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I think it's fine that they assume it; imbecile's need interfaces too. My problem with GNOME developers is that they consistently deny that they cater to the l

I think it's fine that they assume it; imbecile's need interfaces too. My problem with GNOME developers is that they consistently deny that they cater to the least technically savvy base and use euphemisms such as “normal people”. They are not “normal” they are technically far less literate than the normal man, and they too of course should be able to own and operate a computer. GNOME in fact seems to think it's own users to be even less savvy than I do, but they continue to deny this. The other problem is that everything that Red Hat has it's tendrils in overflows with meaningless marketing language such as that, in general.

kodah 6y ago
I idle in a Linux IRC channel where support is provided voluntarily 24/7x365. The fact that your assessment doesn't stand up to is that "normal man" seems misplaced. The average person I know cannot figure out how to install Linux much less troubleshoot issues along the way. I don't think this makes them imbeciles or anything of the like. Even GNOMEs definition of a normal person is probably off kilter because the bar for their basic user is so high.
- dleslie 6y ago
  Being able to install Linux is itself something of a quality filter. Without aid from someone competent, those who cannot ascertain how to write an image to a usb stick and get their computer to boot from it won't be using Linux. There used to be Linux distributions that installed to one's C: drive and booted as a windows launch option; I haven't heard of that being a thing in years.
  - auscompgeek 6y ago
    Apparently Wubi is still maintained by the community these days: https://github.com/hakuna-m/wubiuefi https://github.com/hakuna-m/wubiuefi
    - dleslie 6y ago
      That's rad!
- strken 6y ago
  The average adult is unskilled to a degree that most of HN would find surprising. There's a really good article[0] on this from the Nielsen Norman Group's blog. 26% of adults in the OECD can't use a computer, 14% are unable to perform tasks like "find all emails from John Smith", another 26% are unable to perform tasks like "look through these emails and use the information in them to book a meeting room". I think that, whatever definition of "normal" GP was using, it's automatically excluding anywhere from 45% to 95%+ of the population. [0] https://www.nngroup.com/articles/computer-skill-levels/ https://www.nngroup.com/articles/computer-skill-levels/
  - Blikkentrekker 6y ago
    These are not “another” percentage, these are almost certainly very overlapping percentages. And by selecting upon adults, the numbers are already driven up. The young tend to be more skilled with new technology than the old.
    - strken 6y ago
      They're escalating levels of technical skill, as defined in the linked article. I see no indication that there should be significant overlap. While young adults might be better able to e.g. use Gmail, I'd be willing to bet most of them can't configure and recompile DWM, modify the gtk3 settings.ini by hand, or make changes to their xorg.conf.

kodah 6y ago

I idle in a Linux IRC channel where support is provided voluntarily 24/7x365. The fact that your assessment doesn't stand up to is that "normal man" seems misplaced. The average person I know cannot figure out how to install Linux much less troubleshoot issues along the way. I don't think this makes them imbeciles or anything of the like. Even GNOMEs definition of a normal person is probably off kilter because the bar for their basic user is so high.

dleslie 6y ago
Being able to install Linux is itself something of a quality filter. Without aid from someone competent, those who cannot ascertain how to write an image to a usb stick and get their computer to boot from it won't be using Linux. There used to be Linux distributions that installed to one's C: drive and booted as a windows launch option; I haven't heard of that being a thing in years.
- auscompgeek 6y ago
  Apparently Wubi is still maintained by the community these days: https://github.com/hakuna-m/wubiuefi https://github.com/hakuna-m/wubiuefi
  - dleslie 6y ago
    That's rad!
strken 6y ago
The average adult is unskilled to a degree that most of HN would find surprising. There's a really good article[0] on this from the Nielsen Norman Group's blog. 26% of adults in the OECD can't use a computer, 14% are unable to perform tasks like "find all emails from John Smith", another 26% are unable to perform tasks like "look through these emails and use the information in them to book a meeting room". I think that, whatever definition of "normal" GP was using, it's automatically excluding anywhere from 45% to 95%+ of the population. [0] https://www.nngroup.com/articles/computer-skill-levels/ https://www.nngroup.com/articles/computer-skill-levels/
- Blikkentrekker 6y ago
  These are not “another” percentage, these are almost certainly very overlapping percentages. And by selecting upon adults, the numbers are already driven up. The young tend to be more skilled with new technology than the old.
  - strken 6y ago
    They're escalating levels of technical skill, as defined in the linked article. I see no indication that there should be significant overlap. While young adults might be better able to e.g. use Gmail, I'd be willing to bet most of them can't configure and recompile DWM, modify the gtk3 settings.ini by hand, or make changes to their xorg.conf.