On Sat, 14 Mar 2020 15:08:37 +0000
Mark Rousell <mark.rousell@???> wrote:

> I am not opposing your central message in any way, but...
>
> On 13/03/2020 02:59, Steve Litt wrote:
> > involves programming, and most people can't
> > do that.
> >
> > Oh really? 12 lines of code and they can't do it (or have a friend
> > help do it)?
>
> Really. There is no way on earth that the average computer user could
> even come close to writing a program or script and this applies to
> most of their friends too.
>
> Some people might be able to use a macro recorder or a graphical tool
> that allows them to assemble functional blocks to create a script, but
> even that much would be too much for most end users in my experience.
> End users want to use, to consume. Creating/programming is not in
> their mindset.
>
>
> It strikes me that back when I first got into computers (the early
> 80s), there was a sense of optimism that the rapid growth of widely
> affordable technology would result in a new golden era of technical
> literacy. Oh dear, how naive.
>
> Instead, the techies, geeks and entrepreneurs made technology
> *easier*. We made it so that it was easier for end users to consume,
> to use what was offered to them. There was no need for the
> non-technical end users to learn anything. It all just works. Or, if
> it doesn't work, they throw it away and try something else. And so
> that golden age of technical literacy has never really arrived. What
> we have now is billions of consumers and, proportionately speaking,
> fewer and fewer people who actually know how it all works.
>
> Thus, the average user (even the average Linux user, I suspect) is not
> going to be scripting stuff any time soon (other than maybe by typing
> in stuff they Googled).
>

I strongly feel like this kind of user should stay away from Linux and
just use Windows. When those kind of users displace the original
user-base of literate people they start making the system as a whole
worse for the core community who built the thing in the first place.

--
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/ That woman speaks eight languages and \

| can't say "no" in any of them.        |
|                                       |

\ -- Dorothy Parker                     /
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