Except that even the windows steps start with something familiar, My Computer. Maybe even My Documents. Or if you want to get extremely advanced, open Windows Explorer.
Wow, what a missed opportunity for the direction I thought your post was going to go. Linux geeks, have a look at this guide for the filesystem layout of Debian. I dare you to come up with a sensible explanation for why this is a good, user-friendly, intuitive idea. Let's not even get into the further mucking of the issue that comes from software written for different distros expecting directories to be used for different things, or to be located in different places.
Compare to Windows: You have 'My Documents', which contains - surprise! - your documents. It also has subfolders for your pictures, downloads, videos, etc., all named in a sane and consistent fashion that makes it immediately obvious what the folder is for. Then you have 'Windows', which contains all the scary OS related stuff that 99% of users, even very advanced users, will never have to muck around with. Bar the very odd exception (how many Windows users actually manually edit their hosts file? Less than 1% by a longshot, I'm willing to bet), the stuff in there is for the computer's benefit only. Lastly, you have 'Program Files', where all your programs are installed and conveniently sorted so that all the files for a given application that you will ever need to modify are located inside its folder or in a folder that you can reach easily via a shortcut in its folder.
I understand that for legacy and arguably security reasons, *nix filesystems are quite different from Windows, but surely something could be done to make it at least sort-of sane?
but you don't need to read a book to figure out which way to lean when you are making a left turn.
You might be surprised how many people wreck their bikes because they're afraid if they lean with it on a turn, it will fall over or they'll scrape their elbows off or whatever (sitting up straight or leaning to the outside of the turn is a really great way to lay down your motorcycle.)
I see what you were getting at, but you probably could have picked a better analogy.
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it." - Bert Lantz