Forget Hardy

[Avi Greenbury]

Douglas Pollard wrote:

>      This talk of dumming down shows a narrow interest of almost all 
> things except Linux and programing.  Linux is the organization that is 
> seeking users not the other way around

That is not the way I see it.

To the best of my knowledge, the main aim of those in Linux is to create 
the best possible OS they can. That will, naturally, attract users. But 
the main aim is for quality, not quantity.

It is those organisations which make a certain amount of money per 
install that are looking for the most users possible.

 >					 and if someone on this list
> considers beginners or people of limited computer interest too dumb to 
> use Linux seems to me they are too dumb to be acting in Linux's 
> interest. 

There are plenty of paid-for support services which will offer the user 
who is uninterested in why something works an explanation of what it is 
that works.
This is a free service offered by volunteers which will explain _why_ 
things work the way they do as that leads to fewer questions and is way 
of looking at things which is more interesting to the majority of the 
people here.

As with most things, if you want to learn how something works without 
doing it, you're going to have to pay someone to teach you.

>     I sometimes use a hammer and I don't care a whit how it was made, 
> it's a tool and I use it as such.  The more it requires of me the less I 
> am likely to use it.

But an OS is a little more complicated than a hammer.
The best analogy I can come up with is a driver who doesn't know why the 
car stops accelerating when he presses the clutch pedal and has no 
intention of doing so.

>     There are huge numbers of lists to help the user with Linux 
> programs  and that is a testimony to the fact that a lot of help is need 
> by the average computer user who by the way may well be  brilliant in 
> his own field. 

In general, people who truly are brilliant in their own field are quite 
inquisitive by nature, and good at working towards knowledge. That is 
the usual way to become brilliant.

>     I have quit Linux several times but keep coming back.   If a persons 
> time is worth anything at all ( being retired mine is not) then Linux is 
> the most expensive program ever devised by man. 

Is it really any harder to use than any other OS? Or have you fallen 
into the trap of forgetting that you've spent however many years 
learning Windows?

>         Let me say this though when I ask a question on line of people 
> who are there to help it drives me nuts when they tell me to go to 
> previous posts to find the answers. 

Why? Did you not first search for the previous answers?
Why is it that the time of the asker is more valuable than that of the 
answerer?

>					I am one who is loath to ask for 
> help so I have spent one heck of a lot of time trying to find the answer 
> myself and by the time I ask for help I am usually near the end of my 
> string.  By this time all I want is a quick solution. 

So say that. If you say "I searched, found this solution, tried it and 
got this new problem" you will likely get a good response.

By and large, those of us on this list enjoy a new challenge, we like to 
hear questions we've not heard before.

No-one likes to repeatedly answer the same question, especially not when 
their previous answer is easily available.

--
Avi Greenbury