Hi,


On 13 Feb 2001, at 9:04, wojtek@wojtek.from.pl wrote:

> it is attractive for users that want know what's going on. for users
> that want click-and-pray interface there is windows.

There is much land between ease of use and a gui. A configuration 
file that a command reads parameters from is making a system 
more easy to use. Everywhere scripts are written to automate 
things and make whatever easier to use.

> 
> do you think making system "easy" will gain more developers?

Do you think that not making a system "easy" will keep potential 
developers away? SuSE and other distributions got IBM to port 
Linux to the S/390, AS400, and "all" of the other IBM machines, and 
I doubt these IBM folks are the least competent developers around. 
I very much dislike SuSEs ease of use, as it makes it hard to know 
what is going on and I agree, that this kind of "ease of use" is bad 
and tends to become a new windows.

> it will gain lot of pseudo-developers that will like "easy
> development" and will be mainly interested in atting new desktop
> themes to kde etc... instead of writing somithing usefu

If they like that they shall do it. I find it good to have te ability to 
choose from hundreds of themes (not for K but for some wm I use) 
without doing much work.

-----------

You have to keep in mind, that e.g. the european community has 
strict ergonimics regulations for terminal workplaces that are 
mandatory for its members. This regulation includes e.g. minimum 
contrast rules, letter sizes and colours for displays etc. and also 
IIRC rules for the ease of use a computer system must have.

Under "http://www.tuvit.de/de/download/Windows2000-Linux/" you 
can download a short summary of a "Comparative test of Windows 
2000 and Linux as network operating systems" (that actually was 
paid by MS!). This test shows, that Windows 2000 is of better 
usability than Linux as a server OS and and a klient OS (and that it 
is more secure too!). This is a nother MS paid document that 
indicates how important "ease of use"  or "usability" is in the 
industry.

As long as making it easier does not break something, it does not 
do any harm.

mike