for the rest of us

adj.

[from the Mac slogan “The computer for the rest of us”]

1. Used to describe a spiffy product whose affordability shames other comparable products, or (more often) used sarcastically to describe spiffy but very overpriced products.

2. Describes a program with a limited interface, deliberately limited capabilities, non-orthogonality, inability to compose primitives, or any other limitation designed to not ‘confuse’ a naive user. This places an upper bound on how far that user can go before the program begins to get in the way of the task instead of helping accomplish it. Used in reference to Macintosh software which doesn’t provide obvious capabilities because it is thought that the poor lusers might not be able to handle them. Becomes ‘the rest of them’ when used in third-party reference; thus, “Yes, it is an attractive program, but it’s designed for The Rest Of Them” means a program that superficially looks neat but has no depth beyond the surface flash. See also WIMP environment, Macintrash, point-and-drool interface, user-friendly.