Is complexity (and wearing this on the outside) an inherit part of open source design? FactoryJoe compares the OpenOfficeMouse (a mouse with 18 programmable buttons and even an analogue joystick) and the Apple Magic Mouse-"To me, the OpenOfficeMouse seems like such a typical product from the open source community." [Kroc: I honestly believed the OpenOfficeMouse to be a very clever satirical joke, the irony that it isn't suspends belief]
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Member since:2006-11-12
I don't know how one can argue that the menus are more cluttered in open source. There is just too much open source variety to stereotype open source software.
Also, I have shown that a Mac config window is more cluttered than its open source counterpart. Furthermore, the two window examples that I use happen to be the very examples put forth in the original article to assert the opposite point. Care to compare two more examples?
Besides, one can merely use Gnome (or one of the lite distro/projects) if one wants limited choices with open source.
In addition, the few open source examples you give cannot begin to characterize the whole of open source software. There are numerous other desktop/WMs, image editors, office programs (and zillions of other programs) that are open source.
By the way, where exactly are the menus cluttered in the examples that you mention?
In regards to the notion that I am reacting to a "parody," please see the two links that I posted below, which lead to OpenOffice.org sites that refer to the OOmouse. It appears that the OOMouse people have already made a presentation at OOoCon 2009.
An 18-button mouse is plausible, considering that there is already a 17-button mouse on the market: http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-mice/razer-naga/
Here is a 15-button mouse, too: http://gizmodo.com/5061632/steelseries-world-of-warcraft-mouse-dest...
Even if the OOMouse is a hoax, the article on which this thread is based is real. The Apple-worshipping author really believes that Mac products are more usable and better designed than their open-source counterparts. I was merely countering the author's staggering misconceptions.
Member since:
2009-08-26
I don't know of any "norm" in "open source design." I don't even know what he means by "open source design."
KDE, Gimp, OpenOffice. A generalization yes but way to defend a parody lol.