5 ms·

You know, I just don't see it. Maybe it's because I'm a developer, but I just don't see that many usability problems in open source projects, and these articles

by mark-t 18y ago

You know, I just don't see it. Maybe it's because I'm a developer, but I just don't see that many usability problems in open source projects, and these articles are going out of their way to avoid giving concrete examples. I'm marking this (the MPT article) down as Microsoft propaganda until the "interface design experts" start pointing things out. It's not like it would be hard. Configuring Xorg makes me cry, and CUPS was still no walk in the park last time I checked.

thamer 18y ago
I don't see many problems either, probably because I am a full-time GNU/Linux user, but another application that is often pointed out as difficult to use is The GIMP. I actually disagree with the premise that GIMP is hard to use, and find it quite intuitive for basic operations; most critiques actually complain that it doesn't have the Photoshop look&feel. It often boils down to the difficult task of discerning usability, intuitiveness, efficiency, and familiarity.
- mark-t 18y ago
  Actually, I do have trouble with Gimp, too. I have to google how to make a straight line every time. Choosing brushes and changing the color are a pain, too. But I don't use it often, and about half the time I'm using it where I would have used MS Paint when I used Windows. There's probably a toy program somewhere that fills that gap, and I just haven't bothered looking. Maybe I should pick up Xfig.
  - jcl 18y ago
    As I recall, Photoshop doesn't have a line tool, either; you make lines with the brush tool and the shift key, just like in GIMP -- or you use the vector tools. For people accustomed to basic painting applications that provide all manner of circles, lines, and squares, it comes as a surprise that such tools are so buried in Photoshop or GIMP. But it turns out that drawing lines is simply not that important for most Photoshop users, since lines aren't that important for photo touchup, creating web graphics, or digital painting. For line-heavy art, there are better tools like Illustrator. The problem is that GIMP is tasked with replacing both Photoshop and MS Paint on the Linux desktop. The hidden assumption is that since Photoshop is more "powerful", its feature set is adequate for typical MS Paint tasks... which is akin to assuming that Linux doesn't need a word processor because TeX is more powerful.
    - rosss 18y ago
      Photoshop has a line tool, and circles, lines, squares, etc. are very important for many applications of Photoshop.
      - deleted 18y ago
        [deleted]

by mark-t 18y ago

thamer 18y ago

I don't see many problems either, probably because I am a full-time GNU/Linux user, but another application that is often pointed out as difficult to use is The GIMP. I actually disagree with the premise that GIMP is hard to use, and find it quite intuitive for basic operations; most critiques actually complain that it doesn't have the Photoshop look&feel. It often boils down to the difficult task of discerning usability, intuitiveness, efficiency, and familiarity.

mark-t 18y ago
Actually, I do have trouble with Gimp, too. I have to google how to make a straight line every time. Choosing brushes and changing the color are a pain, too. But I don't use it often, and about half the time I'm using it where I would have used MS Paint when I used Windows. There's probably a toy program somewhere that fills that gap, and I just haven't bothered looking. Maybe I should pick up Xfig.
- jcl 18y ago
  As I recall, Photoshop doesn't have a line tool, either; you make lines with the brush tool and the shift key, just like in GIMP -- or you use the vector tools. For people accustomed to basic painting applications that provide all manner of circles, lines, and squares, it comes as a surprise that such tools are so buried in Photoshop or GIMP. But it turns out that drawing lines is simply not that important for most Photoshop users, since lines aren't that important for photo touchup, creating web graphics, or digital painting. For line-heavy art, there are better tools like Illustrator. The problem is that GIMP is tasked with replacing both Photoshop and MS Paint on the Linux desktop. The hidden assumption is that since Photoshop is more "powerful", its feature set is adequate for typical MS Paint tasks... which is akin to assuming that Linux doesn't need a word processor because TeX is more powerful.
  - rosss 18y ago
    Photoshop has a line tool, and circles, lines, squares, etc. are very important for many applications of Photoshop.
    - deleted 18y ago
      [deleted]