Iconitis

[Glenn L. Austin]

In article <16408 at oberon.USC.EDU> mlinar at caesar.usc.edu (Mitch Mlinar) writes:
>5 years ago, nearly EVERYONE knows what a computer is and most know how to
>work them in some form.
15-20% is nearly everyone?!?  Boy, I'll bet the census office would be glad
to hear that!  The real truth is that more people don't know about computers
than those who do, and of those, only about 15% of the "computer literate"
really understand what they are doing.  Most of the rest are just following
instructions by "repeating the instructions like a recipe."  I hardly think
that 15% of 20% is "everyone."

>.............  The average user is no longer that stupid.

The ads that Apple ran a couple of years ago are still valid today.  I have
a library of programming reference materials for VM, MVS, UN*X, MS/PC-DOS,
IBM PC, and Macintosh.  Considering that 99% of my reference materials are
for machines other than the Mac, including about 8 linear feet of reference
materials for the PC and DOS, most of which have info that is not found
in any of the others.  I also have 1 linear foot of Macintosh programming
material that covers *EVERYTHING* to programming the Mac.  True, this is
not what the user sees, but the ratio of required PC documentation to 
required Mac documentation is equivalent.  Also, considering that Mac programs
look like other Mac programs, who needs documentation, except for specific
concepts/instructions?

>P.S.  For proof of this maturation, just take a look at Steven Jobs.  The MAC
>was his baby.  I remember articles telling about how he thought CTRL keys
>were a bad idea (what do they mean?) and even a two-button mouse is too
>complicated, etc.  The Next machine is his current prodigy for comparison and
>being "retargeted" to business/industry after overemphasis on academics
>(machine is overpriced for most schools).  Both menus/icons and CLI
>interface are present.  And, its OS is UN*X like.

The reason Jobs' machine was geared towards education?  Contracts.  Check out
"Odyssey" by John Sculley.  That outlines the agreement that Jobs would wait
for 5 years before introducing a machine into the business market.  Guess what?
The five years are over.


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| Glenn L. Austin             | The nice thing about standards is that      | 
| Apple Computer, Inc.        | there are so many of them to choose from.   | 
| Internet: austing at apple.com |       -Andrew S. Tanenbaum                  |
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| All opinions stated above are mine -- who else would want them?           |
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