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Thread ID: 53890	2005-01-30 09:06:00	Are computers user-friendly ?	TonyF (246)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
319413	2005-01-30 09:06:00	A magazine article I have just read discusses what a mess computers are as far as user-friendly goes. Most people want them to work and do what is needed. Suppose Japanese car manfacturer X discovers their brakes have a design fault but waited to be asked before they mentioned it. Then sent you some new bits if you enquired and left you to make the changes. Most of our OS do this, and it is not as good as it could be. As for cars, you can get into almost any make/model, turn the key, and drive off. Do you have to learn lots about the operating system of the car ? Indeed no. What a pity the Atari people did not make a go of it. In many posts in this Forum, people say " be sure to make a back-up before you ...." How many of you keep a spare car in case... Cheers Tony	TonyF (246)
319414	2005-01-30 09:14:00	I think you get out of computers what you put into them,Plenty do nothing but email and web browsing, takes 3 seconds of effort to learn how. having said that,Unless your interested in the OS there is no need to know more then what shortcut starts your desired program,and where you saved your file to. Windows does have the advantage of having a logical and easy to understand file structure, Which anyone can navigate through easily. Its the Internet that isn't user freindly, combined with MS's lack of insight.	Metla (12)
319415	2005-01-30 10:25:00	Are computers user friendly???????????? Hell No! :badpc: Why do you think i manage to get into so much trouble? :p Nothing that require electricity in any form, be it plug into mains, or battery in my thinking is user friendly . . . . . . at least not to me . But then thats just my opinion . and it seems it is worth jack ####, so what do i know . Nothing is ever user friendly is it? Is that the same as operator trouble? :lol: beetle	beetle (243)
319416	2005-01-30 18:28:00	If computers were "User Friendly" this forum would be redundant. Computers were designed by Nerds for other Nerds to use. Most software was designed by people who assumed it would be used by people who knew as much as the designers. When they found the "no nothings" were buying their software the wrote 800 pahe manuals to help people learn. Then they found out they could make more money by selling their manuals. Look at the fortunes being made by people selling books, magazines, etc. These are never very helpful, because the writers always assume their readers know more than most of them do. No Computers are not user-friendly. Jack	JJJJJ (528)
319417	2005-01-31 08:42:00	To be honest I find my Mac user friendly, the XP isn't friendly for me. I do read manuals before using anything that I'm not totally sure of though. That goes for Computers, cars, sewing machines, automatic ovens, DVD players etc. :thumbs:	Sue (33)
319418	2005-01-31 08:55:00	To be honest I find my Mac user friendly, the XP isn't friendly for me. I do read manuals before using anything that I'm not totally sure of though. That goes for Computers, cars, sewing machines, automatic ovens, DVD players etc. :thumbs: mmmm That is not the kiwi way,you read manual when all else fails. JJJJJJJJalways puts it so well.	Cicero (40)
319419	2005-01-31 09:11:00	Suppose Japanese car manfacturer X discovers their brakes have a design fault but waited to be asked before they mentioned it. But - English cars were like this. That is why their industry died. As for cars, you can get into almost any make/model, turn the key, and drive off. Do you have to learn lots about the operating system of the car ? Indeed no. Indeed yes. Put a person in a car, when that person has no understanding whatever of how to drive, and watch the carnage. Put the same person at the keyboard, and you now have half the computing population of today, struggling and cursing but hopefully not killing anyone else. In many posts in this Forum, people say " be sure to make a back-up before you ...." How many of you keep a spare car in case... If the car was essential for your business, yes you do have a "spare" or an insurance that supplies one. If it is only for getting the milk from the dairy then it's non essential, so is the backup non essential in reality. If the car is used for burglary (like a P2P application on a computer can be used for) then backing up is akin to storing the loot in a lockup garage anyway.	godfather (25)
319420	2005-01-31 10:27:00	Indeed yes. Put a person in a car, when that person has no understanding whatever of how to drive, and watch the carnage. Indeed no,again. My point was that thankfully, the controls on most cars are standardised. If you know how to drive, all else is easy. Friends say the Mac world is better organised ... Ah well, duck .... Cheers Tony	TonyF (246)
319421	2005-01-31 10:48:00	Mac users can actually get to use their computers instead of spending half their time trying to get things to work correctly. A computer is like a car in a way, you learn how to drive it but how many car owners know what to do if it won't start or something starts to operate abnormally. Same with computers but at least cars are more reliable than Windows computers so it is not usually a problem A case in point is a recent post about some web sites not loading due to a Hosts File problem. What chance has a normal home user got when things like that happen. They have no idea about how to check or correct something like this. Is Windows or IE friendly - No	Safari (3993)
319422	2005-01-31 11:10:00	No computers aren't user friendly. Not if you want the range of functionality that they provide. If you could strip all the crap out to a few core tasks that you actually use, and need, then no doubt a lot of problems would never arise for the simple fact that there is less to go wrong, less to learn and less for users to misuse. Of course users are to blame for this situation for wanting more and more crammed into the OS's and software, or so the producers of such things tell us. Others we can blame are greedy and/or lazy developers, who add features by tacking bits in that stretch the capabilities of the original or graft on new technologies on top of older grafts and so on, until the whole becomes a, great, unstable, complex, pile that forever wants more and more hardware resources to run clanky innards. The hardest part to put into rationale thought is, that most of us love it the way it is. We find ways to break things, excuses to buy new bits and bobs, to try out another bit of software or OS, tweak the settings, make it faster (in the name of productivity of course) and have a good winge on our favourite topics or stubbornly support our, or the industries, latest folly to the point of irrationality. They may not be user friendly, but they're rarely boring :thumbs:	Murray P (44)
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