Date: Tue, 2 Feb 1999 18:57:13 +1100 From: Sue Blake <sue@welearn.com.au> To: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: desktop stupidity Message-ID: <19990202185713.43112@welearn.com.au>
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Now wait a minute! Most of you people don't know what newbies need, you
haven't asked them, won't listen or believe or sit down with them to
help them work it out for themselves, you're so set with your
comfortable little stereotypes that you really think you know the Great
Truth and have all the solutions and nobody can tell you different,
least of all a loathsome newbie. You think you can just dish something
up and they'll love it. What if you're wrong? Oh, yes, newbies fault.
As a group you show very little respect for newbies, yet you think you
can get your jollies off by patronising the types of lazy wimps that no
self-respecting FreeBSD newbie would want to be associated with. With
luck you might even trap some newbies into perpetual helplessness and
some of you might raise your status as helpers by so doing.
You're mad, the lot of you. Stop and learn (remember that?), or go back
to your kernel entrails.
We have a few hundred newbies here who constantly try to do the right
thing, who want to learn, and are largely ignored because, not fitting
the stereotype, they're not fun to pick on or you can't get warm
fuzzies and the occasional sucked toe from having fun "helping" them
the way you see fit. Throwing GUI at them is like telling them to eat
cake. All they want is the bloody recipe and a bit of human respect.
The newbies I see are put off or held back by:
- lack of reliable advice as to what to do/learn first, second, third ...
- lack of suitable documentation at the right pace and starting point
- misunderstanding of their learning needs by others
- inaccessibility of many of the tools they need to use during the
first few hours, before being able to execute a learning plan
- misguided attempts to "help" them which only hold them back
- a constant trickle of put-downs and resultant lack of confidence
- inability to create what they need for themselves or communicate
needs to developers
They might have only had some GUI background, but that does not mean
they want to stay that way. Why the hell do you think they're running
FreeBSD, because they're too stupid to know what it is? Come on! Lack
of knowledge does not indicate stupidity. I'll challenge any of you to
a test of crochet knowledge or skill and see how you fare!
As I see it, *the* problem that faces new users is that their learning
involves too many other struggles in addition to the learning process,
as outlined above. Yet despite these glaring needs, you're all crapping
on about how much fun you would have getting together some GUI
environment and/or tools that would
- attract people who have no intention of learning anything new
- make it extremely difficult for our current type of newbies to
get inside and find out how things work.
- provide time-wasting support fodder to reinforce the stereotype
Now you want to add one more problem: an environmental prison that at
first makes learning seem unnecessary, and later on makes it much more
inaccessible than what we have now. What on earth makes you think
newbies want such a mindless and limiting GUI? They want a basic plain
but non-hostile interface that is easy for them to work with initially
and easy to learn to control themselves. For those who most deserve
help, KDE just doesn't cut it. Nor does any other window manager
without a lot more easy guides for inquisitive non-programmers and
suitably annotated configuration files (yes I said files, NOT tools).
I keep saying this and the time has come round again:
Newbies will adapt to become whatever you expect of them.
Think carefully before you act; you might just get whatever you expect.
KDE is nice for what it is and should be provided with FreeBSD and made
easy to install. There's nothing wrong with KDE for those who prefer it
to the alternatives, or those who have a paid administrator at their
elbow. It's just not *the* answer, even if you were asking the right
questions. We don't have the resources to deal with attracting people
who can't survive without something like KDE. We can't even cope with
the beginner linux refugees and wannabe developers who are working
through their newbie phase right now, and that's a more urgent priority
as I see it. Newbies have contributed a huge amount during the last 12
months, and are a growing resource we can't afford to chase away or
restrict to an environment of learned helplessness.
What's that I hear down the back? diffs? Yeah they're coming. Don't
hold your breath too hard though. It takes me a hundred times as long
as it'd take someone who knows what they're doing, but it's still
quicker than knocking sense into some of your collectively patronising
heads, and far less humiliating.
--
Regards,
-*Sue*-
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