« Cat Quotes and The Cat Quote Book
Add Web Audio to Your Web Site: Highly Recommended Tool »

The Failure of Open Source is Usabilty

The Open-Source Solution (MIT Technology Review)

“As the code slowly grows in complexity as well as capability, usability suffers, not only because new functions add to the user interface but because such additions are ad hoc and implemented case by case.”

…and…

“Open source may be superior in producing robust, reliable code. It can hold its own in providing functionality. But its weakness remains usability, which increasingly is the battle­ground for competing programs.”

Read the article…

This entry was posted on Monday, January 8th, 2007 at 3:45 pm and is filed under Usability. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “The Failure of Open Source is Usabilty”

  1. Jesper Rønn-Jensen Says:
    January 8th, 2007 at 5:51 pm

    It’s an important issue, and (in my opinion) very crucial to understand that all applications will eventually fail compared to usable apps.

    It reminds me of Asa Dotzler (firefox team) and his “linux not ready for the desktop “:

    the user doesn’t care whether it was Linux that failed to include the necessary compatibility components or Mozilla that failed to make the build work for that particular dot release of libstdc++. Regular People expect to be able to download software, install it, and have it just work. Asking them to figure out complex system library and kernel compatibility issues is a one way ticket off of their desktop.

    The third issue is a lack of simplicity. Just because you can include a feature doesn’t mean that you should. Just because you can provide a user preference doesn’t mean you should. I don’t want to start a desktop war but I really gotta say to the distros, pick a desktop and be happy. Regular People shouldn’t have to (guess or learn enough to) choose between Gnome and KDE when they’re installing your product. Regular People don’t need 15-20 mediocre games in a highly visible Games menu at the top of the Applications list. And what is a Regular Person to think when confronted with a choice between Helix Player, CD Player, and Music Player? Does the Music Player not understand CDs? What’s “Helix” mean? Gedit has about 30 user preferences spread across 5 tabs in a preferences window — Notepad has about three. You and I know that the difference between Settings and Preferences is that one is system wide and one is per-user but Regular People don’t know that and shouldn’t need to know that. If the Regular Person doesn’t have access to it because it’s a system wide setting, then why put that entire menu of options in front of him. If the Regular Person has equal access to both, then why are they split? It’s just a confusing mess.

    He also did a recorded presentation (available at IT Conversations as mp3), in which there are lots of goodies.

    IT Conversations: Asa Dotzler - Linux in search of the desktop (22 minute mp3)

Leave a Reply