Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sat 6th Oct 2007 22:59 UTC, submitted by Christoph Plamper
"A lot of bandwidth has been wasted arguing over the lack of usability in open-source software/free software. Some people say that bad usability is endemic to the entire OSS world, while others say that OSS usability is great but that the real problem is the closed-minded users who expect every program to clone Microsoft. Some people contend that UI problems are temporary growing pains, while others say that the OSS development model systematically produces bad UI. In an effort to understand usability in the OSS world, I've researched the stories behind my favorite - and least favorite - OSS programs. I've found a fascinating variety of personalities, design philosophies, and project organizations. Although I've only scratched the surface, there are already themes that come up again and again."
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Member since:
2006-03-23
that nobody listens to this "person", saying its a mistake to make applications configurable. Well, i say, if some user, like him, dont do any work because he constantly tweaks his UI, well then he is simply a moron that gets distracted too easily, and isnt worth the money someone is paying him.. I believe this is what Torvalds describe as an Interface nazi.
"oh please!! my master, i am too dumb to figure out how i want the interface, but i can not for the love of god stop touching these settings, please remove them, and allow ONLY the default to be there!!!"
this guy is insane.
and his example with the ZIYASP is totally bogus.
If people really are doctors, and cant manage to customize a gui like with KDEs, to something they like, or generally find normal(as in, stuff that people just come to, without requiring special training) applications confusing and cant use them, well then i'd better hope they never get hired as anything more than a door greeter, cause i'd really not want them to be performing any kind of medical thing to me. When was the last time anyone saw a gui that required knowledge of internal workings? yeah, cause we see that every day, our OSS gui's really are nothing more than a slightly more convenient way of running syscalls..
so talk about inhumane again.. and smart people... I think some of these Smart people was in charge of writing the recipt for some common cold medicin, but because they were so smart, they accidentally got him some more interresting things...
Edited 2007-10-07 00:05