__/ [ Larry Qualig ] on Monday 27 February 2006 18:04 \__
>
> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>>
http://searchopensource.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid39_gci1169030,00.html
>>
>> Breaking down barriers to Linux desktop adoption
>>
>> "People reject Linux desktops for illogical reasons, says IT consultant
>> and developer Jono Bacon. For example, they fault Linux OpenOffice
>> desktops for not having all the features in Microsoft Windows Office, even
>> though few actually use all of the Microsoft stuff. So, in essence,
>> they're saying they want desktops cluttered with unnecessary features."
>
> Crap - Forgot to mention that I also liked this part of the interview:
>
>
> What were your complaints?
>
> Bacon: Various perspectives on usability, clutter, too much
> configurability and other things.
It depends on the tools being used. You could not argue that Thunderbird,
Firefox and OO.org suffer from such issues, whereas KDE (_Kernel Hackers_
Desktop Environment) applications like KMail and KNode are intended to
provide fine controls for power users.
> Also, frameworks are a temporary
> solution. We want less people hacking on frameworks and more people
> hacking on applications that use frameworks. It's not a technical
> problem so much as a social one.
The applications I mentioned above achieve just that! Same arguments apply.
> What trends are you seeing?
>
> Bacon: The advocacy side is focusing on business at the moment. Once
> we've nailed that, we can move toward the consumer side. The difficulty
> with the consumer side is that consumers naturally feel comfortable in
> Windows because that's what they know. Lethargy is one of the toughest
> nuts to crack, and consumers won't move unless they can see a key
> benefit to the move, move with little or no hassle and don't incur any
> further costs.
>
> On the consumer side, there is also a greater scope for potential
> snafus. You've got a million different use cases [and] a million
> different devices that someone can plug in and get working, whereas a
> business may only need X, Y and Z working and that's that.
Same with most amateur users. X and Y are often E-mail and Web surfing. Z is
sometimes productivity tools and particularly word processing, which even
Kile or LyX can cover admirably well.
With friendly regards,
Roy
--
Roy S. Schestowitz
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