From: Artillo5@cs.com
Date: Mon Oct 21 2002 - 10:36:57 MDT
In a message dated 10/21/2002 3:27:49 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
asa@nada.kth.se writes:
<< Which brings us to a more relevant question: what trends do we see that
will pull us up from this swamp? Are there any, or are we just assuming
that techno-santa will find a way?
There seems to be several areas where we ought to improve:
* User interface usability
* Software efficiency
* Software robustness
* Security
* Hardware
* Development freedom
What useful trends do we see here in the fight against locked down buggy
unusable bloatware? >>
I don't know about the rest of you, but I would LOVE a computer that acts
just like a toaster. That is, it does it's job as soon as it's switched on,
no waiting for boot-up etc. I think that upgrading computers should be as
easy as plugging in a new "card", cassette or whatever (Atari 2600 anyone?
LOL). Users should NEVER have to open a case, configure software, or "plug &
pray". I just don't understand why hardware/software developers insist on
making things difficult for the end user. I want my PC to be as easy to use
as any other appliance or power tool out there. I spend inordinate amounts of
time cleaning up my PC, configuring, re-configuring etc. If they could
improve that part of the process and make everything a seamless whole, then I
would be a much happier camper!
I realize that things aren't going to change overnight, and I hope that
EVENTUALLY we will get to that stage, but it always seems like the industry
is constantly bickering over standards and the like, worrying about their
competetive advantage, instead of making things absolutely simple for the end
user. Not to mention the uproar that will come when all of the IT
professionals out there (including myself) who make their living fixing all
of the problems with today's computer systems have to deal with their own
obsolescence due to smart, self-installing, self-configuring systems!
Artillo
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