Show Details on Bootup

[Fritz Whittington]

On or about 2004-01-02 00:48, Rodolfo J. Paiz whipped out a trusty #2 
pencil and scribbled:

> At 00:09 1/2/2004, you wrote:
>
>> I find this conversation very interesting. I, personally, just 
>> changed the runlevel at system start to level 3. And i don't really 
>> see how hiding what's REALLY going on is going to help the computer 
>> illiterate people more.
>
>
> Hiding something does not help them in a /practical/ way by doing 
> something for them. It helps them in a /psychological/ way by not 
> intimidating them and making the operating system look friendlier. 
> People feel like the computer is holding their hand more, and that 
> makes them feel safer and more at ease.
>
>> I'd say the more a computer does things on it's own and hides what 
>> it's doing the more problems you run into. Example: Windows.
>
>
> Wrong on two counts: having a computer display nothing is in no way a 
> cause for greater errors. You assume a cause->effect relationship 
> where none exists... even in the case of Windows. And as regards the 
> original point, people feel that Windows is easier because all they 
> can see is what they can push, poke, or prod and all complexity is 
> hidden from them.
>
>> Computer illiterate people who want to use linux should learn how. 
>> Computer illiterate people who want to use Windows should also learn 
>> how. Just because Windows is "easier" to use doesn't make them less 
>> computer illiterate.
>
>
> But it does keep them using Windows. Bottom line: what you think, and 
> what I think, are bloody well irrelevant. It's what the 
> computer-illiterate population thinks that matters. And from where I 
> sit, it looks like most of them prefer not to see what they don't 
> understand... it scares them.
>
>> I don't see too many people saying "I want to use a car, but i don't 
>> want to learn how, i just want to get in and I want the car to know 
>> where i want to go and how to get me there without me doing anything 
>> but sitting and watching all the pretty colors."
>
>
> Wrong again. Most people (in this case, myself included) flat-out do 
> not give a damn how their car works, and they don't want to know.
>
>         1. They know that they push the button on the alarm keyfob and 
> the doors unlock, but they don't know how and they don't care.
>
>         2. They know that only their key will activate their door lock 
> or ignition and that others won't, but they don't know why and they 
> don't care.
>
>         3. They know that turning the key makes the engine start, but 
> they don't know how and they don't care.
>
>         4. They know that turning the steering wheel turns the front 
> wheels, but they don't know how and they don't care.
>
>         5. They know that moving a lever from P to R or D makes the 
> car go forward or backward, but they don't know how and they don't care.
>
> Have I proven my point yet?
>
> And the reason your comparison doesn't work is that Windows does not 
> take dictation or know your thoughts either. Just like the car, it 
> takes basic user interaction to know what the user wants and it 
> fulfills the user's desires with some degree of reliability or lack 
> thereof. And just like the car, when it breaks most users don't have 
> the foggiest clue of what broke or how to fix it.
>
> Think like others in order to understand them. Don't expect them to 
> think like you do, or like how you think they should.
>
>
Amen, brother! ;-)  People like me (probably you too) who have to 
support computers for wives, siblings, children, friends, homeless 
people, etc. know this well.  That's why in an earlier post I suggested 
throwing the details out to a place where most people won't see them, 
but they would be easily available to us when they call for help....by 
just punching <alt><ctl>F5 or something.  Using dmesg is OK, but it 
implies that you finished the boot well enough to look at it...

-- 
Fritz Whittington
Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience. (James Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson, 1791)

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