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Open-Source Software and "The Luxury of Ignorance"
Bootsy Collins writes "Using the recent experience of trying to configure
CUPS
on his home network, Eric Raymond has
written an interesting new screed on poor design of user interfaces in general, and configuration interfaces in particular, in open source software, entitled
The Luxury of Ignorance.
A sample quote: 'This kind of fecklessness is endemic in open-source land. And it's what's keeping Microsoft in business -- because by Goddess, they may write crappy insecure overpriced shoddy software, but on this one issue their half-assed semi-competent best is an order of magnitude better than we usually manage.'"
There's your problem right there "I have a desktop machine named 'snark'."
- Nick Busey
www.pedalbmx.com
www.nickbusey.com
What a rant! Im going to send mod points to Eric Raymond's house by mail.
...ESR was found beaten severely, with the names of several CUPS developers found tatoo'd on his forehead....
1 What is a non-technical user doing with Linux anyway? They need to crawl before they can walk.
2 Why not put in endless loops of windows that lead back to the same place over and over again. That would be funny.
3 Nobody likes documentation... except 4 n00bs
4 oh yeah... about those... er...
5 I like to think of Linux as a sort of technical boot camp. I started using it because I wanted to upgrade my status from "windozer coder of ascii art" to "codeNINJ4"
those are my thoughts.... anyone else?
Esoteric reference.
I honestly have not ever heard someone use that term outside of The Clash. I shall use it tomorrow a minimum of twice.
.-=Wit is educated insolence=-. -Aristotle
Dear ESR - :)
We will accept your critcisms of CUPS when you fix it. It is, after all, open source
-Your OSS pals.
Talk about luxury of ignorance. I pitch open source software to family/friends/bosses every chance I get. Now this one time, I was telling my boss about OpenOffice when MSOffice bailed out on him.
Boss: Damn. This MSWord thingy sucks.
Me: You should try using Open Office once. Its a good sub and its free!
Boss: Free? I am telling you one more time. Stop downloading things off of KaZaA damnit
Me: No. No. No. You got me all wrong. Its free as in 'free as a beer' free.
Boss: Does it have Clippy?
Me: What?
Boss: I looovvvvee Clippy. He is so cute
Me: Well, it doesn't really have a Clippy per se but...
Boss: Oh common. How do you expect me to use it if it doesn't have Clippy. I am a PHB
Me: What?
Boss: I am a pointy handed boss
Me: Handed? Ohhh well. Nevermind.
At that point I just walked away defeated by clippy and luxury of ignorance.
Free XBox, PS2
The way to get help with your linux problems is to troll and say "Linux is teh suxx0rz because XYZ doesn't work!"
Then 4,000 penguin-fanboys will come out of the wood work, each with a distinct solution to your problem!
Now had you asked for help, they would have said "Read the man page! n00b!"
As for me, I can't really help you. I run AIX. And some other window'd operating system that allows to to remotely access my AIX boxes.
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
I remember trying to get fetchmail to work. What a nightmare.
... if you're on your own...
(+1, Spelling/Grammar)
Please stand clear of the doors, por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas
Meetings: None of us are as dumb as all of us.
Nerd: Derogatory term typically directed at anybody with a lower Slashdot ID than you.
Here is a wierd thought:
Maybe Microsoft's usability design benefits from the fact that they have a bunch of pointy haired guys around, while the open-source projects exclusively consist of collections of Dilberts?
Scary, but it would justify the pointy-haired bosses existence. At absolute minimum all open-source projects should have (pet) lamas assigned to them, and a continuously rotating basis (to prevent tainting them with knowledge) and their whining should be taken as the word of authority...
Code poet, espresso fiend, starter upper.
If you want good interface design, look no further than ESR's own beautifully designed fetchmailconf.
Not to say that he doesn't make good points, but... well... just look at the screenshots.
-Mark
Well I've never *seen* 'US Letter' paper. But I now know why it's set as default on my LaserJet 4 Plus and in Konqeror's 'Print Properties' dialog.
Here is my quick account of setting up a Mac (10.3.2) to print to a Brother MFC-8820D.
I plugged one end of there ethernet cable into the printer and the other into my laptop. So far so good.
Being a highly competent user, I then went straight to the Printer Setup Menu and click add printer. I chose IPP printing. Then I turned to the sales guy and asked for the default IP address of the printer. He didn't know. I didn't know. It wasn't in the manual either.
I cursed. I yelled. I was annoyed. I sent two people off the go and find out the default IP of the network card.
While sitting there quietly spouting profanity I looked in my list of currently configured printers. Well buff my nuts and serve me a milkshake! There, in the list was the Brother printer all configured and ready to go. I didn't have to do anything.
I selected it and pressed the "Configure" button. It launched a web browser and brought up the configuration page.
I fell off my chair.
I later learned that the printer supports ZeroConf network discovery. Apple takes that further by selecting the correct driver automatically. It work just as well via USB, only if I think want to share it to other Macs I then have to follow the very complex task of clicking the "Share Printer" box in the System Prefs.
"maybe a dictatorship in terms of final word or a democratic vote will work."
Linus.
Kernel.
The defense rests, your honour
-- Open Source: It's mad, but you don't have to work here to help.
I don't think he's a has-been. Judging by his nightclub web site, I'm going to guess he's having a lot of fun, meeting a lot of people, and having some kind of love life, all traditional failings for geeks.
:-(.
That being said, I wonder why he doesn't port xemacs himself.
He surely has the ability, if anyone does.
Unfortunately, I suppose he doesn't have the free time, considering his dedication to his nightclub -- but maybe if he took the time he was spending trying to get Linux to work and put it into the port, we'd all be a lot better off.
I know I would. I use MacOS X and sure would love an xemacs port. Sadly I simply don't have the knowledge or ability needed to do it, but I sure would love to have it
D
Or just split the difference, keep everyone happy, and decide to do both proposals. Hence leading to configuration boxes from hell adorned with approximately seven thousand checkboxes.
Ah, I see you have discovered KDE's design guidelines.
Maybe I can interest you in Maxis' latest, SarcaSIM?