Hi. I've lurked here for quite a bit (I was advised to subscribe to
this list on another forum in response to the challenge posted below)
and haven't really seen much activity, so I just thought I'd toss in my 2c.
To be honest I have not used Suse that much - I've seen it in action and
used it for a short time, but nothing in depth. I've mainly used Ubuntu
(I seriously don't know what all the fuss is about), Mepis, PCLinuxOS
(Quite like it) and a few other random distro's. My concern is based
around the general feeling and attitudes of the Linux community at
large, rather than centered around any one distro. Anyway...
I first decided to try out Linux a couple of years ago (I've known of it
for much longer) as I run an Internet cafe and would have quite liked to
avoid the Microsoft tax. I tried a few distro's for a short time - FC4,
Mepis and Ubuntu (warty). At the end of the trial I weighed the various
benefits of all platforms and decided to stick with Windows, as none of
the distros offered enough advantages to make it worth the extra time
and had many significant limitations (mainly with regard to usability).
I am not 'Pro Microsoft', nor am I 'Pro Linux', I am 'Pro whatever
gets the job done best'.
I decided to put a post on the Ubuntu forums detailing the reasons why I
was not going to use it and the limitations I found. As a programmer
myself that is the sort of information I want to know. The reasons
people are using my software are nice, the reasons people aren't are
nicer. Unfortunately I was promptly flamed to a crisp by a vocal
percentage of the forum regulars who refuse to hear a bad word about
Linux. Even saying something as simple as 'Why not make .deb's double
clickable?' would get a hail of negative responses. Excuses were made
for everything - nobody would recognize one single point as valid.
I tried a few other forums, all with the same results. Bringing up
issues with usability always ended the same way. I in fact found it
impossible to have any constructive discussion of usability issues
without it turning into a flamewar.
My eventual conclusion is that constructive criticism of Linux simply
doesn't happen in an open forum, that there is no place set aside for it
to happen (no Linux distro I have yet seen has a 'tell us what you
think' forum) and pretty much no effort is made to open a (honest)
dialogue with end users about what they like/dislike. The only place
close to this is bugzilla, which doesn't handle usability issues, only
programming bugs. From my experiance using Linux (and OSS software in
general) the software is generally powerful, stable, yet usually with a
sub-par GUI and pretty much no attention paid to usability.
I do not approve of people signing up on Linux forums to bash the OS but
I feel the community in general is so defensive any comments no matter
how benign or well said are seen as attacks - possible because they see
it as an attack on the FOSS ideology - and any comment made is seen in a
'Linux vs Windows' capacity, even when only talking about Linux with
Windows being irrelevant to the discussion. It always gets twisted to X
vs Y.
As a result of this no public discussions of Linux' pitfalls are allowed
to exist resulting in the developers being essentially insulated from
the end users. Criticisms and comments from the people using the
software are not sought after and more often than not actively
suppressed, and the only form of feedback that works is bugzilla - which
will never address usability issues.
So, anyway, after that longer-than-planned rant, my challenge is this:
Find a place on the Internet that constructive criticism of Linux
actually takes place where you can discuss caveats in the OS and talk
about usability and what can be done to improve it in a calm and
civilized manner. It's a harder task than you'd think. And if no such
discussions take place how are any developers ever meant to know what
the main concerns/problems that the general userbase is having?
I just think that the open sharing of ideas is just as important as the
open sharing of code, yet it practically never happens. I'd also like
to contribute my expertise (graphic design & usability) as would many
other people yet even discussing the topic in public is pretty much
prohibited.
Hey, I just reckon if you let (and encourage) people talk about what
they would like, many good ideas may come of it.
--
To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-usability+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org
For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-usability+help(a)opensuse.org
