On Tue, Feb 10, 2009 at 9:13 AM, Alun Rowe <alun.r...@pentangle.co.uk> wrote:
> //personal rant coming up... > > For any open source software (Linux for example) to really work on the > network en mass we need to about user experience. Currently I've yet to see > an attractive/user friendly piece of FOSS. Anecdotally, I find that Inkscape is much better usability wise than Illustrator, and that Firefox is much less awful than IE's menu bar idiocy. The free desktop experience has become more unified as the Mac one has become more fragmented. > Whilst the software (once you've > worked out how to use it) is extremely effective IMO user experience is a > big part of the software which usually gets overlooked in FOSS scenarios. I > think FOSS can have a huge future but the community need to think about user > experience then it will be taken more seriously. Be careful what you wish for: the current KDE 4 train wreck came from the developers focussing on "user experience". It's an interface so godawful that everyone I have seen use it has been personally offended by it. ;-) The desktop user experience with Free Software is getting much better. For me personally it's become a non issue over the last two years (before then I might have agreed with you more). But for many people, "usability" equals familiarity; making it work as badly as Windows. ;-) - Rob. - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
