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Usability and Open Source Software

Posted by michael on from the click-and-drag dept.

Martin Soto writes "This article by two user interaction researchers, discusses many of the usability problems in current open source projects. The nice part is that, unlike many /. readers, it doesn't stop there, but goes into suggesting novel (at least for the OSS community) approaches to cope with those problems in an open source compatible way. Worth a read to those that, like me, still think that OSS should find its way to every desktop computer."

4 of 319 comments (clear)

  1. Never shall the two meet.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    To change the configuration of Program X simply use your favourite text editor and add the line "-option [-adst] [--h] refnumber columnnum -g --system"

    Full details are available by reading the source code.

    Thank you.

    1. Re:Never shall the two meet.... by flacco · · Score: 5, Funny
      After about 10 hours of this I just lost it. I have wiped the disk, and am now in the process of installing windows on both machines. I will probably never use linux again.

      Oh, yes you will. This failure will stick in your craw. It will tug at the corners of your conscousness. Eventually - perhaps when you read about an interesting tid-bit in a new distro release, you will be drawn in again to redeem yourself.

      --
      pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
  2. Lusers Reference! by Cap'n+Canuck · · Score: 4, Funny

    Mastery of such a product is difficult and so legitimates membership of an elite who can then distinguish itself from so-called 'lusers' (Raymond and Steele, 1991, p. 364)

    Eric S. Raymond and Guy L. Steele, 1991. The New Hacker's Dictionary. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    For any of you writing a paper (not an article as the story says), you can actually refer to 'lusers' and sound learned.

  3. Frankly, by Hayzeus · · Score: 5, Funny
    "unusable" software attracts a better class of user.

    Keep out the riff-raff -- stick with command line interfaces!

    --

    Roving Web-Teleoperated Robot