[plug] Oxymoron: Microsoft, innovation

[Alex Nordstrom]

Thursday, 15 June 2006 16:27, Mark J Gaynor wrote:
> If you open a MS document, OOo should by default ask if you wish to
> keep your original format and if by chance the user does not
> understand what a file format is, OOo should save the document back
> to the original format anyway.

It does ask; mind you, it asks from the other point of view: do you 
really want to save in an inferior format that may not be able to store 
all the features you used? Of course, it can be configured to not ask 
and just always prefer proprietary formats, if that's what you really 
want.

> I have lost count of the times people have just asked to show how to
> do a particular task and write down the steps verbatim. They are not
> always interested in what funky things might be done, they have a
> job to do with a deadline and that is what drives the learning curve.

So instead of learning what to do, they memorise how to do it, a bit 
like playing a melody on a piano without any feel for why certain notes 
harmonise. To this kind of user, apparently learning where a menu item 
is placed rather than understanding why it is there is the simpler 
option, even though it requires infinitely more memorisation. 

In the long run, I think it is setting oneself up for failure, and I 
can't think of any other domain where teachers are so afraid of helping 
the learners see the virtue of a clearly superior approach to learning.

> I wanted to import some CSV text data into a spreadsheet with OOo,
> a simple task you may think. Well,I could not find anything that
> would allow me to do this simple task.

File->Open, choose Text CSV (*.csv;*.txt) from the File type dropdown 
box. Did that not work?

> Another example of open source missing the point or re inventing the
> wheel is Gimp. Highly rated by those who use it, but come from
> only using Adobe Photoshop in all its glory, because the company
> can afford the real deal and all the plugins. The transition to Gimp
> is far from easy, as they put everything in different places to where
> you expect them, if you can find them at all.

I worked with Photoshop for several years (though I usually found Paint 
Shop Pro easier to work with for all but the more complex tasks), but 
always found it cumbersome. I didn't like the Gimp 1 interface, but 
after the 2.0 release came out, I switched to that, and nothing has 
ever felt so natural. I guess everyone is different. For those who get 
confused when things move, there's always Gimpshop. (Personally, my 
main gripe with Gimp is the lack of adjustment layers, but I would 
probably not be able to use it practically anyway; memory consumption 
is already a problem for 8MP pictures.)

-- 
Alex Nordstrom
http://lx.n3.net/
Please do not CC me in followups; I am subscribed to plug.
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