On Sat, 27 Jul 2002, Daniel J Nishimura wrote: >(i.e. The start button on the bottom lefthand side, the task bar, >etc...).
Just to point out--the 'menu' at the screen corner was first seen on the Macintosh. And the window'ed interface was invented by Xerox PARC. That's right, neither Apple nor Microsoft invented the GUI. As for the Open Source question, since I have contributed to a few projects myself, I may have some insight into how some Open Source contributors think. Most of the projects that I follow are from the traditional UNIX mindset. This means that a lot of, if not all, things are done with the command line interface (CLI) and configurations with text files (editable with vi). This is why a lot of popular software have text based configuration methodology (i.e. Apache, GCC, Xfree86, etc, etc). This group of people grew up with the old Unix philosophy and like the power it offers. I am part of this group. Then there is the new generation. These are the people that grew up with Macintoshes and MS-Windows. They like the dialog boxes and the binary configuration files. These programmers also like the IDE and prefer to ignore the details of a tool. I.e. ask them which optimizations are enabled by gcc with -O2 vs. -O3. They probably don't even know where to find the answer. As most of you already know, the open source/free software world is mostly made up of people in the former group. This is why free software are so hard to configure and are mainly CLI tools. That is because they use their own software, and this is what they prefer. Now, does this answer the question of 'why aren't there more user friendly software?' The answer is, 'user friendly' usually means 'for people who don't know what they're doing'. Now, if you are part of this group of programmers, to whom would you rather target your software--people who are willing to read the manual and learn to use the tool correctly or people who rather push buttons and click check boxes? This may sound elitist to some people. But there are people who build suped up engines for their cars on the weekends. Open source/free software is no different. The difference is in the user base and the day job. When these weekend car mechanics design engines on their day jobs, they do not expect the car buyer to upgrade the engine themselves. But when a programmer designs an application, they have to think how the enduser is going to install the software. The average Joe on the street doesn't complain if the engine is hard to install. But if a software application breaks something during installation, the same individual blames the programmer for creating a crappy system. The problem is, people think they are smart enough to install and configure their own computer. When they realize this isn't true, they question why doesn't the software engineers design easier to use software, as if that was the problem to begin with. But these same people never asked why mechanical engineers don't design easier car engines. Why is that? This is not a rhetorical question. I really want to know why people think they should be able to configure their own software. We are talking about the same people who can't even set the clocks on their VCR's. The VCR's now have automatic clock setting circuits. Yet, these people think a computer should be easier to use than a VCR? When you buy your software from a college dropout, who's greatest programming achievement is the Basic programming language, do you really expect the software to be flawless? Would you ride in a car designed by a college dropout? Would you go to a doctor who didn't finish his or her education? And yet, the public at large thinks a software engineering degree can be obtained from a mail order educational system. Sally Struthers is selling certications for software programming. And people wonder why the software industry is so crappy. By the way, Linux and Unix isn't harder to configure, it is just that the configuration is NOT LIKE Windows. People are so brain washed into the Windows way of doing things, that anything else is considered 'difficult'. Sorry if this turned into a rant. I am just tired of people complaining why Unix is so user unfriendly, and why programmers like myself flock to Linux. Even if you look just at the surface only, the answer is so obvious. --jc -- Jimen Ching (WH6BRR) [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
