Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 30th Mar 2007 20:44 UTC, submitted by theosib
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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Member since:
2005-07-08
"In my opinion, greater consistency is definitely something that Linux developers should be striving for, at least if they want Linux to succeed on the desktop."
Agreed very much. But Linux is just too broad a word to use in this context. Linux is a kernel? At least not a GUI? An OS with various desktop environments and GUI choices?
I can understand that sometimes the development of Linux as a desktop OS can seem disturbingly slow when you compare it to something like Mac OS X.
Let's admit it, easy to use desktop Linux distributions meant for average Joe / your nextdoor neighbour are quite young and new thing still. For many years and not so long ago, Linux was mostly a geek OS for IT-competent people who liked to get their hands dirty in configuring things. Naturally there is still lots of stuff to be developed before all things reach the same level as in some commercial operatings systems like mac OS X developed for easy desktop use from the start. But things are gradually getting there in Linux too, and the ease of use of something like Ubuntu Linux is already surprisingly good.
As an example, I have a friend, who had endless problems with MS Windows 98, so in the end I installed Ubuntu Linux for him so that he could choose either Win98 or Ubuntu. He is not too competent a PC user but gets along with Ubuntu quite well and almost never boots into Win98 anymore.