Re: [PLUG] moms and linux

[Fred K Ollinger <follinge@sas.upenn.edu>]

> I'd definitely recommend going with the latest of either (KDE 3 or Gnome 2).
> The usability improves every version. Gnome 1.4 still had some fairly obvious

I like icewm for novices. Have it autologin and launch all the apps she
needs. Show her how to click on bottom bar to change them. I like icewm
b/c it can be made to look very easily like windows (great for fooling
people) and it has very _few_ gui features. Fewer seems to be better if
someone only wants to surf/email/word process. I like linux for this
reason in general for really novice users b/c you can really lock things
down so they can't break anything. I'll get a big debate on this one, but
mostly from intermediates in windows who think that lots of pictures and
buttons are better. They are better--for people who want to do lots of
different things. I'm talking really simple here.

> Moms are also an interesting real study in overall usability. No offense to
> the less computer literate fathers out there :) And, no offense to the
> computer literate moms, either. I often here the question, "Is Linux ready
> for the desktop?" Well, let us know how this goes. Personally, I think the
> answer is *pretty much*.

This is all in presentation. Things that most of us don't really care
about or understand can seem really huge to these people. Linux can be
configured to work identically to windows (save for the sw, wine's not
there yet). Real people doing work shouldn't waste time admining their
machines anyway, IMHO.

I think the main thing is asking what the person wants to see when they
turn on their machine and go from there. I think most people will want to
see a web browser.

Fred


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