Author: Alastair Scott
Date: 02:16:28 10/25/03
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On October 24, 2003 at 10:27:16, Anthony Cozzie wrote: >IMO, there are several big differences between Windows and Linux: > >1. Most people learn to use a computer on Windows; the Windows GUI is what they >are used to. Right, but the basic paradigm (windows, icon, mouse, pointer) is the same between all windowing systems and transfer is quite easy. (I've sat people in front of an X-based system and, after the initial worries, they've adapted readily). >2. Linux apps don't present a uniform look/feel. You can run any of 30 window >managers and 15 GUI toolkits. Cdbakeoven looks vastly different than gaim which >looks different than openoffice etc. That is rapidly narrowing down to two, KDE and Gnome. Anyway ... as 1. >3. Microsoft spends billions in usability testing. Linux geeks are much more >likely to do "cool stuff" than write documentation or worry about >userfriendliness. The Linux program will contain awesome configurability and >run in 241kb of ram, while using 2.3% of your CPU - if you spend 5 hours reading >newsgroups. The MS program will just work. Actually, almost all of the really significant UI work was done in the 1970s, well before Microsoft and Apple haled up over the horizon; what is done now is effectively marketing, and the need to make things appear different and "new" from time to time to drive product updates, than anything else. If there is usability-based rationale for the application colour scheme changing from silver in Office 2000/XP to blue and orange in Office 2003 I can't think of it! As an aside, I'm an admirer of Gnome because it sticks very closely to the basics; the HIG [Human Interface Guidelines] are very well done. >Linux has made a *lot* of strides in usability. When I first installed linux 4 >years ago, I had to hand-edit my XF86Config file. There was no Mplayer or XMMS >or whatnot. In a year or two, you might be right. But I think you are vastly >overestimating the computer expertise most people possess. The problem here is that it is not really known what "ordinary people" use their computers for. If they are forever installing and uninstalling software, you're right. However, if there is little change from a basic setup - or it is a corporate setup with everything locked down - the type of "usability" you talk about doesn't matter. (I note that your definition of "usability" seems to be "ease of tinkering", whereas mine is a wider one of "ease of performing task whatever that might be" :) Alastair
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