Hi Dan,

> What surprises me is that there is so little software that is
> aimed at interested beginners.

Another way I'd put it - one reason why there is so little software that fits into this category is because it is actually more difficult to design that kind of software...

I wish it was easy to design things that are powerful and that were also easy to use, but as far as I can tell it is exactly the opposite - it takes a much greater amount of effort and skill to do that.

Then the other unfortunate thing is that often times your reward at the end of all that effort of targeting beginners is that your software can be derided as a "toy"...


One way that I look at it though is that making things simplified and having a smooth and fluid workflow is actually not only beneficial to beginners, but also advanced users in quite a few cases as well, because getting some kinds of things done very quickly can actually be very useful to advanced users.


- Michael