Why do so many people fail to utilise 50%+ of the power of OS X?

[miniConvert]

If Linux (KDE, Gnome, whichever) had a better and more consistent UI, and installing applications were as easy as OS X, I think it would be a smash hit. I know so many people — myself included — who gave it a shot as a desktop OS but gave up.

Yup, I've flirted with desktop Linux also, it's intollerable for most folk. Still, luckily we've got OS X

 

[weg]

I believe the answer is: "You shouldn't be required to learn 30-year-old, nearly-randomly-named commands to do something powerful."

It depends... keep in mind that tools like grep are using (relatively) complicated concepts like regular expressions. People who understand regular expressions are usually engineers or computer scientists, who don't mind to learn 30-year-old, nearly-randomly-named commands (in Mathematics it's pretty much the same situation, isn't it? Operations are complicated and have strange names ;-).

People who don't understand regular expressions wouldn't be able to use them, even if you integrate them in a fancy user interface (with Core graphics and wobbling windows).

So, doing something powerful requires knowledge. There's no way to change that.

 

[jdechko]

Any moderately talented programmer can design an app that's easy to learn and NOT powerful. Equally true, any moderately talented programmer can design an app that's powerful but hard to learn. But it takes a rare genius to design an app that's BOTH powerful and easy to learn/intuitive. And that's the promise of Apple. Many times Apple succeeds. Sometimes they fail. Like CLI.

I completely agree. I mean, look at some of the software that Apple has out. Garage band, iMovie and iDVD are all pretty powerful tools that can accomplish great tasks with minimal computer knowledge. Now I'm not saying that the end result won't look like crap, but that's left up to what the consumer does with it. The point is that it's easy to use. Same thing with some of the more advanced tools that Apple has (soundtrack, Final cut express, etc). They're a little more advanced, but the layout is still pretty darn intuitive. Final Cut studio is more advanced and has a little bit more difficult UI, but it's still very intuitive.

 

[Westside guy]

I guess I think the answer to the opening question is obvious - for what most people want to do, the command line is of little use to them. Also, as time goes on, a lot of what used to be exclusively the domain of the command line - say something like the port-mapping tool nmap - now is also doable using GUI tools (heck, even nmap comes with an X11 front end if you want it). If you're used to the command line tools, then that may be faster for you - but nowadays there's very little that you HAVE to do via the shell.

I think the idea of "power user" being synonymous with "command line aficionado" is rather silly. There are lots more newbies using OS X or Windows, because the the bar is lower in terms of what you have to learn to do something useful (e.g. surf the web, check your mail). But even experienced users can and will have different skill sets. Someone that can expertly set up an nfs mount or a beowulf cluster, for instance, very likely couldn't do much in Final Cut Pro or Photoshop. Some of my co-workers know much more about Solaris than I ever will (or want to! hehe); but they aren't particularly good with Perl or Python. I'm pretty good with Perl or bash scripting and with Linux/Apache config; but I can't manage an Active Directory forest.

Different power users have different powers.

I will say that, if Apple hadn't moved to a Unix-based OS, people like me would probably have never touched the platform. But there's no reason long-time Mac users should feel that they have to start learning the command line, unless they want to.

 

[asphalt-proof]

Firstly: don't blame the scientists (at least good ones). Those "10% of your brain"-type truisms don't come from scientists. They usually come from some TV presenter repeating what they heard from some guy who misinterpreted what his friend said about what she had read in the newspaper which was reporting on an article in a science magazine which was reporting on a science project which happened to mention something similar, in a different context, in a much larger study. And the study was probably never replicated anyway.

Secondly: sounds are not vibrations in the air - they are your brain's subjective interpretation of those vibrations. Therefore it is perfectly reasonable to ask whether, in the absence of anyone to hear them, air vibrations are just air vibrations.

And as for the chicken and the egg...

If I remember correctly, the "10% brain use" myth came from a preacher at the turn of the 20th century that he use in one of his sermons. It kind of became 'fact' after that. One of those, you say it enough times and it becomes true, kind of thing.

Also, I don't remember saying that Beryl or Gnome or KDE are actual OSes. I think you are referring to another poster. I don't loaded my first distro in 2002. I actually was able to get it to work on a laptop using all the different guides and loaded some different pkgs and drivers. It took way too much work and i was never really satisfied with the end product. (Much like my relationship with my windows work computer). My point to my previous post was that the OP was basically denigrating those users that do not use the command line. The command line is just not that important to some of us. We like the pretty UI and the ease of use it affords. Is it powerful? You bet. Is it as powerful as the command line? No. But the command line is not that easy to use either. It takes a bit of arcane knowledge to use safely and effectively.

 

[tkermit]

[...] A good friend of mine is a Systems Administrator for a research facility. He'd often remark to me how "stupid" his computer users are. And I'd point out that the guys who use his computers and whom he calls stupid hold advanced degrees in physics and mathematics and are brilliant researchers. I say to him: it is YOUR TOOLS, you computer that has failed them. They are not stupid, your tool is stupid. One day computers will be so advanced, and SMART that they'll be as easy to use as a DVD player - they'll practically read our thoughts. Until then, computers are STUPID.[...]

When operating a computer I want to concentrate on my work. I don't want to have to learn the CLI, or other medieval stupid crap. I want a modern UI that allows me to concentrate on work only - I don't want to have to remember anything - the less the better. The less the computer comes between me and my work the better. The best computer is the "invisible" computer. That's why folks have problems with their computers - because computers are often still too primitive and demand a lot of knowledge. I REGRET knowing as much as I already do about computers! I wish I did't have to know that you need to go through 12 stupid steps to accomplish something - I WANT THE UI to take care of it.[...]

So, if you find that people don't use the power of the computer, it's because it's badly designed. Don't bitch at users, get down and do a better job designing. That's how we climbed down from the trees and got out of caves.

Good post. I can't stand it when developers or 'techies' make fun of regular users for being stupid, but of course that's easier than admitting that either (as a user) one has spent time acquiring lots of ridiculously superfluous knowledge, or (as a developer) that one has failed to provide an intuitive user interface.

So, doing something powerful requires knowledge. There's no way to change that.

Yes, but it should mainly require extensive knowledge in the specific area of your expertise. Just think about doctors using da Vinci robots to perform an operation. Should knowledge of AI/robot mechanics/mathematics... be required of them?

 

[Xavier]

It brings me far to close to want DOS was

 

[iVoid]

Just be glad that power is there and available to the users. That's what I really love about Mac OS: It's an easy to use OS that has a lot of power that can be used by the user if he/she wishes to use it.

Sadly, iOS is the opposite, it's a powerful OS that easy to use, but the user is kept from fully exploiting it's power by Apple's restrictions.

 

[mac2x]

Old thread.

However, I agree with whoever said that OS X offers users the best of both worlds. A beautiful and powerful GUI and a full Unix CLI. What other OS can boast that?

 

[lanceh5]

If I have to use the command line, I am using the wrong OS.