John E. Perry said the following on 11/30/2009 09:18 PM:
John Andersen wrote:
On 11/30/2009 4:01 AM, Anton Aylward wrote:
... But of course, as the modern Linux GUIs show, as OpenOffice shows as MONO shows, there are many people who are convinced that Linux is only going to succeed by aping Windows as closely as possible.
For pete sake Anton, are you totally incapable or recognizing humor even in the presence of smilies?
Well, even recognizing the danger of getting into yet another pointless religious argument between the Hardheaded Old Farts who have to cling to the command line no matter what, and the Empty-Headed Young Twits who can't see beyond the eye candy in their Latest Hot Bling-filled desktop, I think it's worthwhile to have a discussion regarding where computing in general, and linux in particular, are going.
Being a fairly HOF myself, but not tied too tightly to the Ancient Computing World, I see the development of GUI's as a brilliantly positive step forward that can make the full power of computing available to anyone who has the moxie to work with it at all, and I refuse to accept the declaration that only the command line can give you real power.
Indeed. And my argument wasn't that the GUI was wrong but that the idea that Linux can only succeed by its tools and GUI aping Windows as closely as possible is the only path to follow. Back in the early 80s when Windows came out it had to differentiate itself not only from the Apple interlace but also from competing GUI on the Intel PC platform, some of which were faster and had more applications bundled. They did this though marketing, not technology. I particularly remember one of their marketing claims that the GUI would simplify use because, being icon/menu driven you wouldn't need to learn lots of command line options. They phrased this in such a way that the transition from WordPerfect to Microsoft Word would be a non-issue and wouldn't require re-training since all the functions were there in the GUI. (Isn't there a version of VI like that? :-) ) Now when you read reviews of things like OpenOffice it tends to be, for the most part, a technical comparison, since the GUI looks pretty much the same. Even reviewers who are Windows users think its a fair competitor. But when you read reviews of GIMP done by people from the Windows world they concentrate entirely on the GUI and slag the Gimp 'cos it has a different interface. -- "You have heard me speak of Professor Moriarty?" "The famous scientific criminal, as famous among crooks as--" "My blushes, Watson!" Holmes murmured in a deprecating voice. "I was about to say, as he is unknown to the public." "A touch! A distinct touch!" cried Holmes. "You are developing a certain unexpected vein of pawky humour, Watson, against which I must learn to guard myself. -- Sherlock Holmes and Watson, in "The Valley of Fear" -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org