Re: [tdf-discuss] Request: Installation Instructions

On Mon, Nov 22, 2010 at 10:46 AM, Lee Hyde <anubeon@gmail.com> wrote:
>
<cut>

> On 22/11/10 17:50, Rene Engelhard wrote:
> > No, my position taken to the logical conclusion would not be that (as I think
> > there's use cases for GUIs - I didn't say anything against them here but just
> > mentioned that dpkg is basics - we don't need GUIs but that we need a "drivers license"
> > for computers. Mandatory for everyone who wants to use PCs.
> >
> > The same as if you would not be allowed to drive a car if you don't know where
> > the steering wheel or the gas pedal is, neither would you be allowed to use a gear car
> > when you only know automatic.
> >
> > Learn basics, or live with people telling you that you need to look at basics before
> > you do stuff.
>
> This is an absolutely horrendous view to hold! Such patronising views
> only serve to hold back the FOSS community. Strange as it may seem to
> you Rene, many are intimedated by the command line. They shouldn't be,
> but they are, and your above comments will do nothing to assuage such
> end-users. In fact there more likely to turn back to Windows or MacOSX
> than adapt to your way of thinking/doing. Some of us like our icon
> metaphors and prefer our double-click > install to your open terminal >
> navigate to directory > dpkg -i *.deb.
>
> Also, The reason that people are required to qualify for a driving
> license before driving a car is that behind the wheel of a car a bad
> driver can easily kill a fellow road-user/cyclist/pedestrian. Now unless
> the 1980s film 'War Games' was an accurate representation of computing
> the same cannot be said of a technophobic office worker, in fact if
> anything they be better off staying well clear of the command line.
>
> I'm afraid that your patronizing 'get orf my land you idiot' mentality
> will serve only to exclude the vast majority of end-users, as it has in
> the past, and without a significant user base LibreOffice will
> degenerate into little more than a hobby project and rightly so (if it
> chooses to alienate the majority of computer users instead of embrace them).
>
> --

+1, Lee.

It would be good if people understood the tools that they use. But
they don't. And they won't. And they shouldn't have to in order to use
basic communication tools such as LibreOffice.

Expecting people to have a "license to compute" is quixotic. It is
simply not going to happen. There is no good reason to make
LibreOffice installation any more difficult than other run-of-the-mill
applications, whatever platform is involved.

Rene, (cordially) Your attitude seems more appropriate to a radical
LUGr or a Microsoft plant than to a group that is trying to get some
liftoff force for a F/OSS project that has a lot of potential. How is
it part of the DocumentFoundation mission to change people's basic
software installation habit?

There are plenty enough hurdles without trying to force behavior
changes artificially. What could you do to help the project succeed?

Carl

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