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GUIs for Everyone

Posted by michael on from the you-must-be-this-smart-to-use-the-computer dept.

An anonymous submitter writes: "A former Microsoft and Creative Labs interface designer has an interesting diatribe on the approach of Linux GUIs on the desktop. Thomas Krul has three Microsoft patents for human factors research into digital interfaces and graphic software functionality. Probably most known for the interface work he had done on Softimage DS and its web site. Though not a technical read, it does provide an interesting note on the approach for Linux on the desktop." And headless_ringmaster notes that Jef Raskin, the guy who designed the first Macintosh and author of The Humane Interface, has a SourceForge project putting his ideas into action.

2 of 570 comments (clear)

  1. I agree with this post by Oliver+Newland · · Score: 0, Troll

    I was almost crying by the time I got to the end of the article (not because it was so well-written, but because my poor eyes felt like they had been raped).

    --

    I got a 1600 on the SATs.
  2. Wrong again by Fastball · · Score: 1, Troll
    One of the limitations that the linux GUI is suffering right now is that there are too many aesthetes, actually, who mistake skinning and customization with actual GUI style.

    I have karma to burn, so here goes. How does it feel to be so wrong? It is this very customization that has given life to the Linux GUI. Don't like a Windowsesque desktop? Try Enlightenment. Like a tighter look? Go fetch KDE. These choices empower Linux users.

    Because Linux users have these choices and are often adept at skinning, no company needs to waste its time reinventing. Just leave that to the end-users. The Linux users at least. Most folks enslaved by Windows don't know their mouse from their modem.

    YES! I WIN!