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SEUL: Text vs. X
Jean-Francois Martinez wrote:
> > The right thing to do is allowing the user to start X from the command
> > line but making it easy to switch to XDM once he knows X works.
Donovan Rebbechi wrote:
> yep.
No. Our target user doesn't give a damn how the machine works. (S)he
simply wants to write a letter to their Mom, or their boss. Asking them to
use startx until they feel comfortable with XDM is asking them to
understand something they don't care about.
> > We must insure he knows how to set up XDM and how to return to command
> > line.
> yep
NO! SEUL exists to make computers easier for people to use, not to force
them to learn something that doesn't matter to them.
> > That means than we must not expect the user goinh to RTFM. The
> > info must come to him.
And we must give him only the info he wants and needs. Forcing a user to
understand how the machine works is like requiring a driver to understand
how their automatic transmission works. I'm not saying they shouldn't, I'm
saying they must *not* be required to.
> good point. Again, menu shells are great info providers, since you can
> walk them through some pre-amble before they fire up anything. I hope you
> guys aren't sick of hearing about my menu-shell idea already ... (-:
We need a shell of this kind, but it must only be a fallback for the case
where X doesn't work. Nothing more.
> now this sounds like a smart thing to do ...
Existing distributions already do this. We needs to take it one step
further, providing a text-mode program that can help them fix their
machine, and make sure it is *always* available. On my machines I add a
sulogin on tty9 that's *always* active, which has saved me several times
from bad boots and shutdowns.
Erik Walthinsen <omega@seul.org> - SEUL Project system architect
__
/ \ SEUL: Simple End-User Linux -
| | M E G A Creating a Linux distribution
_\ /_ for the home or office user