Graphical boot isn't so graphical

[John P. Mitchell]

Jack,

>Sorry, but this is a definite case of "dummying down" and borders on a
>specious argument. What will be the first thing a support person asks a
>newbie stuck on a boot to do? "Hit CTRL-ALT-F1, please, and tell me what
>it says." Despite your argument that it is a usability issue, it really
>amounts to coders defending the impressiveness of their work. Show me
>how a newbie user "uses" the bootup and I might agree with you.
>
>-- 
>Jack Bowling
>mailto: jbinpg at shaw.ca

    Let me give you a quick example and see what you think. I installed Linux on a computer for my wife who uses 
Windows 2000 and Mac OS X daily. Upon booting up it did the normal thing and all of the normal init script feedback 
slid across the screen. She promptly came back to me and asked what all of that 'garbage' was for. She seemed to think 
that Linux was some kind of half finished 'geek thing' that she did not want to use. So I have a couple of newbie uses 
for the graphical boot. One is to shield users who do not need/want to know what is going on under the hood and thus 
decreasing silly requests to the local help desk or from generating exscuses to not use this 'thing'. Second is to 
give the user the impression of a polished, whole, functional operating system that the user would want to use. Both 
of these examples give the operating system increased usability due to the fact that the user does not get hung up in 
'what is all that stuff?' and just gets his/her work done. Just my two cents.

Regards,
    John P. Mitchell <john at cepros.com>
    Email Sticker: My Boss is a Jewish carpenter
    http://www.GoboLinux.org | User #00010110