Graphical boot isn't so graphical

Thomas Vander Stichele thomas at apestaart.org
Thu Jul 24 12:49:40 UTC 2003


On Thu, 2003-07-24 at 00:23, Jack Bowling wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 23, 2003 at 03:03:42PM -0400, Havoc Pennington wrote:
> > On Wed, Jul 23, 2003 at 01:29:52PM -0400, Thomas Corriher wrote: 
> > > Benjamin Vander was correct.  It is the graphical booting which is 
> > > more likely to cause boot problems, or allow serious problems to go 
> > > unnoticed during the boot process.  It is a bad design decision 
> > > from a technical perspective.  However, it is good marketing and 
> > > seems more welcoming to newbies.
> > 
> > It is not a marketing decision - the boot messages do show up as a
> > real usability problem, and usability is one of the primary objectives
> > of Red Hat Linux. It is one of our main technical goals.
> > 
> > When something is a usability plus for nontechnical users and a
> > usability minus for technical users, we're always going to default 
> > to the nontechnical setting, because technical users have the skills
> > to "opt out" and change the default.
> 
> 
> Sorry, but this is a definite case of "dummying down" and borders on a
> specious argument.

It's not a definite case.  You're speaking from personal perspective,
and it doesn't look like people are agreeing with it being a dummying
down.  It looks like you are just set in your ways.

>  What will be the first thing a support person asks a
> newbie stuck on a boot to do? "Hit CTRL-ALT-F1, please, and tell me what
> it says."

Exactly.  And how big a percentage gets stuck on a boot ? And when that
boot gets fixed, will they get stuck on it again ?

The point is about addressing 99% of the use case.  In 99% of the use
case you don't need so see the boot messages.  You yourself don't even
READ them every time.  But in case you have some need to read them, you
can.  What more can you ask for ?

Using "marketing" as a term to describe what redhat describes as
usability just makes it apparent you have a deep distrust of everything
non-hardcore tech stuff :)

Thomas

Dave/Dina : future TV today ! - http://davedina.apestaart.org/
<-*- thomas (dot) apestaart (dot) org -*->
Lover fair
We'll be looking sharp I swear
I want them all to stop and stare
When we take'em down
<-*- thomas (at) apestaart (dot) org -*->
URGent, best radio on the net - 24/7 ! - http://urgent.rug.ac.be/





More information about the fedora-test-list mailing list