The Linuxville handbook - tweaking the user

I am poking fun at us, but how many of us have full intent to impose our standard upon the products we buy, especially if we don't like the looks of it and we buy it anyway?!!

Being a satisfied Ubuntu guy, more specifically a Xubuntu guy, I have heard many complain about Ubuntu Linux's brown themes. I think the humanity focus on the range of skin tones have inspired these themes. But if you are predisposed to not favor bio-bag colors you could, as most Linux distros allow you, change them. Xubuntu is more grey or gray than brown, but there are themes that move beyond that also. Me, I kind of like grey (gray too!).

When a commercial product is offered, a limited range of choices means less work for the company and the ease of no-brainer, habitual, pattern forming, I'm use to this, familiarity for you. Linux lets you tweak things until they are comfortable for you, then you can develop all the habits you want. Choice first, habitual later.

I laugh, it's like going to a gallery to buy a picture. You spend all day looking, then deciding, then someone says "do you want to frame that picture?" Oh no, frames, so many frames. It is a good thing I can download pictures I like and use them as desktop backgrounds. This makes the frame/theme thing a minor issue.

Desktop icons and refrigerator magnets have a lot in common. We were duped to believe desktop icons would organize our mess by shear handiness. A few, yes. A dozen or more and a search tool is required. I have my file manager icon on a toolbar and my files in folders, so easy to click-n-pick. I have program launchers also on a toolbar and I also have the dropdown menu selector. I can get to everything without obscuring the beautiful desktop background with icons. It is all about moving things around and neat habits and easy work flow for yourself.

I should say something about eye candy. Eye candy is cool but marginally useful. Some folks just want shadows behind windows, sort of a pseudo 3d look. But some really like swirling cubes with videos playing on each side, windows that wobble when moved and mimicking other OS desktops' toolbars, themes and colors. Is it because of envy or I got that too and "BET YOU CAN'T DO THIS", bragging rights, I don't know your motives or inspiration. The fact you can do it is enough for some and some must exploit it to the max, "IT'S SHOW-N-TELL TIME BABY, TUX RULES!!". Pick your level of visual excitement.

Hey, it's your computer, your data, nobody is going to manage it for you but you!!! My car is cool enough, I even wash it sometimes. The interior is.......well, I am not proud of having to excuse the mess. A little housekeeping and I won't hear "gee, your car rides nice". Yeah, and I'm really sorry about the mess. Fixing hardware is fun, tweaking users is difficult at times.

There is a hidden war in the user interface world that probably began with the typewriter. We came into computers via the typewriter keyboard and wheither we touch-type or hunt-n-peck (like me), the keyboard ruled until the mouse. Someone reduced it all to a few mouse buttons with the help of display graphics, of course. Now we tussle between mouse or keyboard ability. If you learned keyboard skills, you are in one camp. I am willing to bet all hunt-n-peck folks are avid mouse mashers. Keyboards are the domain of the skilled, the trained with the dexterity of a dancer, the nimbleness of finger and mind to remember what symbol and what key invokes what magic, with swift precision. Truly an art and has been an Olympic event in many schools and offices. To see it all reduced to a cursor, a picture and a mouse button is extreme madness. It is sacrilege to some and salvation to others. We even have that weird finger pad on laptops.
Well, I don't mean to take sides but........

I am a card carrying member.

All that matters to a user is the GUI

The trouble with computers is the same as a bunch of blind men describing an elephant. Who is touching what and who is expressing their opinion. The topic of choice is the human-computer interface. What do you, the common computer user today use to access, control, manipulate and view data? Besides the various input and output devices there is a common element that co-ordinates the whole arrangement. It's what you see on your computer screen, the desktop GUI (graphical user interface). The GUI is a bone of contention among system designers. Some are old enough to remember the all text days. I my self was around when pen and ink drafting gave way to computer aided drafting, so I know the pangs of progress. The fact that the GUI responsible for the popular use of computers, is often lost on some programmers and developers has not hampered its use in the least. So, even if the operating system is perfection itself, the GUI is the thing the user handles. If the GUI is sloppy, sluggish, ugly or any other faulty adjective, the user thus judges the whole system as lame. And you know how picky some users are. The GUI has progressed since the early days in Xerox labs and I don't think we've seen the end of it. Many are trying to extend the devices we use to manipulate the GUI beyond the keyboard and mouse. But for you and I right now we have the keyboard/mouse/screen combo with the on screen GUI. It is almost safe to say that certain elements of the GUI are standard, that is what a user expects to see on the desktop after boot up. You expect to see a status bar, menus, and of course icons and windows. Who doesn't know how to point and click, drag and drop, and cut and paste? If you can work the GUI, you can work the computer. It always cracks me up to hear users say the GUI and OS they are using is the best. They often get quite heated over criticisms to the contrary. In truth, you'd have to admit that the quality of workmanship of the operating system underneath the GUI does show through. Stability and response are very apparent to users when trying to get work done. My point is not to promote who has the best elephant(GUI), but that GUI's are the common access method for users of computers today. If you can grasp the GUI concept, it probably wouldn't matter the brand name of the operating system behind it. Of course and having said that, I am implying that many are duped to believe that Microsoft and Apple software are all there is and that they alone have the polish and glitz to own the desktop. This is not the whole truth and in fact Linux is not the only other operating system with a GUI that is available for public use today. Again, my point is that if you can work the GUI (point, click, drag, drop, cut and paste), you can operate virtually any desktop computer today. Talking cars, does your drivers training make you a Ford, Chevy or Toyota person, or give you the ability to drive any car, truck or van? I know, a computer system is so much more than just a GUI, but the GUI is the means to access any system today. Many operating system camps use the scenario of how easy is it for grandparents to use a computer. It is the GUI they are talking about. Will they understand how to point and click, drag and drop or cut and paste? It is about the precise location of screen elements (habit optimised) vs user adjusting and tweaking. It is about knowing what to expect when you click. A GUI can add a level of reassurance to a person poking the keyboard and clicking the mouse. The GUI is a comfortable face on a screen of numbers. The GUI is the thing!