MESSAGE
| DATE | 2001-10-17 |
| FROM | Jay Sulzberger
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [hangout] Re: [wwwac] Jakob Nielsen on how Apple blew it, how Linux will blow
|
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 11:50:50 -0500
From: R. Scott Granneman
To: Robert Gruber
Cc: wwwac-at-lists.wwwac.org
Subject: Re: [wwwac] Jakob Nielsen on how Apple blew it,
how Linux will blow it, and the Next Big Thing.
How has Apple blown it? I speak as a user of Linux & Windows 2K, not as
a Mac zealot. I saw OS X in CompUSA the other night, and it blew me
away. Besides, it's only been out now for what? 6 months? Jeez, give it
a chance! I don't understand why people are slamming it when it's still
new. I think it's the most exciting, wonderful thing that's happened to
the Mac in well over a decade.
As for Linux on the desktop ... well, I'm writing this from a Linux
machine running KDE. I use Linux as my main desktop 90%+ of the time.
And I just started running Linux as my desktop in March of this year.
Why? Because it's finally ready. I've been waiting since 1996 for a
version of Linux that I could use daily on my workstation. With the
release of Red Hat 7.0 and KDE 2, that waiting was over.
I do a LOT of public speaking and teaching out here in the conservative
midwest. Uniformly, people are very impressed with Linux on the desktop.
And I'm talking about businesspeople, teachers, students ... normal
people. They see Linux running on my laptop, I tell them about it, and
they're not scared. They're interested. Really, really interested.
In fact, I'm teaching a class this spring at one of the local community
colleges titled "Transitioning from Windows & Mac to Linux". Let me tell
you, it will fill up instantly. I know this for a fact. I've got far
more people interested in taking this class than can be accomodated.
Same thing for the summer session. In fact, I've already lined up a
second teacher for additional courses over the summer. I think it's
going to grow and grow and grow.
Microsoft has done, and is doing, a simply fabulous job ... driving
people to consider other options. As soon as I begin to tell people
about Product Activation, they are amazed, then scared, then angry. When
I talk about Windows crashes, they nod in agreement (and don't bother
talking about Win2K - they don't care. They've gotten burned badly, and
they're angry.). When I talk about Microsoft's increasingly ridiculous
licensing schemes to squeeze yet more money from people and
corporations, people get mad. And when I show people Linux and talk
about it, they see it as a viable alternative.
It's a wonderful synchronicity of events that Microsoft would overreach
itself in so many ways at the exact same time that the economy worsens
and at the same time that Linux gets to be really usable on the desktop.
The next several years are going to be very interesting.
Scott
Robert Gruber wrote:
> I'm sure Jacob Nielsen has some interesting things to say, but nothing
> I've ever seen or read of his, particularly the design of his own
> website, makes me think he's some sort of guru.
>
> He seems to think people are all neophytes who never learn and that we
> should always play to the lowest common denominator, even when that
> impedes the message or useability for more sophisticated users.
>
> Everyone on this list who subscribes to the non-digest version probably
> gets a coupla hundred emails a day. I'm sure most of us are quite
> productive, probably above any sort of productivity average if such a
> thing exists. Filters aren't such a advanced feature. If you get enough
> email to need filters, you probably know how to set them up or are
> extremely motivated to learn.
>
> I do think he is right about Apple blowing it though. It would have been
> nice to see OS X as a pardigm shift to something like piles or another
> way of associating and grouping documents. I think the hierarchtical
> system could use some improvement. Some sort of visual way of using Unix
> pipes would be cool too, so people could simply build the sort of
> applications or scripts they need visually. OS X is really a Unix core
> with a pretty face which is nice but not exactly revolutionary.
>
> There was an article in Web Techniques awhile back about how Linux
> should just stop focusing on the desktop and work on improving it's core
> features for servers. It argued that the desktop effort was a brain
> drain on Linux hackers whose efforts would be more profitably directed
> toward the server side. Basically instead of fighting an uphill battle
> against Microsoft on the desktop, they should be fighting the battle on
> the server side where they clearly have the edge.
>
> Rob
--
R. Scott Granneman
scott-at-granneman.com ~ www.granneman.com
Join GranneNotes! Information at www.granneman.com
"... any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind,
and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for
thee."
---John Donne
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