[clug-talk] Does the Linux Desktop Innovate Too Much?

[Mel Walters]

John Jardine wrote:
> On Tue, 2009-06-23 at 00:37 -0600, Gustin Johnson wrote:
>   
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>> Shawn wrote:
>>     
>>> Bruce Byfield has an article up that explores the current state of the
>>> desktop and poses the question in this messages subject.
>>>
>>> http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/osrc/article.php/12068_3826171_1/Does-the-Linux-Desktop-Innovate-Too-Much.htm
>>>
>>>
>>> It's an interesting read, and has a wide range of comments as well.
>>>       
>> I could not finish reading all the comments.  This is one of those
>> topics I avoid because I just end up angry.  There are lots of loud
>> opinions by people who have no effing clue what they are talking about.
>>
>> I also know that I don't know what I am talking about in this realm.
>> What I do know is that the current paradigm is broken.  If I knew how to
>> fix it I would.  I am hopeful that projects like KDE4 and Sugar have the
>> courage to innovate based on studying how humans actually work, but for
>> right now we will have to suffer under the tyranny of the typewriter and
>> the TV.
>>
>>     
>>> What do you think?  Is the desktop development moving too fast?  What is
>>> YOUR vision for a desktop 10 years from now?
>>>
>>>       
>> My vision for 10 years is that there is no desktop.  Seriously, the
>> 1970s called, they want their clunky and  inefficient human to computer
>> interface back.  If we are very lucky, 10 years from now people will
>> wonder just what we were thinking.  The real revolution will begin once
>> we figure out how to actually use a computer.
>>
>> I suspect that gestures and or touch will dominate and mice will be as
>> quaint as a rotary telephone. There will likely always be some sort of
>> pen for the artists, various musical interfaces that mimic actual
>> instruments (these won't be needed but many like me will take a while to
>> leave those particular interfaces behind), but for most the traditional
>> UI will likely disappear, replaced by speech and gestures.
>>
>>     
> I'm not sold on that vision.  There is a difference between data
> manipulation, which don't need to be done via command line.  What
> doesn't work there is data entry in all it's various forms - so how do
> you enter your info into a zone file without your keyboard?
>
>   
>> That last bit was just pure imagination.  I don't really have a clue
>> about this stuff.  I would ask the people who are actually working on
>> this stuff.
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>>     
Rather than comment on just the desktop, I think the tools in them need 
changing even more. At least it would be easier to start there.
The much previous comment about intuitive like a spread sheet was very 
funny but I can picture that engineer saying this who was so used to 
creating spread sheets.
The world is full of mostly followers, and many years ago I overheard 
two secretaries talking about computers and the future (MS). I did not 
laugh out loud, and they would have believed none of my opinions anyway.

OK, lets start with just one application: word processing.
I had an interest in Lyx a while back, to make electronic typesetting 
easy and possible for me. I put it off a few times because I just did 
not get the interface fully. Lyx is in not a typewriter, you could say 
it is very far away from the idea of typewriter.
Anyway, more recently I tried Lyx again. This time it clicked in place 
for me, and wow. It took a minute to redo an article with all formatting 
inconsistencies removed. It was just more readable (that was my goal).
Why not a linux word pro that mimics  the good points of Lyx instead of 
MS Office ?

Is this not the almost para-dyne shift we need to start with?

Please refer to the very good pdf docs on Lyx that state why and how 
they do things.To coin a phrase "What You See Is What You Meant" Let the 
computer look after the details and just get your job (ie writing) done.

To quote Paul Griffiths about computers, "the possibilities are endless"

Comments, flames:) ?