Re: [OT] Acronyms again [Re: [Usability] GNOME 2.6+ usability: points of critique]

[Robert Fendt <rmfendt web de>]

And thus spake John Spray <jcs116 york ac uk>
Mon, 11 Oct 2004 18:22:41 +0100:

> > robsta that attitude will get us nowhere, but maybe that reads as more
> > harsh than you intended it.
> I think this is one area where people have become justifiably touchy:
> there have been umteen people writing whiny articles about how much
> better gnome was back in the day.  I for one am sick and tired of people
> threatening to stop using GNOME, as if to try and dignify their whining
> with blackmail.

I did not mean to blackmail anybody. I just stated the fact that GNOME has
degraded in its usability from my point of view. Of course it is my
personal opinion and I accept that there are other people with different
needs. And that is exactly my point: different people with different
needs. The only thing from old GNOME times I miss is flexibility. It was
lacking in many other ways, and certainly not better than GNOME 2.

> It's as if they expect that all the other GNOME developers and users
> will throw up their hands and say "Were we stoned or something?  Let's
> put everything back as it was in 1.2!".  It's bloody irritating, and I
> don't think that anyone but callcentre staff has a duty to not express
> their irritation.  A user complaining about a specific bug is fine, and
> should not be dismissed with "fix it yourself".  A user making such
> sweeping complaints about software that he claims he will not be
> continuing to use invites scorn.

I did provide quite specific examples. And yes, of course  I understand
that people like me are irritating. Unproductive to the project yet
demanding. Yet I do not feel like simply saying nothing would be better.
Unfortunately I do not have the time to get involved in GNOME development,
so the only thing I can do is complaining about the things I do not like.
I admit that I could have voiced my opinion better, though.

> Mr. Fendt seems to be complaining not just about specific software but
> the entire community that's behind GNOME, since software cannot be
> arrogant, only those who make it can.  He wishes that GNOME's
> development was guided by those who think like him.

No, I do not. I just wish that developers keep in mind that there is no
such thing as an "average user", just many many many different users. I am
a developer myself (albeit on smaller-scale projects) and I know the
effect. When you design a program you too-often simply forget that there
could be a different way of doing things. Once the application is
released, you learn of more ways than you ever wanted to know, though.
Making everybody happy is impossible.

But my impression is simply that the GNOME community kind of forgot on
their way to improved ease of use (which is really a commendable thing
which other projects should also consider) that the world does not consist
solely of people new to GNOME but also of those using it since 1.x. And I
am quite sure that even for new users who never even touched a computer
before the one-fits-all concept of recent GNOME developments is not always
the right thing.

> While Alan is educating us all in netiquette, perhaps he'd like to tell
> the original poster that referring to gconf as a "lousy 'regedit'
> rip-off" might have somewhat lowered the tone of his message.  In fact,
> in the spirit of the original poster's writing style, I shall refer to
> his message hereonin as "that lousy post".  How's that?

Yes that comparison was crude and out of place. I already apologised, I
hereby do it again.

Regards,
Robert