Target Group

jcome

http://appeal.kde.org/wiki/Target_Group#The_mainstream_user
Target Group
From Appeal

There are some alternative views on our target group. Which is the right one?
Table of contents [showhide]
1 The developer
2 The geek
3 The common information worker
4 The mainstream user
5 Grandma
6 The Chinese rice farmer
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The developer

That's us. We who develop KDE. We are our own users. We are part of KDE because we are scratching our own itches. We know how to use computers, we know how to break them, we even know how to fix them and are able to patch whatever gets in our way.
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The geek

As avid reader of the "tips & tricks" sections of the relevant computer magazines, the geek knows how to find his way through the technology of the desktop. He knows how to work around problems, knows the difference between RAM and ROM and is able to use vi. He is the power user who gets the most out of our applications. The more features, the better for the geek.
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The common information worker

The typical user of our desktop has used a computer before. He knows the basic tasks he want to use the computer for. He's not a computer expert and esp. no Linux expert and he doesn't need to be one. We want to give him the opportunity to evolve to a power user, if he wants to. Being a power user is not necessary.
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The mainstream user

Nothing special about the mainstream user. It's the silent majority. It's the pragmatic user. He wants to get the job done. He is neither enthusiastic nor sceptical about computers. Mildly conservative the mainstream user tends to use the stuff all others are using as well. Right now the mainstream user is still using Windows.
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Grandma

Talked by her grand-children into joining the crowd who writes emails and orders books at Amazon, Grandma has bought a computer. She is sceptical that something she hasn't needed for the last seventy years will now improve her life. Once she has learned how to do something she doesn't want to change. Grandma probably prefers big fonts and occasionally gets mails with big attachments with pictures from her grand-children. Ordering gifts at Amazon is one of the mission-critical applications.
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The Chinese rice farmer

We want to address the hundreds of millions of users which never have used a computer before. They don't have any prejudices or specific expectations and can be exposed to a new and simple form of the desktop. This is the biggest group of potential users, so it should be our top priority.