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:
2006-03-15
From your comments, I would guess that you (a) deal with technical people a lot, (b) are technical yourself, or (c) both. It's not that they're stupid. It's that they have more important things to do. Despite what you may think, he is NOT insane. I've also personally seen comments from developers like what were mentioned for ZIYASP.
As for configurability, he is right on about KDE. It's a geek environment. Where else can I sit down at one machine and have it act and look like Windows 95 and have it act like something else? There is nothing wrong with having options. The problem comes from having too many options, particularly ones that are almost never, if ever, used.