On Sat, 14 Mar 2020 15:08:37 +0000 Mark Rousell <mark.rous...@signal100.com> wrote:
> I am not opposing your central message in any way, but... > > On 13/03/2020 02:59, Steve Litt wrote: > > involves programming, and most people can't > > do that. > > > > Oh really? 12 lines of code and they can't do it (or have a friend > > help do it)? > > Really. There is no way on earth that the average computer user could > even come close to writing a program or script and this applies to > most of their friends too. > > Some people might be able to use a macro recorder or a graphical tool > that allows them to assemble functional blocks to create a script, but > even that much would be too much for most end users in my experience. > End users want to use, to consume. Creating/programming is not in > their mindset. > > > It strikes me that back when I first got into computers (the early > 80s), there was a sense of optimism that the rapid growth of widely > affordable technology would result in a new golden era of technical > literacy. Oh dear, how naive. > > Instead, the techies, geeks and entrepreneurs made technology > *easier*. We made it so that it was easier for end users to consume, > to use what was offered to them. There was no need for the > non-technical end users to learn anything. It all just works. Or, if > it doesn't work, they throw it away and try something else. And so > that golden age of technical literacy has never really arrived. What > we have now is billions of consumers and, proportionately speaking, > fewer and fewer people who actually know how it all works. > > Thus, the average user (even the average Linux user, I suspect) is not > going to be scripting stuff any time soon (other than maybe by typing > in stuff they Googled). > I strongly feel like this kind of user should stay away from Linux and just use Windows. When those kind of users displace the original user-base of literate people they start making the system as a whole worse for the core community who built the thing in the first place. -- _______________________________________ / That woman speaks eight languages and \ | can't say "no" in any of them. | | | \ -- Dorothy Parker / --------------------------------------- \ \ /\ /\ //\\_//\\ ____ \_ _/ / / / * * \ /^^^] \_\O/_/ [ ] / \_ [ / \ \_ / / [ [ / \/ _/ _[ [ \ /_/ _______________________________________________ Dng mailing list Dng@lists.dyne.org https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dng