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Shuttleworth Suggests 1-Way Valve For User Experience Testing

Posted by timothy on from the why-isn't-this-intuitive? dept.

darthcamaro writes "No surprise but Ubuntu's Mark Shuttleworth has come out swinging in favor of the Linux desktop. Speaking at Linuxcon yesterday he detailed the things that he thinks Linux requires in order to win the desktop wars. Those include: co-ordinated software releases, better quality and design, some user experience testing and oh yeah, a dose of 'shut the f*** up' too. During his keynote, he extended an invitation to any open source application to submit their software for testing by user-experience experts. The sessions would be recorded for posterity, and the developer would not be able to interact with the user. "'If the developer is in the room, they have to say nothing. It's the shut the f*** up protocol,' Shuttleworth said. 'You sit and watch someone struggle with the software that you've so lovingly produced.'"

3 of 757 comments (clear)

  1. Re:STFU needs to be heard. by BetterSense · · Score: 0, Redundant

    I second that.

  2. Ein Penguin, Ein Distro, Ein Fuhrer! by ub3r+n3u7r4l1st · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Centralized effort is the key.

    You cannot have thousands of distro of the same kernel all called themselves "Linux". You need a brand, a unique brand. (i.e. "Ubuntu", not "Ubuntu Linux".)

    You need a centralized marketing budget.

    You need to advertise about the pros/cons and comparisons between yours and the competitor's product (Ubuntu vs. OS X vs. Windows)

    You need to make functionality and mechanics as similar as possible to your competitors EARLY IN THE CAMPAIGN without violating patents. Once you gain market shares, you can start going into some other path.

    It needs one prominent, professional figure where even a non-computing person can speak of his/her name. Microsoft had Bill Gates, Apple had Steve Jobs.

    On the Linux side, there is Linus Torvalds vs. RMS. An old Chinese saying said that, "You cannot store two tigers in one house."

    There can be only one spokesperson. ONE and ONLY ONE. Then only we will stand chance against Microsoft and Apple.

    --
    New Economic Perspectives
  3. Re:Kudos to him! by smose · · Score: 0, Redundant
    This is Linux, we can have, and need to have, both.

    Unfortunately, this endless variety of flavors makes Linux virtually impossible to adopt in the mainstream. There's simply too many options to choose from, so the easiest thing to do is not to choose at all.

    Linux needs to collapse into a single desktop/laptop/netbook install, for which 99% of users will customize no greater than to change the wallpaper to a picture of their kids, and it's very doubtful that the various factions will ever agree to standardize on the other's products.