Anders Johansson wrote:
On Tuesday 24 August 2004 04:38, John Andersen wrote:
Stop trying to pick a fight.
I wasn't, I was trying to make a point.
It doesn't matter what YOU think of the name Excel, the fact of the matter is that 97% of ALL Desktop computer users are familiar with that name, and know exactly what it means just as they know what Word, Notepad, Wordpad, calc, winipcfg, regedit etc are.
That wasn't what I asked.
First of all, I really question your statement that all windows users know what winipcfg or regedit is. Most regular (non-tech) users have very little in the way of a clue. The fact that 97% of users run windows is not the same as saying 97% of users know what the program names are, a lot of them just know which icon to click
Secondly, as I said, this wasn't my question at all. I asked *how* have they learned it. You can't look at a name like "excel" and instantly know that it's a spreadsheet. They learn over time, by asking questions like "what program do I use if I want to do <something>". They learn by reading articles in magazines, and they learn by searching software sites like shareware.com and similar. Perhaps they even try to run the program to see what it does. This is something they pick up over time, no first-time user will know it all.
And the point I was trying to make is that the process is exactly identical in linux
The OP's point is VERY Valid,
I know it is, I even answered it, in my other mail in this thread
and there is nothing more frustrating than sitting in linux trying to figure out what the program you want is, and knowing only the windows name for it.
but that's the wrong way to think. 99.99% of the time, what you want isn't "to run a program", it's "to do <something>". The idea shouldn't be to search for "a program that does what WinXXX does", it should be to search for "a program that will help me accomplish <something>". And the way you do that is absolutely identical to the way you do it in windows. You read magazines, you go to software sites like freshmeat, you ask friends who know
How right you are, I was horrified the first time an obviously experienced Windows user asked what FAT32 was as I thought such a guy would have had more of a clue about it than I. Some Windows users are blinded to the fact that a different operating system is, well, DIFFERENT. If it's approached with that simple understanding, then the learning curve isn't that steep and frustration does not rear its head - they approach it with a mindset that says, new aeroplane, I've got to learn how to handle it, read all about it, ask questions and put in the effort to become skilled. A sizeable proportion of experienced Linux users came from DOS/Windows without knowing what Unix was, even the "Class of '98", the dumbest I've seen (apologies to those guys), initially asked questions like how to make a .bat file and within a month those guys were fully switched on to Linux - it was a pleasure to have got a call from a guy back in 1997 who wanted to build a new kernel to get a new piece of hardware working and didn't know where to start, 10 minutes at most on the phone and later the email came saying everything was fine. My guess is that the simplicity now available in installing a distro has lulled some current guys into believing they are running a Windows clone, giving a Powerpoint presentation to a class, one guy asked me if I was using XP -- no way, this is Linux and he was amazed. Regards Sid. -- Sid Boyce .... Hamradio G3VBV and keen Flyer =====LINUX ONLY USED HERE=====