I have to go with other here.
It should be an appliance until you need to do something more advanced, then it should allow obvious ways for you to dig deeper.
Otherwise you're making it too hard on the new users and too restrictive for advanced users.
I REALLY like this answer. I sold PCs back when they ran soley on DOS and expecting the average user to memorize multiple CLI commands really held back adoption by the general public. I remember when my firm obtained beta copies of Windows 3.0 (all earlier versions of Windows being really lame) I'd I remember thinking "Well this sucks a lot less. The average person could probably adopt this a lot easier".
I wholly agree with Heiroglyph, the system should be easy to use Like an appliance. I guess the best term is that most operations should be intuitive. That actions should seem natural and interfaces uniform.
But under this layer an OS should still have all the capablities that allow more experienced user to get everything they can out of their system.
Believe it or not, I do feel that this is being accomplished on newer OS.
Even though I have never coached her, my 73 year old mother has had no problem figuring out how to use her Windows7 based computers.
Not only has she figured out how to use her computers, but her last two purchases were on her own (a laptop and a netbook).
She completes contiuing education courses required to maintain her nursing license, pays her bills, and buy merchandise on line.
Not to underestimate her intellengce (my mother is remarkable - she still works two to three days a week in the local hospital's OR), but I don't think she would have been able to adopt to an earlier, harder to learn OS.
