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I do it myself. I wrote some get-started-with-Linux articles for the Register a while ago and got panned for that in the comments.
There are good reasons, though. It's just that all the n00bs and Windows lusers are scared of text, they want point-and-drool. ;-)
The things are these:
* with text, you can copy & paste - you can't do that with descriptions of click-this-click-that
* text is exact & unambiguous. Didn't work? You typed it wrong.
* text is much much shorter. Full descriptions of GUI ops take pages.
Additionally, it's hard to describe icons unambiguously & most non-techies don't know what the words to describe GUIs mean: they don't know the difference between an icon and a button, or what a pull-down or listbox is. Give them very precise instructions & they can't understand them which they will adamantly deny. They will lie, cheerfully and repeatedly, and claim that things are invisible, don't exist, don't work, are not there, etc. because they would rather do that than admit that they do not understand the words you are using, because that would make them look stupid. They are not stupid - well, some aren't, anyway - but they will not admit that they use words without knowing what they mean and that they know nothing at all about the computer they spent thousands on.
Seriously. In my extensive experience in ~25yr in support, the majority of users do not actually know which bit the computer is. They may have paid as much as a small car but they don't know where it is. They think it's the screen, or in the keyboard, and never associate it with the footrest on the floor. They don't know they need electricity or cooling. They don't know what an operating system or a program is. But they glibly use terms like "hard disk" without the first notion of what they mean.
But they don't know that they don't know - Dunning-Kruger applies - and they will lie, long and loud and hard, rather than admit any
failing on their part.
That's why the IT Crowd has the support guys put on a tape loop with "have you tried turning it off and back on again?" followed by "are you absolutely SURE it's plugged in?"
We all have heard stories like the urban legend about the American tourist melting a car's gearbox by driving hundreds of miles in 1st gear, not realising it is not an automatic.
Well, computer users are much much worse than this. They would drive backwards, or roll the car into a lake and sit on the bottom rowing it with oars, rather than admit that they don't know the difference between Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Word.
And that's why, rather than trying to describe what a volume icon is and what it looks like and where to find it and how to right click it, we say: "press Ctrl-Alt-T and paste in this line".
People don't like it, but it's short and it works.
There are good reasons, though. It's just that all the n00bs and Windows lusers are scared of text, they want point-and-drool. ;-)
The things are these:
* with text, you can copy & paste - you can't do that with descriptions of click-this-click-that
* text is exact & unambiguous. Didn't work? You typed it wrong.
* text is much much shorter. Full descriptions of GUI ops take pages.
Additionally, it's hard to describe icons unambiguously & most non-techies don't know what the words to describe GUIs mean: they don't know the difference between an icon and a button, or what a pull-down or listbox is. Give them very precise instructions & they can't understand them which they will adamantly deny. They will lie, cheerfully and repeatedly, and claim that things are invisible, don't exist, don't work, are not there, etc. because they would rather do that than admit that they do not understand the words you are using, because that would make them look stupid. They are not stupid - well, some aren't, anyway - but they will not admit that they use words without knowing what they mean and that they know nothing at all about the computer they spent thousands on.
Seriously. In my extensive experience in ~25yr in support, the majority of users do not actually know which bit the computer is. They may have paid as much as a small car but they don't know where it is. They think it's the screen, or in the keyboard, and never associate it with the footrest on the floor. They don't know they need electricity or cooling. They don't know what an operating system or a program is. But they glibly use terms like "hard disk" without the first notion of what they mean.
But they don't know that they don't know - Dunning-Kruger applies - and they will lie, long and loud and hard, rather than admit any
failing on their part.
That's why the IT Crowd has the support guys put on a tape loop with "have you tried turning it off and back on again?" followed by "are you absolutely SURE it's plugged in?"
We all have heard stories like the urban legend about the American tourist melting a car's gearbox by driving hundreds of miles in 1st gear, not realising it is not an automatic.
Well, computer users are much much worse than this. They would drive backwards, or roll the car into a lake and sit on the bottom rowing it with oars, rather than admit that they don't know the difference between Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Word.
And that's why, rather than trying to describe what a volume icon is and what it looks like and where to find it and how to right click it, we say: "press Ctrl-Alt-T and paste in this line".
People don't like it, but it's short and it works.
