Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 30th Mar 2007 20:44 UTC, submitted by theosib
Linux The founder of the Open Graphics Project writes: "Good design and usability are very important. I haven't paid enough attention to the discussions between Linus and GNOME developers, so I can't address it directly. But what I can say is that a learning curve is not a bad thing. While it's good to think about the total novice, it's even more important to have consistent and logical mechanisms. This way, if someone has to learn something new to use the computer, they have to learn it only once. This is why I think it's good that Apple and Microsoft have UI development guides that encourage developers to make their apps act consistently with other apps in areas where their functionalities conceptually overlap. And this is where I start to get disappointed with GNU/X11/Linux systems."
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Missing the point
by byrc on Sat 31st Mar 2007 21:40 UTC
byrc
Member since:
2006-02-18

I see there are a whole lot of replies that say "Well, linux has X Package Manager" or "Linux has Y Package Manager" when the point is not that there needs to be a better package manager or that it is hard to manage packages, the point is that one should not even be needed. If I want to install an application in OS X, I drag it to my applications folder. Don't want it anymore? I drag it to the trash. EVERYTHING for the app is within the .app. Sure, i can use apt or portage or whatever you want me to use, but in the end, after all those tools do their little thing, I still got the entire application spread across 8 different folders. That is a nightmare as far as system management goes, because package managers do break..

Consistency and organization are great, and if those two things were adopted, it would make life much easier on everyone, esp. poor techs like me who have to manage these systems ;)

Edited 2007-03-31 21:42

Reply Score: 2