One of the things I've been seeing more and more as of late is an attitude of "I just want it to work". Oddly, it's not a new attitude, but as we expand out into new markets, and go after new groups of users, we're starting to encounter people like this more and more.Part of the reason behind that is, we've already picked all the low hanging fruit from several different trees along the way. We've collected all (or most) of the uber geeks, the sysadmins, and the power users. But now, as we begin to pick up more of the average daily consumer, we're starting to encounter a lot of the "just works" crowd. These are typically people who don't want to think about what they're doing with a PC, or anything outside of their job. They just want to point, click, and whatever it is they want just happens. Kind of like the whole push button mentality of the Jetsons.I saw this at the Sandisk press conference at CES, as well as at the Samsung, Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic and other major OEM's booths. A focus on the “just works” crowd seemed to be the center of their marketing. And you know what? It's working.So why are we crying when people request systems that are uber simplified? We act as though it's some heretical sin that someone would actually ask for a user interface that's streamlined, simple, and without expanded reconfigurability and features. The incredible number of configurable options in KDE is one of the things I love about it, and hate in Gnome, because that level of reconfigurability is absent. Yet, oddly, a lot of people love that. So, if they don't mind loosing some power tools in favor of greater ease of use, then so be it.It's one of the things that has drawn people to Mac for years. That uber simplicity. We on the other hand as power users, myself especially, still cling to the “must have features, reconfigurability, and power options” mentality. That's why Ubuntu and Mint are so popular now with the midline crowd, but Freebsd, Arch, and Slackware are hot in the power user crowd. If you like it simple, go one way. If you like it powerful with lots of configurable options, go the other.And before you go on some big ego trip and call the “just works” crowd a bunch of dumb buffoons, consider yourself. You likely drive a car, correct? If not, just play along with me for this example. You get into your car, you turn the key, you put it in gear, and you drive away. Do you want to know what's going on under the hood? Unless you're a gearhead, the answer is likely no. You want it to "just work", yet gearheads scream and yell because modern cards do "just work" and there's no real effort anymore required to keeping one running, aside from keeping it well supplied with gas, oil and tires. Yet for many of them, the over simplified car, especially ones you can't "tune", are a mortal sin. And yet you have no issues with that. But you'll scream and yell because someone else wants the same basic thing, but in a PC interface? That's a bit hypocritical, don't you think? Just because someone wants an ultra simplified interface *does not* mean that your "uber geekyness" is suddenly threatened.Case in point. One of my forum members (Monty) was kind enough to point out to me an error in my own thinking recently that arose in regards to a new netbook that was coming out. It was to arrive with the command line disabled, among a wide range of other features. I cried and moaned about it until he pointed out that for the average user, that's fine. For the uber geek, just give them a few weeks and they'll be able to unlock that feature and many more. The same general things happened with the Asus EeePC, so why not this one? Believe me, that was a reality check for me of epic proportions.So in the end, we need to each do a personal reality check. Asus has already caught onto this change in market groups. It's why their Linux powered netbooks are selling so well, and MSI's didn't. Well, MSI's obviously poorly designed interface aside of course. But look at the EeePC. Remember the generic interface that was offered with it? Remember how we had an utter cow because it was "too simple"? Remember how geeks the world over rejoiced when someone figured out how to get into the "advanced mode"?Yet, interestingly enough, a lot of the less computer savvy users I've worked with love the simplified interface. And it's not just the EeePC that they want those kind of interfaces on. For example, I gave my mom an MP3 player recently that had 5 buttons on it. No screen, no menus, no nothing. Just five buttons. She loved it to death. Yet when I had given her one of my other MP3 players before that, she just about smashed it into the wall in frustration because it was too difficult to navigate. I didn't think it was tough, but she did. And she's not the only one who has issues with technology like that.Another of my forum members (DaveB) also contributed a little example to this idea that I think fits well. I'll share it here in his words.
Case in point - my wife has no interest in computers. Until about a month ago she has never used a PC for anything at all, not interested. Recently she's found a need to use email, so I set up a laptop with PCLos2007 for her. All she wants to know is which buttons to click. She has no interest in the fact it's Linux, what the application is called, why she's using Linux ... none of that. All she's interested in is how to use it. Plain, straightforward, she just wants it to work. She doesn't care about the rest - and let's be honest, there's no reason at all that she should. It's a tool. Do we need to understand how a microwave works, or a can opener, or that new uber-thin high-def screen on the wall? We just want to plug things in and use them. Why then should a PC or laptop be any different?
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