[luau] Re: 12 steps to desktop...

aeg-inc at hawaii.rr.com aeg-inc at hawaii.rr.com
Tue Jul 23 19:07:00 PDT 2002


Thanks Elizabeth, this one is a real community service:

"4. Put a sign on the edge of your monitor, where you can see
it at all times, that says: "New isn't better, different isn't
better, only better is better." 

Being an inveterate geek, I started pushing my wife onto the web 
around 1995, way back when OS/2 was an option (in fact used proto-
red hat to cache sites at night for morning viewing, being pre-bband 
days).  But she never quite got it until 1999, and the fault was all mine. 

As soon she would get comfortable with the computer, I'd go and 
change something- add some hardware, put up the newest version of 
Netscape, whatever...  Of course nothing worked consistently.

It wasn't until 1999 that I got her a simple client machine, hooked it to 
the web, put tape on the case and swore never ever to break that tape 
seal.  She used the machine until a month ago- when I gave her a 
laptop with same promise to not upgrade.  In the face of stability gotten 
by freedom from constant 'gee-whiz' upgrade, my wife is 'net savvy, and 
even gets why "brand new windows for $" every 18 months is a bad 
idea.

So please folks, design for consistent use!  Linux &c. are great, for me, 
largely because windows crashes and linux doesn't.

best-
rod g



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