Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 26th Nov 2009 00:05 UTC, submitted by elsewhere
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Member since:
2007-02-17
I think the acronyms are not the problems as long as they carry an understandable meaning (e. g. xmms = X multimedia system).
To understand them, some knowledge is needed, especially about conventions, such as "tk" being a suffix for "toolkit", which many toolkits follow. "
One doesn't need users to be able to "understand" the program names. Acronyms are fine, because the description of the program function is right there on the menu.
The menus are laid out in logical groupings by functionality. Anyone can quickly find an application they are after, without having to knnow the name of it.
Example screenshot:
http://ourlan.homelinux.net/qdig/KDE4_desktop/Cahkra-ArchLinux-KDE-...
You don't have to know that the Office Suite program for presentations is called OpenOffice.org Impress, or that the spreadsheet program is called OpenOffice.org Calc, because (as the screenshot above shows) this information is intrinsic to and displayed for you right there on the menus.
BTW, the names Microsoft PowerPoint and Microsoft Excel are no more or less confusing than OpenOffice Impress and OpenOffice Calc. The Windows programs are a bit harder to find on the menus, however, because you have to know the name of the software vendor before you can find the menu entries.