Linux

Great post, but I’d argue that the existence of a GUI can help in learning how the system works as long as it’s well designed, mostly because it allows a user to wonder around and turn knobs. That’s why I kinda like OpenSuse and yast and woukd like to see more programs like it spring up elsewhere in other distros

It pains me to have people complain about some large company who broke there workflow.

...isn't this quite obvious? You will become lazy if you have a lazy life and avoid anything that requires any amount of effort. You will become (negative aspect) if you have a (negative aspect) life and avoid anything (add positive aspect here).

SAP does this too.

While that may be true, I've found Microsoft's Troubleshooter almost seem like magic in finding and fixing some issues, where as with arch (or any other distro) I would have to hunt everywhere to fix some issue that happened randomly or because some dependency of some dependency of some new package I installed broke something.

It's definitely not human nature and is, instead, an improbably well coordinated conspiracy by a gigantic corporation known for being full of internal conflict over a span of decades to engineer helplessness in users. Whereas we all know that users are normally such resilient, inquisitive souls, more than willing to engage with a piece of technology in order to understand it. Or they were, until Microsoft attacked. Alas, if only it were not for the great evil empire, all would be well. At least this very real conspiracy serves the additional purpose of flattering the community's vanities and affirming its values as both morally correct and intellectually superior. So we got that going for us, which is nice.

I object to the author of this laying all of the blame on MS. Apple software design is the worst offender when it comes to coddling users into a state of being unable to troubleshoot issues themselves, IMO. Want to discover anything more than the extremely limited options available in the GUI? Well too bad, you don't know the secret keystroke. What's that, there's literally no documentation for this CLI utility? An error occurred! Here's an incomprehensible report that looks like a dog's breakfast, good luck. Despite its BSD roots, MacOS is heinously bad in terms of user education, and it is seen as the "easiest OS to use".

A lot of people have already made good comments / replies on this post, but let me argue against the third point ("MS discouragestrying out something new"). This must have been made by someone not even working in a MS ecosystem, because there's a shitton of doing the same thing with a lot of different tools. Or GUIs.

Want to take notes in MS365 echosystem? You have word, Onenote, MS-Teams wiki (that is being deprecated, thank god), Loop components.

Want to save/share a file? You got Onedrive, SharePoint document libraries or MS-Teams (fun fact: they're all using SharePoint as the underlying technology, but depending on the GUI you choose, you get diffrent representation of the underlying files).

Want to manage your tasks? You got To-do, Planner, Flags in Outlook, Tasks in Teams and, drum-roll, MS loop (again!). Thankfully, they all "talk" to eachother so you can at least see all tasks assigned to you when you open your To-do app.

So no, MS does present a lot of different ways to accomplish someting (almost too many...). Whether that is good or bad, I leave it up to the reader, but the new Microsoft certainly is more daring in trying out new things.

If you don't want to read through all of this, here is a shortened version by chatgpt :

The author presents a thought-provoking perspective on the impact of Microsoft's approach to computing. They suggest that Microsoft's products tend to obscure the inner workings of computers, contributing to a sense of mystification among users. Error messages that lack meaningful explanations and a heavy reliance on graphical user interfaces are highlighted as factors that deter users from understanding the technology they use.

Moreover, the author argues that the Microsoft ecosystem discourages users from exploring alternatives and gaining a deeper understanding of computer systems. Vendor lock-in and a reluctance to delve into the underlying principles of software and technology are seen as barriers to users becoming more versatile and informed computer users.

In essence, the author contends that Microsoft's ecosystem fosters a perception of computer use as something magical and impenetrable, making it difficult to retrain users once they have adopted this mindset. They suggest that an alternative approach, emphasizing text-based communication with computers and exposing users to different options, could lead to a more informed and adaptable user base.

This viewpoint encourages us to consider the impact of user interfaces and software ecosystems on users' perceptions and abilities when it comes to technology. It underscores the importance of promoting digital literacy and encouraging users to explore and understand the technology they rely on.