On Thu, 22 Jun 2017 at 16:15:56 +0200
Radagast <thebrown@???> wrote:

> On Thu, 22 Jun 2017 12:53:25 +0200
> Alessandro Selli <alessandroselli@???> wrote:
>
>> they chose it because it was simple, easy to use
>> and came with a large number of wallpapers, themes and a full choice of
>> skins and element colours.
>
> Most of the non-geek people I know would choose a desktop experience
> because it just stays out of the way and lets them edit their documents and
> read their email.

Different experience from mine, probably because we're dealing with
different kinds of people. The people I introduced to a Linux distribution
where usually newbies to IT, they knew little of Windows too, they did not
have an important stack of Office documents to port from the old OS to the
new one.

[...]

> The problem is that FOSS is *all about choise* and these people *don't want
> to choose*. At least they don't want to put effort into choosing
> tech-solutions.

I never wrote tech-solutions mattered any. I quote myself:
«what they liked the most of it was not how much you can tune the kernel, the
filesystem, the scheduler or the networking kernel run-time parameters.
Instead what won they heart was how easily and how much they could tweak and
customise the way the desktop looked like and behaved.»

> They are quite happy letting Fruit INC or M$ or A Company
> That Derived It's Name From The Name Of A Very Large Number make their
> choices for them.

My experience differs: I heard many times non technical people bemoan the
way their Android phone does things and ask me how that could be changed, how
that could be taken away (usually pop-ups and notifications), how they could
do this-or-that with fewer touches and scrolls. And my answer a lot of the
times is: "You cannot, they do not let users do that", and they are frustrated
things are like this.

> If we want these people to use FOSS instead of
> $PROPRIETARY_SOLUTION then we need to provide as many sane and pleasant
> (GUI-)defaults as possible. Where the sane defaults are chosen based on a
> very solid understanding of the target non-geek userbase.

"Sane and pleasant defaults" are surely a good thing, but they do not mean
people do not want things to be done they way they prefer. Newcomers do not
spend time reconfiguring the GUI's appearance right from the start because
they must first learn the basics of the OS and the application. But when
they feel fluent with the basic functions then they do turn to customisation
and extensions.

> On the other hand, I personally don't like any of the currently available
> desktop environments.

Who does? :-P
Not even those who develop them do!

> Why should I be forced to have ha panel or a systray
> or an icon indicating my WiFi- or battery-status that is allways visible?

Uh? What desktop are you using? The two I use the most, XFCE and LXDE, do
not do that.

> I
> find these items distracting! I don't want to have to move my hands between
> the keyboard and the touchpad! So what are my choises? Hack up or pay up, I
> guess...

So, you see, there should be more choices, not fewer, more freedom to
customise settings and behaviour, not lesser.


Bye,


--
Alessandro Selli http://alessandro.route-add.net
VOIP SIP: dhatarattha@???
Chiavi PGP/GPG keys: B7FD89FD, 4A904FD9