Torvalds Says 'Use KDE'

An anonymous reader writes "Without tip-toeing around the matter, Linus Torvalds made his preference in the GNOME vs. KDE matter quite clear on the GNOME-usability list: "I personally just encourage people to switch to KDE. This 'users are idiots, and are confused by functionality' mentality of Gnome is a disease. If you think your users are idiots, only idiots will use it. I don't use Gnome, because in striving to be simple, it has long since reached the point where it simply doesn't do what I need it to do. Please, just tell people to use KDE." Also, "Gnome seems to be developed by interface nazis, where consistently the excuse for not doing something is not 'it's too complicated to do', but 'it would confuse users'.""

Comments

"Don't make me think!"

[MarkEst1973]

Don't Make Me Think! by Steve Krug is an awesome book that all software developers should read.

The goal is simplicity in all things. Someone shouldn't have to think about what is going on, it should be obvious.

The most interesting thing about that book is that the author applies the same principles he espouses for websites to the book. The book is very easily digestible. So, if it works for the web and it works for the book... what else can it apply to? If you follow this train of thought to its logical conclusion you'll realize it applies to lots and lots of things: your code, desktops, phone VRUs, brochures, etc.

Linus is a smart guy and I respect him, but the goal is simple.

Re:"Don't make me think!"

[arkanes]

Theres a fine line between "make it simple" and "make it stupid". It's a hard line to walk, and I think Torvalds is right that Gnome has moved too far to the stupid region (disclaimer: I'm a Gnome user). Simple interfaces are fine as long as the functionality is simple, or there is no need for customization. Phones are in fact an excellent example - we've come a long way from needing to wind your phone up and whistle to clear the lines, but as we add functionality to phones the interfaces have either become more complex (cell phones) or lagged behind the features (most desktop phones). There is nothing wrong with customization, and I like the power of KDE in that respect. The much-maligned Gnome file dialog is a great example of the problems in Gnome. The old one was really, really, really horribly bad. The new one is simply barely adequate. The interface designers at Gnome really read too much into thier title - they want to change the way you interface with the computer (see spatial browsing for a classic example of the reasoning) instead of assisting you to interface on your own terms.

Re:Torvalds is 'out there'

[Sketch]

Linus is posting exactly the same as he always had: He says what he thinks, and doesn't pull any punches when doing so. If you think this is "new" behaviour for Linus, you haven't been around long enough. You might want to read this little exchange from 1992:

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book/ap pa.html