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:2005-07-12
Member since:2006-03-23
which is exactly what i am doing, by saying that everyone can choose to configure it to the way they want, or simply use defaults..
people arent FORCED to configure stuff, so they can simply choose not to, and thats fine by me, but they better damn well respect my choice of making use of configuration abilities, and why the hell shouldnt they? how does more options which they can simply choose not to use, hurt them?
Member since:
2006-03-23
Well i for sure hope that no features really gets removed, because if someone cant use them, or dont wanna bother finding out what they do, then just stay away from them, its not like they DEMAND that you press them and tweak them to doomsday.
so the solution is simple, Have a good allaround defalt, which i believe KDE has, and then users which wants to customize can choose to do so, and users who want to do nothing, can simply stay away from the configuration dialogs. And if they cannot stay away from it, well, thats really their problem, i dont see why i should give up my abilities because they dont wanna use them, and as such, dont wanna have them even exist.
And this is why i currently use KDE, its abilities reflects these philosophies, which, (and yes, i dare say this) is the RIGHT one.