I'd have to agree with Anders on this point. When I was working at SuSE in Oakland the secretary used Linux on her workstation and rarely had an issue that I remember. She used Netscape, StarOffice and many other programs. I doubt she ever opened a terminal client the whole time she was working there. She got along fine with what she was given to work with. I can't speak about other secretaries in other companies because the other companies I've worked for had them using Windows.
Exactly. I am an R.N. (registered nurse) and I have to use computers at work (more so now due to HIPAA). Every nurse logs on to a windows client. Every nurse brings up the reports. order, labs, etc, etc,,, ad nauseum. Now, Many of them don't know and could care less that many of these programs are running on a dos fs in a Unix main server, and when they look up records they go to the Nix server in St. Lious. They don't want to know, the don't need to know. They need to get the work done at the comp and get back to the patients. So, It all depends on what class and curiculea your try to gear towards. If it user land then it's all about navigating the gui bring up programs,... in otherwords getting stuff done. Much as I hate to say it. All the windows droned I.S. instructors focus on this and only this. How do you enter the data? How do you retrieve the data? And they try to stay away from words like "data" unless it's appropriate to the professions (in the case of clinical settings it translates into Patient data, lab data, imaging data. etc... NOT comp data!) This is way Windows is used in most places, people have been weened on it and can grasp it (in that ever popular windows way). I.S./I.T. uses the KISS theory.... Keep It Simple and Stupid. Linux and the gui is pretty much on the cusp of having anything and everything that blows could offer the end-user non-tech/non-concern needs. It has been my view and observation (as is with any technical field) that there's always a division of either I can't talk to you about this because you'll need at least two years of comp classes to understand me or I can't talk to you because I don't care what makes it run, I just want to get my work done. If your designing classes for admins or the somewhat tech savvy then you definitely need to explain the guts and howto's. If your designing classes for use by office workers, sales reps, etc, etc, then it has to be both gui and app specific. Just my $0.02. Cheers, Curtis. P.S. Yes Ben, I'm still paragraphing them to death (lol) :) I can't help myself and no clinician will accept my case. (hehehe).