the local administrator did not have administrative privileges (and simultaneously refused to allow domain logons)...
OK point taken. I now remember why I always log into NT as admin and use FSTAB rather than NTFS :)
It's been possible to work around almost all of these. For example, you can use NT's AT command to start up cmd.exe running as LocalSystem, which enables you to bypass all local machine access restrictions. They simply cause an irritating delay.
More worryingly is that many people will assume that locking down the user interface actually makes the system secure...
There's a problem with multi-user Windows systems because of their single-user legacy which is why unix/linux wins in these situations in administrative terms. I bet you don't have nearly as many problems with your unix boxes in multi-user environments. -- Frank *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* Boroughbridge. Tel: 01423 323019 --------- PGP keyID: 0xC0B341A3 *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* http://www.esperance-linux.co.uk/ You need more time; and you probably always will.