Friendly and Secure Desktop Operating System

[Daniela]

On Tuesday 28 October 2003 15:08, Devon H. O'Dell wrote:
> Another problem is that with the 'stupid user' model that's mentioned in
> the article, the OS has to handle things that should be decided by the
> user. You get into the question of where to stop trying to save the user
> from him/herself and where to let the user make decisions. Again, this
> is a problem that *application* developers need to address, not
> operating system developers.

Question: What makes the user stupid?
Answer: An environment that hides details and doesn't force the users to know 
a little bit of the thing they're working with.

Call me paranoid, but I think this "over-userfriendlyness" is quite dangerous.
We'll end in an environment where we don't understand anything, and a few 
companies control our lives. This might seem farfetched, but we are slowly 
walking in this direction.
Think about it: No knowledge - no control. And users are accepting it.
They are just lazy and want everything to be done for them, even if this means 
they have to give up freedom.


BTW, I think this user-friendly desktop should only be an optional and easily 
exchangeable frontend to the "real thing".

Daniela