Comments on: Usability Ballet http://safetyfork.net/2006/05/02/usability-ballet/ Harmless...but useless. Thu, 05 Jun 2008 20:23:37 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.2 By: Kris Browne http://safetyfork.net/2006/05/02/usability-ballet/comment-page-1/#comment-126 Kris Browne Tue, 02 May 2006 23:54:23 +0000 http://safetyfork.net/2006/05/02/usability-ballet/#comment-126 Upon further reading of the article: This is just a whiny windows user trying to defend why they aren't selling their soul for not taking the OS plunge. Note the above freedom of purchase. If one is complaining that drivers aren't available for a given device for Linux, you can always buy a different device. And if enough people pass by a device because they don't write drivers for a given OS, the manufacturer will eventually learn that demand is shaping their business (At least in a non-monopolized Free Market economy). One could argue just as much that the exclusive driver contracts that MS has with various device and software developers is limiting the ease of OSS adoption, and doing so in a way that no ammount of development time will fix, and that buy using Windows with "free" programs only prolongs the overarching problem. Upon further reading of the article:

This is just a whiny windows user trying to defend why they aren’t selling their soul for not taking the OS plunge. Note the above freedom of purchase. If one is complaining that drivers aren’t available for a given device for Linux, you can always buy a different device. And if enough people pass by a device because they don’t write drivers for a given OS, the manufacturer will eventually learn that demand is shaping their business (At least in a non-monopolized Free Market economy).

One could argue just as much that the exclusive driver contracts that MS has with various device and software developers is limiting the ease of OSS adoption, and doing so in a way that no ammount of development time will fix, and that buy using Windows with “free” programs only prolongs the overarching problem.

]]> By: Kris Browne http://safetyfork.net/2006/05/02/usability-ballet/comment-page-1/#comment-125 Kris Browne Tue, 02 May 2006 23:49:35 +0000 http://safetyfork.net/2006/05/02/usability-ballet/#comment-125 If people want easy, they have another freedom – The freedom to buy a different product (in this case, a Mac). Nobody is saying anyone must use OSS software exclusively, and part of the tradeoff for Freedom (capitol F) is the entry costs of training. Mac OS X is what comes of taking the F out of one part of the overall product, namely the GUI... It's arguably less flexible than X (no network transparancy, etc) and it's definitely not OSS, but it's really really easy to use. But you still have the freedom to get under the hood, install X and all the other command line bits that are arguably unfriendly, and do real work. Also worth noting: Ease of use is a subjective thought. A person raised on a command line may find a GUI terribly unintuitive, and one who has lived in Emacs will be dissapointed by having to go to menus for 90% of the functionality of Word or OO.Org. If people want easy, they have another freedom – The freedom to buy a different product (in this case, a Mac).

Nobody is saying anyone must use OSS software exclusively, and part of the tradeoff for Freedom (capitol F) is the entry costs of training.

Mac OS X is what comes of taking the F out of one part of the overall product, namely the GUI… It’s arguably less flexible than X (no network transparancy, etc) and it’s definitely not OSS, but it’s really really easy to use. But you still have the freedom to get under the hood, install X and all the other command line bits that are arguably unfriendly, and do real work.

Also worth noting: Ease of use is a subjective thought. A person raised on a command line may find a GUI terribly unintuitive, and one who has lived in Emacs will be dissapointed by having to go to menus for 90% of the functionality of Word or OO.Org.

]]>