-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 At some point hitherto, [EMAIL PROTECTED] hath spake thusly: > First, I agree with you,. Removing options just for the sake of > dumbing-down the UI is, well, dumb.
The GNOME developers don't agree... > Second: The way to solve this problem (for the end-user) is with what I > (and others) call "User Levels". Basically, you tell the software what your > experience level is, and it adjusts the UI accordingly. Sounds perfectly reasonable to me, and has been suggested in several threads on the GNOME usability list. They're not interested... > I have seen user levels implemented in only two places: Once was the > venerable GeoWorks (nee PC/GEOS) GUI for MS-DOS. The other is in the > "Nautilus" system browser. If this ever did exist in Nautilus, it's been removed. Actually another place this existed is in the Sawfish WM. It's apparently been removed from there as well. Incidentally, by default Sawfish isn't even installed on RH8 systems... > Lastly: Many corporations do, in fact, consider removing options > to be an advantage. Why? It decreases training costs. I wonder how true that is, in practice. It makes a certain amount of sense; but I suspect the reality is that the same amount of time (and therefore money) is/would be spent on user training. Why? Ever been in a corporate computer training class? I have. They only cover the (extreme) basics anyway. The extra options are, well, extra (and therefore not covered). One more point: corporations are not users. They are abstract entities. Their employees are the users. Unfortunately, corporations' decisions about what to run or what is good has nothing to do with what makes their employees (the users) happy (and in theory more productive); only money does. Corporations are the ones that make software sales profitable, by and large, so the actual users of the software suffer. - -- Derek D. Martin http://www.pizzashack.org/ GPG Key ID: 0x81CFE75D -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org iD8DBQE9onRWdjdlQoHP510RArYzAJ9xlH/mwN6vaqSQf05v+N94NVJVdwCgiw6Q iZTeTjpp9MFVjPep9iXvfZQ= =Zjxf -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ gnhlug-discuss mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss