>> I was at a local LUG meeting today and was very distressed that the
>> above
>> view
>> should be expressed, and forcefully.  I found it distressing because
>> that
>> is
>> quite some allegation - that we and Mate users and Cinnamon users etc.,
>> (all
>> splinter groups) are actually damaging Linux, doing it harm.
>>
>> The fact that we are free to digress and disagree is why I like open
>> source so
>> much.  Take away that freedom and we might as well all use Windows.  It
>> seemed to me a quite extraordinary allegation.  And as I say, I found it
>> personally upsetting.
>>
>> Since Linux without its freedom would not be Linux, nothing would seem
>> to
>> me
>> more terminally harmful to Linux than to destroy that freedom.
>>
>> I am a congenital maverick.  I claim the right to remain a maverick and
>> to
>> swim against the tide as much as I like!
>>
>> Lisi
>
> My take on this is that we are observing the first major split between
> producers and consumers in the computing market.  Prior to the iPhone and
> similar devices, both consumers and producers had to use the same hardware
> and software for their disparate tasks.  Now that hardware has become
> smaller and software more powerful, consumers can for the first time use a
> "computer" that functions more or less like a video game--i.e. it is "easy
> to use", "pretty", "simple", it "connects people together", etc.
> Producers on the other hand will continue to demand more and more power to
> fuel their increasingly complex tasks and meet their wall clock deadlines.
>
> I have had comments from people who "got used to" KDE4 and Unity, and when
> they tried TDE again years later, they found that they were vastly more
> productive in a tasks accomplished vs. hours spent metric.
>
> Consumers will always outnumber producers, therefore they will always have
> the largest vote.  Producers on the other hand know what they need and
> will pay lots of $$$ to get it, even as the software they require becomes
> more and more of a niche item.  TDE is one of the few projects that can
> continue to satisfy those needs, and in reality it will have very little
> impact on the consumer market for Linux.
>
> Just my $0.02. :-)
>
> Tim

One further thought:  What if all Linux users were forced to use a GUI
exclusively, simply because the GUI is "newer" and a "step forward"
compared to the command line?  Users could adapt, but tasks that naturally
favor a command line would become cumbersome when forced into an
exclusively graphical environment.  Instead of taking such radical steps,
developers chose to offer both a GUI and the original command line
functionality.

What I see at the moment is a large group of people attempting to fully
replace the mouse and keyboard interface with a touch-only interface,
simply because the consumers demand it.  Personally I like touch
technology, but only as an *addition* to the mouse+keyboard interface, not
a full replacement.

As an aside, touchscreens tend to to produce repetitive stress injury much
faster than the mouse+keyboard interface, simply because one must keep
one's index finger and arm in a very still, unnatural position for the
entire time one is using the interface.

Tim