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User-friendly is a red herring
User-friendly is a buzzword for "what the user is used to". I personally find Word INCREDIBLY UNFRIENDLY to use. Why? Because I was raised on a healthy diet of WordPerfect. I also found OpenOffice a bit unfriendly at first for the same reason. But now that I've been using it for almost two years exclusively, I now find it incredibly user-friendly ... much moreso than even my old favourite WordPerfect, and still DEFINITELY moreso than Word.

At one point I was told I would have to learn to program visual basic to achieve the functions in a Word template that were native to WP templates, and also (although in a different way) to OpenOffice.

Same story for linux and Windows. I find my KDE desktop at home to by MILES more "user-friendly" than my Windows desktop at work. Simple things like ftp access in konqueror that's as seamless as a local drive. Konq's split views are WAY more user-friendly than multiple Explorer windows. Pressing F10 to create a new folder is way easer than right clicking and hunting for New ... Folder in the menu. Of course for a basic user who doesn't know or learn keyboard shortcuts to save time, they likely wouldn't find my KDE friendliness of any use to them, and would probably say Windows is "more user-friendly". Far as I can tell, the start menus work the same way in both though, the close/maximize/minimize buttons are all in the same place, and all the mouse buttons do pretty much the same things.

User-friendly is a useless term that should be banished. All it really means is "what the user is used to".
Posted by: Henaway   Posted on: 05/24/06 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use
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dead on arrival  Linux Geek | 05/23/06
Don't You EVER Get Sick Of Typing Posts Like That  nikoli | 05/23/06
Ja!  Confused by religion | 05/23/06
want to know whats sad....  JoeMama_z | 05/23/06
But there are no viable alternative to Windows  PB_z | 05/23/06
don't drink and write!  Linux Geek | 05/23/06
not just criminality...  qnetter | 05/23/06
Right....  Wolfie2K3 | 05/23/06
Define "Viable"??  dalecosp | 05/23/06
Keep on suing Microsoft Symantec!!  itanalyst | 05/23/06
Yep ...  Henaway | 05/23/06
well said  cou-cou | 05/23/06
User-friendly is a red herring  Henaway | 05/24/06
Yes... but  cou-cou | 05/24/06
Marked...! But...  Wolfie2K3 | 05/23/06
Very Tired of this  ve3ofa | 04/25/07
Apparently, they do actually need to cut costs...  techboy_z | 05/23/06
Burning cash  qnetter | 05/23/06
Someone forgot their meds today...  BitTwiddler | 05/23/06
RE:dead on arrival  richdave | 05/23/06
Hmm A Good Point  Krazyken39 | 05/24/06
Here's why ...  Henaway | 05/24/06
And there was Linux Geek - sound asleep...  Wolfie2K3 | 05/23/06
RE: And there was Linux Geek - sound asleep...  richdave | 05/23/06
Oh come on now ...  Henaway | 05/24/06
if you say so......  Badgered | 05/23/06
Despite what penguins might want to say...  rock06r | 05/24/06
Still Copying Apple  schneb | 05/23/06
Whats wrong with that?  Loverock Davidson | 05/23/06
Well, the timing is off  tic swayback | 05/23/06
So you agree?  Loverock Davidson | 05/23/06
Not sure what you're saying here  tic swayback | 05/23/06
Great features ...  Henaway | 05/23/06
It sort of is new  Loverock Davidson | 05/23/06
Do you just enjoy getting owned on a daily basis?  itanalyst | 05/23/06
MS innovation????  CompuGuru | 05/23/06
Competition  A.Sinic | 05/24/06
Nothing really  Rick_K | 05/23/06
Which goes back to what I said  Loverock Davidson | 05/23/06
I See Your Point... But...  schneb | 05/23/06
And what BOTH of them missed ...  Henaway | 05/24/06
No . . .  999ad@... | 05/23/06
Or, Alternatively...  slingzenarrowzuvowtrayjissforchin | 05/23/06
On the whole, I would agree, but . . .  999ad@... | 05/24/06
Still no clue eh?  dick lechter | 05/23/06
Right...but I wasn't talking about Intel/BootCamp  slingzenarrowzuvowtrayjissforchin | 05/25/06
Wow ...  Henaway | 05/24/06
About as exciting as an Apple product release  Boot_Agnostic | 05/23/06
The big difference being....  tic swayback | 05/23/06
Difference is desire to possess  Boot_Agnostic | 05/24/06
Linux Geek  tealcat | 05/23/06
Must have been hard...  Richard Flude | 05/23/06
So what features of Word are actually better?  Fred Fredrickson | 05/24/06
Yea I said  Krazyken39 | 05/24/06
looking forward to another unstable OS from Microsoft  david1324 | 05/27/06
Re:your message  ajrpg1 | 05/31/06
Ahem.  sjborch@... | 06/02/06
how to order the Vista beta with Seamonkey  cls@... | 06/12/06
vista beta 2 and office 2007 beta  prattchris@... | 06/26/06

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