I think we need a discussion

[Stefano Cavallari]

On Mon, Aug 29, 2011 at 10:08 PM, David L. Gehrt <dlg at inanity.net> wrote:

> What this seems to imply is that in the future the mainline Linux UI will be
> characterized features  imposed, and by  lack of flexibility.  This  lack of
> flexibility means that users are presented with a computing environment with
> features thought desirable by developers  and which provide little or no way
> for  users to modify  their computing  environment in  ways that  meet their
> needs and preferences.

My impression is that often interfaces are designed for "stupid" users
rather than being stupid-compatible.
This way the user have a very big leap in front of himself, and never
have the chance to become an advanced user.
Some of my experience in computing comes by wondering "what does this
option do?" and by discovering interfaces.
I think that this approach of making interfaces not only simple, but
also not powerful, is detrimental to users, especially when they have
to troubleshoot things and have the only option to "open a terminal"
or "call a friend".
Sometime an option more can confuse a user, or make it an expert in
the long run.

Stefano Cavallari