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The Humble User vs The Guru as a teacher

Making Linux look harder than it is
By Robin Miller, Newsforge.com

Could the biggest problem with Linux usability be that most of the people
teaching newbies to use Linux are too smart and know too much? I've been
ruminating over this idea for many months now, starting with an experience I
had at a Linux Users Group meeting last summer.

A person I know, who has been using Linux since before Kernel 1.0, was
trying to show someone who had just installed Linux on his laptop how to
configure a modem. The teacher was using traditional Linux command line
tools, and the process was slow and required a command line text editor, in
this case vi, and the new user was totally befuddled by all the commands
involved.

The funny thing was that the Linux distribution included the KPPP dialer,
which only takes a few mouseclicks, plus typing in your ISP's local phone
number and your username/password, to get working. I butted in just before
the new guy was totally lost, and showed him how to set up his modem
connection the easy, point and click way - in about 30 seconds.

My friend, the guru, was almost as astounded as the new guy at how easy it
was to do a modem setup using GUI tools. But the guru had never done it that
way. "I prefer the flexibility and power of the command line," he said.

Flexibility and power are very nice, but we weren't trying to be flexible or
powerful that evening. We wanted to get a computer set up to access the
Internet through a modem with a minimum amount of fuss, then show the
computer's owner how to change settings easily when he got home, where he
didn't have a command line expert around to lead him by the hand.

(...)

Most new Linux users aren't interested in maximizing performance. They want
to get Linux installed, get sound working, set their video up so it looks
decent, get connected to a LAN, cable modem, DSL or dialup line, and start
doing things in Linux, and I mean things like checking out Web sites,
sending and reading email, writing and printing out letters, doing their
bookkeeping, and other stuff like that, because this is what 99% of the
computer-using human population does with their computers 99% of the time.

People using their computers don't need to know much beyond "Push button A
and action B results." They don't need to get confused with a lot of complex
commands while they're just starting to figure out the way to do things in
Linux that they already knew how to do in Windows. That basic level of
knowledge is enough for a start - and for a good while afterwards.

Sub-geeks to the rescue!
------------------------------

But did you ever think that someone like you, who knows how to use Linux as
a user operating system might be a more helpful teacher to a brand-new user
than some of those gurus? That even though you, the ordinary user, feels
humbled by the professional-level Linux people in the LUG, you have
something to offer in the way of tech support?

Perhaps we should call it "non-tech support," because what so many new Linux
users need, and do not seem to be getting, is simple instructions on how to
do simple things the easiest possible way.

So, Linux user of modest skills, do not leave all new user training to the
hard-cores. You can probably do a better job of teaching new users than some
of the hoariest, "been using Unix for 30 years, Linux for ten", greybeards.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/23245.html

GP