>Because people don’t understand what computing is about, they think they have it in the iPhone, and that illusion is as bad as the illusion that ‘Guitar Hero’ is the same as a real guitar.”
For me, this was the signal that this as a "if only people used computers like I personally think they should" pieces. I know lots of people who play guitar hero, lots of people who play real guitars, and some who play both (me for one, mediocrely in both cases). I have met zero people who think guitar hero = guitar. They are different things that serve different needs.
I use a cli to compute all day, every day. Can't imagine using computers without one. I have no empirical proof of this, but I would be willing to wager the deed to my house that the vast majority of users, having been explained what a cli is, the benefits of it, and how to use it, would chose to never use a CLI again. It's not what they want, it's what other people want and it's a myopic view of what computing is.
I believe Alan Kay is saying that while people know Guitar Hero isn't real guitar, they don't know that using an iPhone isn't "what computing is about". Here's the full quote from him:
If people could understand what computing was about, the iPhone would not be a bad thing. But because people don’t understand what computing is about, they think they have it in the iPhone, and that illusion is as bad as the illusion that Guitar Hero is the same as a real guitar. That’s the simple long and the short of it.
What’s interesting is, the computational ability of an iPhone is far beyond what we need to do good computing. What you wind up with is something that has enough stuff on it and is connected to enough stuff, so it seems like the entire thing.
"A combination of this 'carry anywhere' device and a global information utility such as the ARPA network or two-way cable TV, will bring the libraries and schools (not to mention stores and billboards) of the world to the home. One can imagine one of the first programs an owner will write is a filter to eliminate advertising!"
[Kay72] "A Personal Computer for Children of All Ages"
> Can't imagine using computers without one. I have no empirical proof of this, but I would be willing to wager the deed to my house that the vast majority of users, having been explained what a cli is, the benefits of it, and how to use it, would chose to never use a CLI again.
As stated, I agree.
But "ugliness" and unfamiliarity are big confounds here.
The fairer experiment would be something like: For tasks where a CLI app is a better fit than a GUI, would a person trained in the CLI and forced to use it for, say, a day (however long it took to become comfortable and see productivity benefits) then decide to keep using it, or go back to a GUI?
Imagine an office worker and some cumbersome workflow with excel, microsoft word, and GUI folders.
I think your question has been answered to some extent. As I understand it, there is wide spread usage of WeChat apps. Users of WeChat use the platform for many tasks other than text messaging. In, essence, WeChat is just a spruced up CLI.
> "if only people used computers like I personally think they should"
I think that if one could take a sufficiently aggregated superset of that from everyone on HN, one might very well come up with a philosophy of computing that actually is quite powerful.
In general I think the idea is that the computer is supposed to be a tool, in addition to a toy; with the awareness that playing with tools is often just as much fun as any toy could be, and conversely that a toy is a powerful way to learn.
> "Because people don’t understand what computing is about, they think they have it in the iPhone"
I agree this is myopic. I can use my iPhone to do a great many computing-related tasks; and when it is insufficient, it is certainly sufficient to reach out to a bigger, more powerful machine where I can do such things. As long as we retain the powerful (and not yet enshrined) freedom to connect things together over the Internet, your "computer" is not just whatever device you hold in your hands.
For me, this was the signal that this as a "if only people used computers like I personally think they should" pieces. I know lots of people who play guitar hero, lots of people who play real guitars, and some who play both (me for one, mediocrely in both cases). I have met zero people who think guitar hero = guitar. They are different things that serve different needs.
I use a cli to compute all day, every day. Can't imagine using computers without one. I have no empirical proof of this, but I would be willing to wager the deed to my house that the vast majority of users, having been explained what a cli is, the benefits of it, and how to use it, would chose to never use a CLI again. It's not what they want, it's what other people want and it's a myopic view of what computing is.