Consider the vi text editor. Like many editors used by computer programmers, it is overly complicated and hard to learn. When I was first forced to use it in a computer class in college, I hated it. Now I will use nothing else. Once I overcame the difficulty of learning it, I realized that it had many powerful features that I liked. However, a non-technical person would never even remotely need these features.
I feel a little bit the same way about being forced to use Windows 7. It is not a bad operating system, but it feels more complicated than it needs to be. Windows XP had a pleasant simplicity to it. However, I am starting to get used to Windows 7.
It concerns me that there so many different ways that you can get to your files and run programs in the Windows OS. For example, you could have a shortcut on your desktop, or you have something pinned to your task bar, or on the programs menu, or pinned to the start menu, or in a folder on the programs menu and there are other ways. There is no consistency there, and therefore I think that Apple had the right idea with IOS. It doesn’t have the same flexibility, but the simplicity of it means that almost anybody can use it without any training.
