Five Fundamental Problems with Open Source?

meriksen asks: "I found a very interesting paper which I am sure will stir up a hornets nest. Despite the growing success of the Open Source movement, most of the general public continues to feel that Open Source software is inaccessible to them. This paper discusses five fundamental problems with the current Open Source software development trend, explores why these issues are holding the movement back, and offers solutions that might help overcome these problems." What do you think of the issues given in this paper, and how do you think the Open Source community should address these issues? "The lack of focus on user interface design causes users to prefer proprietary software's more intuitive interface. Open Source software tends to lack the complete and accessible documentation that retains users. Developers focus on features in their software, rather than ensuring that they have a solid core. Open Source programmers also tend to program with themselves as an intended audience, rather than the general public. Lastly, there is a widely known stubbornness by Open Source programmers in refusing to learn from what lessons proprietary software has to offer. If Open Source software wishes to become widely used and embraced by the general public, all five of these issues will have to be overcome."

Comments

Re:But...

[Liselle]

Okay, you're being funny, but read the footnote at the bottom of the paper:

In this paper, I use the general term Open Source, though often I'm exclusively discussing Free Software. As well, when I use the term Open Source projects, I'm usually referring to projects that have a contribution base wider than one or two individuals. I'm also aware that some companies release Open Source versions of their software, and though I certainly appreciate their donation, I'm excluding these Open Source projects in this particular paper's definition of Open Source, as some of my statements do not apply to them. I made these generalizations for the point of simplification, and not for any political motivations.