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

Who cares?

[Sargerion]

Why should the Open Source community even care about such allegations? If you're too stupid to use, say, GAIM, then you're too stupid to be on a computer. People who can't use Open solutions just shouldn't use Open solutions. Besides, why would you want someone who couldn't use Open software involved in Open Source anyway. I mean, yeah, there's that whole thing with mass public acceptance and all that, but do we really need that? I mean the more the public can use Open solutions, the more Open solutions will be prone to people's stupidity. It's not like it will bring in any new developers, because anyone who knew how to code would, hopefully, be able to use an Open program. I say, who gives a crap about the public not being able to use Open software? There's just no need; in fact, the consequences could be negative.