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Making Things Easy Is Hard

Posted by simoniker on from the esr-and-the-printer-cable-of-secrets dept.

paul.dunne writes "John Gruber of Daring Fireball has written a long and considered riposte to Eric Raymond's recent lament concerning the poor quality of user interfaces in free software. The core of his argument is that 'developing software with a good UI requires both aptitude and a lot of hard work.' One point that particularly struck me: according to Gruber, 'Unix nerds who care about usability are switching to Mac OS X in droves'!"

4 of 980 comments (clear)

  1. Elegance In General Is Hard by LetterJ · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's not just usability. Making things that go beyond raw utilitarian funcionality is just generally difficult. Look at cars. Making a basic econobox is pretty simple, but making a real driving machine is more difficult and usually costs more. Slapping together an Ikea bookshelf isn't too terribly difficult, but hand crafting an Arts and Crafts style bookcase requires considerably more effort and skill. Yet, somehow when things move into the software realm, our expectations change. Unfortunately, it's difficult to get BMW handling with a Kia budget. Even harder for free.

    --

    The Glass is Too Big: My Take on Things
  2. The simplest... by robochan · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...is the most difficult to discharge superbly.
    --Robert Fripp

    --
    ...Rob
    The American Dream isn't an SUV and a house in the suburbs; it's Don't Tread On Me.
  3. I switched to OSX by RobPiano · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I run both Linux and OSX, but I'm mostly entirely on OSX now. I like having someone else worry about my security updates for me. I'm willing to pay for someone else to do maintance and assure that my OS is completely compatible with my hardware.

    The fact that its really pretty doesn't hurt either.

  4. Unix /Linux people are a crackup by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Sort of Like Einstein lost at the train station. You can be so intellegent about networking, ports, protocols etc.

    But they have the hardest time understanding simple concepts. That unfortunately reveals itself in the UI of many applications built on Unix/Linux. Of course a green screen doesnt help much.

    At least Linux is a movement to shift the Unix world in the right direction, and to its credit Linux is getting better all the time.