[plug] Linux on Laptops (simplicity rant)

[Leon Brooks]

On Thursday 08 September 2005 23:02, Chris Caston wrote:
> There are good reasons for having only 1 button.

Yes.

There are many _more_ reasons for having six or seven. (-:

I find it really debilitating to use MS-Windows and not be able to 
swipe-middleclick to paste. Reaching for the keyboard every time you 
want to move something around really slows you down.

Working with a Mac is even worse. Instead of right-click, select to do 
the most common operations, it's swoop, hunt, select, swoop, hunt.

> You sat with a computing dinosaur and painstaking had to explain the
> difference between left-click and right click and at what times you
> use each?

The same argument could be made for automatic transmissions in cars.

Great for terrified learners who are having enough trouble avoiding the 
kerbs, but there's nothing quite like pulling out to pass someone on a 
wet road, having the auto unexpectedly kick down, and feeling your car 
slewing towards the truck you're overtaking. Said terrified learner 
would panic, and the first thing that happens in a panic is that the 
pedal hits the floor. The second thing is that the car gets grunched by 
the truck.

You also have to explain Control and Alt to the dinosaur. And if they've 
got a broken MS keyboard, to make sure FN-Lock is on before trying to 
use a function key.

It's not worth doing the effective equivalent of taping your fingers 
together just to simplify one of many, many simple things you're going 
to have to teach said dinosaur.

If he feels up to it, Alex could probably add a few pithy paragraphs on 
why the "simplified, streamlined" process embodied in (to hit on a 
favoured example) MYOB is such an invitation to disaster when compared 
to his complex-looking text-mode accounting wonder.

Just to belabour the point, I utterly, utterly despise the argument that 
straight-jackets are the best way to protect people from themselves.

There are many, many drivers who only made it onto the road because 
auto-only licenses were available, and I seriously question the value 
in that. If they're so poorly co-ordinated that operating a clutch and 
gearstick is beyond them, why on earth are they left to pilot tonnes of 
metal around in circumstances where hesitating for an eyeblink holds 
killing potential?

Windows empitomises this, by hiding, polishing up and blanding over some 
of the real deficiencies in the computing environment. Everyone can be 
an administrator! Sometimes Grandma _has_ to be Administrator, and 
nobody can really explain to her why this is so! The problem is the 
same one illustrated in The Incredibles: imagine what the world would 
be like if every school bully also had Syndrome's toybox to play with. 
Badly scarred, for one thing. One Click Zero Point Energy, hurrah!

Sorry, Chris, if you feel dumped upon. I woke up to find that my monitor 
had blown up and one of my users had left debugging enabled on a busy 
service, filling up my /var (mail, databases...) partition with crap. 
You just happened to be the unlucky one. (-:

Cheers; Leon

--
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