I agree completely.Furthermore I'd like to propose that we instate the rule that each time anybody brings in the argument 'people are used to what platform X does, so we must do it too, because that will make it easy to switch', that person has lost the discussion immediately.
Yes, but in this case it is slightly different. We should not avoid single click to be similar to windows or whatever other systems not having it. We should avoid single click because Microsoft tried to introduce single click, and their users failed to agree with them. This experiment have already been performed. It was performed on majority of all desktop users, and it failed. It failed in spite of the fact that there probably was more windows oriented training availabe than Gnome oriented training available today or in the near future. It failed in spite of a strong marketing organization that could tell users the wonders of single click that no doubt had been discovered in Microsoft usability labs. Why would Gnome be more
succesful? The only outcome would be annoyed users.You could argue that Gnome users are different. The question is where is all those different Gnome supposed to come from. Today it is almost impossible to get hold of test subjects for usability tests in the ages between 7-60 years of age that have no windows or Mac experience, meaning that they are likely to come from the same user group that once rejected the Microsoft version of single click. You could go for developing countries where we have less computer litteracy, but even here the population of doubleclick undamaged population is decreasing.
If we should copy Microsoft at all, we should copy their success, not their mistakes.
/uno
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