DMA

[Jeff Waugh]

<quote who="Robert Spanjaard">

> Probably not. There must be a reason why DMA can be enabled/disabled.  And
> if there's a reason too have that option, there's a reason to put it in a
> GUI.

This is terribly false rationale. There must be *value* to have the choice
at all, and beyond that there must be *value* to expose that choice to our
users. In this case, the value of the choice is pure mechanics (whether or
not the hardware and driver combination supports a particular feature), so
the value to the user is almost nil.

Put it this way - computers can do just about anything, in pretty much any
imaginable way. Because computers can do anything, is that a reason for us
to put everything in the GUI? Of course not. Why? Because we have to make a
value judgement about what is useful to expose to users. No one [1] uses a
computer for abstract entertainment value, they use it to achieve something.
We *could* put a big board of dials and switches in front of them and say
"anything's possible!" (ie. your choices are infinite, and we're giving all
of them to you, totally exposed) but that wouldn't help them achieve what
they want to achieve.

If we took the easy way out (which you describe above) computers would still
be fundamentally unapproachable to everyday users - and that's *not* what
we're here for. :-)

- Jeff

[1] And when I say no one, I mean "most of the users on this list, but very
few users in the real world". ;-)

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linux.conf.au 2007: Sydney, Australia           http://lca2007.linux.org.au/
 
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