Continuing in my quest for answers to usability questions, a commenter over at schwuk.com suggested that one of the reasons that he would have difficulty moving to Linux was that he was a ‘power’ user under Windows, and that because of this he a) suffered from less of the normal pitfalls (viruses, spyware, etc) and b) had many habits that would be non-transferrable.
This brought to mind the question above - are geeks ‘power users’? I have always considered myself a geek, but would have previously also thought of myself as a power user - I use keyboard shortcuts and things like that 
However, as I have thought about it, I have begun to think that power users are a different breed. There are a number of differences that I think highlight this:
- Power users are primarily users, whereas geeks are more tinkerers.
- Power users are, in part at least, tied to a set of applications/systems where they have learnt their techniques, whereas a geek normally develops skills that are a little more transferrable.
- Power users will often know the way to do something within their application of expertise - eg Excel formulas and macros. A geek may know a number of different ways to resolve a solution, but will probably employ completely different techniques (eg scripting/programming a solution)
- Power users learn their power to be efficient; geeks learn because they thrive on the knowledge
- Power users prefer to remain in a stable, consistent environment; geeks love their ’shiny new toys’
OK - I’ve probably made some generalisations, but I think that the point is valid. This point is even more important when it comes to Linux advocacy and migration. I think that in the past geeks have seen power users as kind of ‘newbie’ geeks, and their approach to training these people have reflected this, but has not been suitable.
Thoughts and comments welcome
mrBen
