FC3 Usability Problems

[Ian Malone]

Matthew Miller <mattdm at mattdm.org> wrote:

 > On Sat, Jan 08, 2005 at 03:56:52PM -0600, akonstam at trinity.edu wrote:

 >> I sympathize with your frustrations but as someone pointed out to me,
 >> the panels in the gnome desktop resulted from decisions made by the
 >> Gnome developers, firefox the firefox developers, and so on. All FC3
 >> has done is using the latest programs available. That is one of the
 >> problems with open software versus software developed by a single
 >> company like Sun.


 > Yes -- with software developed by a single company, there's just one
 > place that changes things around at random and ignores your
 > complaints.

True, but we should be ready to acknowledge that Linux has it's flaws,
otherwise they'll never get fixed.  Interoperability is actually one
that friends point out to me when talking about Linux.  Never mind
that: it has been addressed to the point where it's rarely a problem
for the average user; it is constantly improving and Linux's reliance
on open standards means it will continue to do so; and that the
important role distros play is to help stabilise upstream changes
and present a more consistent interface to the casual user.  I suppose
this is another area where Linux must outperform the competition before
it is taken seriously.

That said, I do find the somewhat random nature of the changes Gnome
introduce a little disturbing.  UI configuration options especially
seem to be being gradually stripped out as they try to optimise for a
test group who have preferably never seen a computer before.  There
is a satirical article at the back of the current Linux Magazine (I
think) on KDE and Gnome development.  They report a new version of
Gnome in the pipeline has only one taskbar button which, when pressed,
logs the user out and shuts down the machine.

There's a point to this complaining.  As early adopters Fedora users
have an important role to play in the development of major projects.
If something really annoys you, please go and file bugzilla reports.
I actually like Gnome, but developers will never know when they take
a wrong direction if no one tells them.  This is especially important
for projects like desktops where complaints are often of a non-
technical nature (this doesn't work vs. I don't like the way this
works), and judgements must be made on the basis of how many people
they affect and how.

-- 
imalone