Mandrake disappointment 1740

Consistency is not a must, but it is a huge advantage. XP does not offer this, and it seems in general Linux does not either - though the new GNOME may very well change that from what I have seen.

I work with many clbuttes of new and often older users. For them many tasks that to you and I would be trivial to figure out - or things we might not even notice - become big stumbling blocks for them. Many get past that point after a few months of use though others never seem to.

Many of the screen shots I have posted to my site come directly from repeated questions I get in my clbuttes. Look at the save and print dialogs:

I often teach the students to use a save dialog only to have to teach them *another* dialog for another program! I am not talking just the options of the other program, but the whole layout... again, as seen in the images.

Or the Common Task area of Windows - it would seem that would be there largely for newer users ... but even it is inconsistent:

Same thing with using windows... with multiple versions of windowing schemes seen even in MS Office:

Etc. I see these things every day.

OS X is certainly not perfect - far from on some accounts... but it is vastly better than XP. I simply do not see new users struggle with it like they do with XP. More than that, I have taught many people to use the "other" OS... and more often than not the XP folks learning OS X tell me they never thought things could be so easy... not until they experienced it. OS X users learning XP understand why people unpleasant woman about XP so much.

From what I have seen Linux tends to be more like XP *in this way* than it does OS X. When I have commented on this, some of the trolls blind Linux advocates whatever have said that people should just find the distro they like and use the apps they like.

These people *completely* miss the point that expecting new users to such is just silly. Most people who have used XP for years do not get it - not until they use something better. A new user - by definition - does not have the experience to do as they suggest.

I do not ask for them to be the same... just internally consistent and relatively easy to use. The OS X dock, for what it is worth, is far from perfect. In many ways the XP Linux taskbar is better - though it tends to get cluttered.

For me... sure. For most of the users I am in reference to - not at all. They generally do not find computers "fun"... though they value the tool when they can produce something with it - email, get info from the web, write a document, etc.

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