blog entry: "Installation Face Off: Linux or Windows"

[Peter Garrett]

On Wed, 14 Dec 2005 15:10:16 +0100 (CET)
grethe at bek.no wrote:

> So there I am, prefering Gnome, and Ubuntu, mainly because of its
> graphical design. Some would think this just makes me a dumb and stupid
> woman. So be it. Persons with my preferences has to be convinced too.
> Torvalds is a nice guy, but his arguments does not appeal to me ;-)

Very interesting ideas, Grethe. 

One of the "problems" in FOSS / GNU/Linux is probably that it is made by
technically adept people, but not many  are artists, or interested in
the aesthetic aspects of what is being produced  (there are of course many
exceptions to this, and some good work being done).

I tend to agree that Ubuntu has a good "feel" for this - but of course
tastes differ greatly ;)

Making a desktop that pleases both the eye and the mind is a difficult
undertaking. Everyone seems to think , for example , that Mac-OS-X has a
beautiful desktop with Acqua. I think it's really no more pleasing to look
at than a nicely configured GNOME desktop. In fact I get bored with it.
It's so... well ... *blue* !  Windows desktops are revolting, in my
not-so-humble-opinion <grin>

Linus has a point in my view, though, regarding functionality. There
seems to be a trend for the Gnome developers to remove things which are
actually useful. An example would be "right click on the desktop to get a
terminal", which is no longer there by default. (Yes, I know you can
reinstall it, but this looks like a "Users shouldn't need to use the
commandline" decision - which really doesn't make much sense. After all ,
text is something we use all the time - why should it scare people unless
it is just the success of the Mac/Windows metaphors that marketers have
managed to convince people are more "intuitive" ? )

What, really, is intuitive about dragging little icons around, or clicking
on them to execute programs? And how does this further anyone's
understanding of the machine? 

Is it worth understanding how the operating system works? I think so,
especially if we are teaching people from an early age. Knowledge is
power, is it not? How are children supposed to grow up understanding the
technology they will be using, unless they can openly manipulate it and see
how it all works?

A very interesting piece about all this is

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucgadkw/InTheBeginningWasTheCommandLine.html

Worth reading.

Peter
 -- 

Linux User #343161