Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!snorkelwacker!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!smsc.sony.com!dce
From: dce@smsc.sony.com (David Elliott)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Power users (was Re: What can't it do?)
Message-ID: <1990Jul11.143622.2900@smsc.sony.com>
Date: 11 Jul 90 14:36:22 GMT
References: <886@mdavcr.UUCP> <28778.269229da@vaxb.acs.unt.edu> <1990Jul8.220052.24143@spectrum.CMC.COM> <2977@tellab5.tellabs.com>
Sender: news@smsc.sony.com (Usenet News System)
Reply-To: dce@smsc.sony.com (David Elliott)
Organization: Sony Microsystems, San Jose, CA
Lines: 45


In article <2977@tellab5.tellabs.com>, kenk@tellabs.com (Ken Konecki) writes:
|> In article <1990Jul8.220052.24143@spectrum.CMC.COM>
lars@spectrum.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen) writes:
|> >In article <28778.269229da@vaxb.acs.unt.edu>
|> >   ac08@vaxb.acs.unt.edu ((C. Irby)) writes:
|> >>A real "power user" organizes his or her files a little better than that.
|> 
|> Power users, shmower users. There's no such thing as a power user.
|> People who use computers are users, plain and simple. Period. End of
|> story.  I don't know where the term came from, but it's the stupidest
|> phrase I have ever heard. Can anybody even define what a power user is (as
|> opposed to a powerless user?).

It means exactly what we choose it to mean.  The term "power user" came
about because there was a group of users who found the Mac interface
to be too simple and confining, and wanted more.

As far as the simple "People who use computers are users" statement, I
agree and I disagree.  Undeniably, everyone who uses computers are
"computer users", but that's like saying that everyone who rides a
bicycle is a "bicyclist" and leaving it at that.  I ride every day, but
I'm not in the same class as a pro racer.

In the computer user community, there are lots of different kinds of
users.  There are people who are just getting started, people who use
the computer occasionally, people who use the computer every day but
aren't interested in being experts, and people who like to command the
computer instead of just working within its confines.  In addition,
every one of these classes can be applied to programmers.  There really
is a difference between the accountant who uses the Mac twice a
week to use Excel, the person who does desktop publishing work as a
profession, and the programmer who can write Mac applications.

Now, I agree that "power user" is a stupid term, but as far as I'm
concerned, when I see the term "power user" in a product description,
I take it to mean that there's some (usually inadequate) mechanisms
in the program to let me set preferences and modify the program to
work as I want it to, instead of just the way some programmer wanted
to make it work.

...David Elliott
...dce@smsc.sony.com | ...!{uunet,mips}!sonyusa!dce
...(408)944-4073
..."You know my motto: Forgive and uh... the other thing."