On Thursday 16 Jul 2009 19:15:38 Adam Tauno Williams wrote:
On Thu, 2009-07-16 at 11:52 -0400, Dan Goodman wrote:
Adam Tauno Williams wrote:
You can skip this if you don't want to read more. But it gives what I think is a good example from PC history about how this has bitten other vendors.
I don't accept that this is comparable. Someone 'joe-six-pack' buying a PC more than a decade ago to selecting an alternative Operating System. We need to be realistic, *zero* non-technical users wake up in the morning and think "I'll try an alternative Operating System today".
If that is true, Linux will never reach the average PC user.
Ok. The only way LINUX will reach the "average" computer user is if it comes preinstalled on their hardware. In which case it isn't an "alternative" Operating System, it is "what was installed".
They do go buy PCs. If you even know what an "Operating System" is you are in a small minority and at least a PC Jockey.
Some move on, some don't...you don't have to be technical to want to try new technologies.
Yes, you do. Non technical people try out new *products*: TVs, MP3 players, game consoles. An Operating System just is not equivalent in the marketplace to those things.
Most continue in the same vein out of habit, but some who aren't technical are changing at any point in time.
I don't think so. Some non-technical users come to LINUX because they are frustrated, but they do so primarily by having a technical user present [advocate?] an alternative and take them there.
I think there is a vocal minority of 'minimalists' who don't like the direction of the modern desktop, but they'd dislike other current distributions for the exact same reasons. They wouldn't like OS/X or Windows Vista/7.
How about the idea that there is a group that may be less than 50%, but that is significant, that feels that modern desktop features should be options, rather than forcibly included, and who believe that both minimal and futuristic configurations should be supportable and selectable?
They are "supportable and selectable"; with the possible exception of KDE4. I don't know anything about KDE and haven't used it in years. But from the outside KDE4 looks to me like an issue for the KDE user community. KDE cut a new release and distributions followed suite; which is the entirely expected and reasonable thing for distributions to do.
And as an aside, it seems funny to me that KDE4 seemed to try to go out of its way to not provide certain Windows-like features on the desktop, such as a taskbar equivalent and the ability to place icons on the desktop, features that were originally rejected but later added as a configurable overlay on the base vision of the developers? It seems to me that a certain vocal minority of devs seems to believe that they can and must provide a better high end graphics experience than Brand X and Brand $, but at that same time, they reject some of the common user-control features that those companies have adopted to meet the needs and desires of their customers?
If your talking about "KDE devs" when you say "vocal minority of devs seems" please say "KDE devs". Otherwise I don't know if you are still in the context of the previous paragraph about KDE [which I don't see as a distribution issue] or speaking in general.
Some of them see adding modern features as "emulating" those [despised] platforms [which it isn't].
No, that is a straw man argument -- many of us see them as just unwanted and unneeded bloatware, at least for certain usages. And hence should be easy to turn off, even if they do meet the needs of 51% or more of the users.
It is easy to turn them off, or at least to turn Beagle off. The same goes for Avahi and other services. Trivially easy. Disabling them is even well documented in the case of Beagle.
Well i have not seen anything that lists how you turn things on and off in any place a NON tech user would look i think you must have your own version of Opensuse cooked for you
KDE4 is a KDE problem.
I have no issues with their choices I just disagree that their wishes should hobble the experience and usability for everyone else.
So you think that providing an option to make a browser the default, and the ability to turn off the paperclip assistant just by clicking on it and selecting an option, have hobbled the experience and usablility of Firefox, IE and M$ Office for everyone else?
For everything I've seen mentioned [aside from KDE4] this is ALREADY and equivalently simple way to disable the mentioned service.
You seem to carve the world up into those who agree with your position, and the "few" who disagree are the wrong-headed vocal minority who wish to harm the rest of the community because they won't try the new
Good gosh. You take it from "vocal minority" to "wrong-headed vocal minority" and disagreement to an intent to "harm the rest of the community". That is just bogus. I never mentioned, anywhere, anyone "intent". I stated what I believe would be the outcome of that direction. Are you unable to discern the difference between those two statements?
No wonder you refuse to entertain any suggestion that these features could, and should, be selectable by users...
THEY ARE "selectable by users". This is/was a discussion as to the optimal *default* state of those features.
that allowing them easy on-off would ruin the experience for everyone else.
THEY ARE EASY TO TURN OFF, RIGHT NOW.
chkconfig avahi-daemon off [for example]
Having auto-configuration off by default is pretty pointless; especially since it has zero effect on the presence of manual configurations in 99.999% of situations. The same goes for every other feature mentioned [KDE4 isn't a "feature", it is a platform].
It is easy to keep knocking down suggestions for change, by characterizing them as being unnecessary, but you have failed to show why they would do any harm for anyone, and why they couldn't and shouldn't be provided, even if only a minority ends up using them?
Options are provided. With the exception of KDE4 [maybe?] which is a problem for the KDE community releasing [maybe?] a release before it was ready.
After all, I am not asking for features that would add weeks or months to development.
In line behind all the other features that wouldn't add weeks or months.
This is the issue I'd like to hear your opinions on...not how you think the user community is divided up, but why a simple toggle with the default being off, shouldn't be the standard for ALL features that are not truly essential to operation.
Toggles are provided for almost everything mention in this thread.
The documentation that explains how to turn them on and off is as elusive as fresh dinosaur droppings and as i stated before NOT in the sorts of places that normal NON techie users would find them no amount of wriggling in the world will get you out of that . After install first screen should be these services are available to switch on please select the services you want or need ,, Now THAT would make sense me i dont mind digging round in the guts of the system i have been using Linux since before some of the present users were even out of nappies but a lot have not you need to take them into consideration but not the Gnome way of that is what it is thats it no changes allowed Pete .