Victor;174807 Wrote: > Then why do you feel the need to pontificate, discuss, and argue on > topics you clearly know nothing about?
Well, to be completely honest, we all do that! It's only by doing so that we get corrected and learn from the experience. The Slim fora can get very hostile to any poster who is off-message, i.e. if you don't think Slim is the best thing since sliced bread etc., whereas the reality is that it isn't perfect and the best way to make it better is to examine its shortcomings and listen to users, no matter how uncomfortable that may be and how much you'd like to ignore them (or smack them round the face) It's the part of product development that is the most rewarding yet the most frustrating - the end customer. Why aren't they happy, I love the product, so why don't they? Are they dumb, can't they see the brilliance of the design? Why are they complaining just because they laid down X dollars for a device, what rights do they think they honestly have? eh?!!! The truth is that the Slim system hasn't actually advanced that much over the years compared to other technology. It is still essentially a back end server with a thin client playing audio. True it's pretty damn fine audio, but the SLIMP did that years ago, why does the user interface still feel clunky compared to where the market is? In the meantime we have had HD TV, HD-projectors, Blue-Ray, iPhones, AppleTV, XBox-360 and all manner of devices rasing the media bar, so people's expectations have risen too. The SB box has evolved to the Transporter, so we have a better DAC, but the experience hasn't entirely evolved with it. It still needs end users to assemble a bunch of software to rip and serve music, whilst companies like Sonos appear to have claimed the high-end in the perception of the reviewers. Sure it's cool to be the true audiophile product, but it sure stings when others like Olive, Sonos and Sooloos are presented as the true high end because they are more slick. SlimServer needs to stop evolving from open source collective approach and be taken by the scruff of the neck and shown some real UI design, establish true use case, build in affordance and become a typical-user product whereby user manuals and fora are redundant. If you have to read the manual or ask a question on a newsgroup, the developers have failed. If you don't believe this, then you have't understood consumer software development because supporting consumers costs money - it is to be avoided at all costs. BTW, the device driver concept is ultimately flawed, it doesn't move forwards usability one iota, it's another bit of technology that doesn't improve the product per-se, just complicates it further. The end game is audio quality and access to music as easily and obviously as possible. If the idea doesn't contribute to that, ditch it. Support for iTunes would be smart, however much it hurts the open source mentality, it here to stay, so being the best network player can become a viable existance. If it needs a device driver to do that, then fine, but it shouldn't be an aim in its own right. Think about what you are trying to achieve, not the technology, technology is a means to an end. Rant over! -- CardinalFang ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CardinalFang's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=962 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=31324 _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
