Comment Re:Here's what you guys need to do... (Score 1) 868
That's right. There's this fairly common contempt for the user in general present in many of those developing all that great free code. It's basically very close to the contempt for the marketing people and usually justified, but it neglects those who appreciate the technical side of Information Technology and are willing learn and participate in building better software without becoming software engineers themselves.
The result is good software that only developers can use, whereas most software that the windows-using public is aware of is meant to be used by non-developers. That's why the battle against Windows is not going well. If Free Software under the Linux-roof can have any chance of taking the masses, it's only if devs are open to colaboration with people who don't have the technical expertise to follow every aspect of the technology involved but are interested in usable software with a broad userbase.
This all boils down to interface design. On one side of the fence it's heavily influenced by marketing considerations and on the other side it misses the target audience on a broad front, crippling the whole campaign, so to speak. There are just certain requirements that interfaces of free software don't meet - and there are different ones for commercial software, for that matter. The difference is, that commercial software focuses on interfaces that work from a sales point of view, without any regard for the user beyond how much money at them.
Put some effort into making interfaces that work with regard to the user and you win. Or we win, depending on wether you welcome my input or if you're going to dismiss it as the random rant of a stupid user.
Ubuntu is a good start, but there needs to be a whole different culture in the movement to make it a success.
The result is good software that only developers can use, whereas most software that the windows-using public is aware of is meant to be used by non-developers. That's why the battle against Windows is not going well. If Free Software under the Linux-roof can have any chance of taking the masses, it's only if devs are open to colaboration with people who don't have the technical expertise to follow every aspect of the technology involved but are interested in usable software with a broad userbase.
This all boils down to interface design. On one side of the fence it's heavily influenced by marketing considerations and on the other side it misses the target audience on a broad front, crippling the whole campaign, so to speak. There are just certain requirements that interfaces of free software don't meet - and there are different ones for commercial software, for that matter. The difference is, that commercial software focuses on interfaces that work from a sales point of view, without any regard for the user beyond how much money at them.
Put some effort into making interfaces that work with regard to the user and you win. Or we win, depending on wether you welcome my input or if you're going to dismiss it as the random rant of a stupid user.
Ubuntu is a good start, but there needs to be a whole different culture in the movement to make it a success.
