This have been discussed here but there was a time (Windows 9x/XP area) where GUIs were « intuitive but with some learning curve ».
Of course it was a little harder (but not that much) to master the tools of this era but once you understood the basic paradigms (files, folders, windows, menus, toolbars, common discoverability, common keyboard shortcuts, F1 for help…) you could become proficient in any unknown software way more faster than today.
Now, there is nearly no transferable knowledge between 2 softwares. For me this looks like « knowledge lock-in » (which adds to the vendor and data lock-in, btw).
Well, we still have Linux if we want to learn something useful. But even there if you use it professionally, you’re probably going to be stuck with all those « I’m unique » Electron apps.
tbf, I think what we are missing is a truly high quality multi platform GUI toolkit able to work with modern language. Most are still only officially supporting C++ and nobody wants to write a complex application in C++ anymore.
Of course it was a little harder (but not that much) to master the tools of this era but once you understood the basic paradigms (files, folders, windows, menus, toolbars, common discoverability, common keyboard shortcuts, F1 for help…) you could become proficient in any unknown software way more faster than today.
Now, there is nearly no transferable knowledge between 2 softwares. For me this looks like « knowledge lock-in » (which adds to the vendor and data lock-in, btw).
Well, we still have Linux if we want to learn something useful. But even there if you use it professionally, you’re probably going to be stuck with all those « I’m unique » Electron apps.
tbf, I think what we are missing is a truly high quality multi platform GUI toolkit able to work with modern language. Most are still only officially supporting C++ and nobody wants to write a complex application in C++ anymore.