Software Freedom vs. Usability: Must We Lose One To Gain The Other?
,----[ Quote ]
| For years, this type of software freedom was enough to drive a cult-like
| following that has, over time, grown into a virtual army of users. From the
| most hardcore personalities like Richard Stallman, to those who are simply
| more interested in seeing successful adoption of their vision, like Linus
| Torvalds, the history of open source software and free software has been
| turbulent. How do open source and free software differ? Let's start off with
| visionaries from both camps.
`----
http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/entdev/article.php/3711291
Getting to know GNOME
,----[ Quote ]
| If you're part of the 95 percent of the world that uses Windows, you know
| what a GUI is, but because you're running Windows, you're stuck with only one
| — the GUI Microsoft forces you to use.
|
| In the Linux world, you can choose pretty much any GUI for your desktop.
| GNOME is one of the most popular desktops available, although you've probably
| heard of other ones such as KDE or Enlightenment.
`----
http://resources.zdnet.co.uk/articles/tutorials/0,1000002006,39290716,00.htm
One fallacy is that free (and/or open source) software is poor in terms of
usability merely because the code is out there. But it just doesn't make any
sense. It's just a stereotype and has nothing to do with development methods.
GNOME is more intuitive than Windows XP ("Start" to finish a session,
CTRL+ALT+DEL for task management, no Drive B:, etc).
Related:
Linux VS Windows usability.
,----[ Quote ]
| It all boils down to knowing what you are doing. Trying to do anything
| without the required knowledge is hard and the professionals make everything
| look easy. I would say that in terms of usability Linux has the upper hand.
`----
http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/linux/locutus/archives/linux-vs-windows-usability-17472
There Is No Grand Theory of Usability
,----[ Quote ]
| We have touched on this discussion a couple of times before on OSNews,
| most notably when we ran a poll on whether or not GNOME should include a
| patch to enable a global application menubar. The 175 comments to that
| story provided us with some very valuable insights concerning the matter;
| most importantly, it illustrated how hard it actually is to make a case
| for any (G)UI related standpoint, probably because in contrast to many
| other computing related issues, you cannot benchmark usability.
|
| [...]
|
| Now, it was not my intention to 'attack' the Macintosh interface; in
| fact, I prefer it over Windows' and GNOME's, and I make my KDE behave
| exactly like it.
`----
http://www.osnews.com/story.php/18134/There-Is-No-Grand-Theory-of-Usability/
beryl: usability (iv) - the wheel switcher
,----[ Quote ]
| You can activate the wheel switcher using the <super><tab> key
| combo. In terms of keyboard strokes, it works the same as <alt><tab>,
| you press <super><tab> to switch one application in the forward
| direction and <shift><super><tab> to go the other way.
|
| [...]
|
| The advantage that I see for this in terms of usability is that
| you can see all of the applications clearly, as they spin around
| the ring. This gives you plenty of time to focus in on the one you
| want, and watch its progress around the ring, so that you can make
| sure you stop in the right place. In my view, this is a great
| improvement on both beryl's standard switcher and also the
| switchers on non-composited window managers.
`----
http://liquidweather.net/howto/index.php?id=104
beryl: usability (v) - howto manage virtual desktops using the wall plugin
,----[ Quote ]
| On some window managers, moving your mouse to the side of a desktop,
| and you'd flip to the virtual desktop "situated" immediately to the
| left or right of the current desktop. The rotating cube has become
| very popular in terms of giving virtual desktops a physical identity
| on your computer - I have to say, giving virtual desktops more
| physicality has certainly encouraged me to use them more than
| when they were switched by means of key press, but without
| giving each desktop its own physical "space" in the computer.
| The latest versions of beryl have a new plugin called "wall",
| which gives virtual desktops a 2d space.
`----
http://liquidweather.net/howto/index.php?id=105
,----[ Quote ]
| grouper plugin and tabbed windows
|
| The grouper plugin allows you to join various windows into
| groups, and perform actions on all the windows as one. For
| example, if you resize one window in a group, all windows are
| resized. If you move one window in the group, they all move.
|
| [...]
|
| scale plugin and the four desktop corners
|
| Because the four corners of the desktop are the easiest parts to hit
| with your mouse, it makes sense to try and put some form of useful
| action in each of the four corners.
`----
http://www.liquidweather.net/howto/index.php?id=92
howto drag and drop files/text using the beryl scale plugin
,----[ Quote ]
| Under a normal window manager, you can drag and drop files/text
| between applications no problem at all. If the target window is
| hidden behind others, usually you drag the file/text up to the
| taskbar, wait for the relevant window to focus, and drop the
| ile.
|
| [...]
|
| This is a cool little feature that allows you to drag and drop
| files between applications on the same desktop, or different
| desktops.
`----
http://liquidweather.net/howto/index.php?id=107
,----[ Quote ]
| Problem is, I spread my applications across all 4 desktops, so
| that things feel uncluttered when I'm working on an application.
| However, when you want to keep an eye on several applications at
| a time, it's impossible - except, if you have beryl. What I do
| is set one of the corners of my desktop to activate the scale
| plugin to show all windows from all desktops (see here for a
| more detailed explanation). I also make sure that it shows
| minimised windows.
`----
http://www.liquidweather.net/howto/index.php?id=101
Gimp 2.3 (preview of 2.4)
,----[ Quote ]
| The major change for this release seems to be a big usability
| overhaul. New defaults are now in place that make the Gimp look
| a little bit like Photoshop, but still has many features that
| make it unique.
`----
http://fosswire.com/2007/06/08/gimp-23-preview-of-24/
Poor Design by Microsoft - "Save As" Button in 2007 Excel has been located!
,----[ Quote ]
| In an experiment 4 out of 5 users took longer than 2 minutes to find
| the SAVE AS button. And 3 of those users needed to use the PAPER CLIP
| (CLIPPY). This is clearly poor design upon Microsoft. They never think
| about the end user. The menu structure is horrific and it has been
| proven inefficient!
`----
http://www.fumbled.org/2007/04/20/poor-design-by-microsoft-save-as-button-in-2007-excel-has-been-located/
The Vista taskbar: it's worse than XP's
,----[ Quote ]
| Rather than cutting the functionality altogether, Microsoft could
| have simply made undocking a toolbar a more deliberate action (e.g.
| via a context menu) rather than a drag-and-drop thing, so that Flora
| Average didn't do it accidentally with her less-than-stellar
| hand-mouse coordination while trying to open Microsoft Word.
`----
http://apcmag.com/3106/the_vista_taskbar_its_worse_than_xps
Vista's "Open With" Dialog a MAJOR step back!
,----[ Quote ]
| The only program to choose from is the officially associated program.
| I went on to click ?Browse?, and I was greeted with the following
| window, where I had to manually search for Wordpad to open the
| configuration file! Leading to wastage of seconds from my life,
| just because Microsoft changed something that didn?t need any
| change at all.
`----
http://irfanhabib.wordpress.com/2007/03/03/vistas-open-with-dialog-a-major-step-back/
Why power users will hate Vista
,----[ Quote ]
| I've been testing Vista in the last few days and I've been trying to
| wrap my head around it. I'm trying to figure an objective approach to
| it, but it's really hard, because I simply don't like most of the
| things I see. One of the reasons for this is the fact that Windows
| Vista doesn't offer anything new for Windows power users - actually,
| it's only taking away from them.
`----
http://franticindustries.com/blog/2007/01/24/why-power-users-will-hate-vista/
Why Has Microsoft Abandoned the Power User?
,----[ Quote ]
| I don't know about you, but I'm feeling abandoned these
| days, as Windows Vista and Internet Explorer are
| increasingly closed off.
|
| How about you -- do you see any evidence of this
| disturbing trend?
`----
http://www.oreillynet.com/windows/blog/2006/10/why_has_microsoft_abandoned_th.html
Microsoft Power Users, Part II
,----[ Quote ]
| There's no Microsoft Power User "WinHEC" out there. Microsoft
| is all about the developer, and seldom seems to cater to the
| true enthusiasts. There's a loosely-constructed MVP program
| (of which I am a member, with the Windows Digital Media
| distinction), but no real company mission to listen to what's
| going on in the world outside the Microsoft (to use their word)e
| cosystem. And because of that, we end up with sloppy,
| "just good enough" experiences. My earlier post on the
| pre-beta of Longhorn illustrates my point ENTIRELY.
|
| [...]
|
`----
http://chris.pirillo.com/2005/04/27/microsoft-power-users-part-i/
Robert McLaws: Windows Vista Edition
,----[ Quote ]
| Windows Defragmentation in Vista is the worst offender of all. It really has
| come full circle from the Windows 95 days.
`----
http://www.windows-now.com/blogs/robert/archive/2006/07/13/Windows-Vista-Disk-Defragmenter.aspx
Analyst slams Vista's 'backward' UI
,----[ Quote ]
| Windows Vista is a step back in usability, researcher claims
`----
http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?RSS&newsID=17334
Vista Irritations
,----[ Quote ]
| According to this Slashdot article, copying, moving and deleting
| files is slower under Vista. At least now I know why extracting a
| compressed file under Vista is like watching paint dry/grass grow
| (I've only tried using Winzip 11).
|
| [...]
|
| Now we name our directory and it?s done right? Not quite, because
| after typing your directory name and pressing enter, it's time
| for yet more prompts...
`----
http://harrisben.wordpress.com/2007/03/29/vista-irritations/
Vista: Slow and Dangerous
,----[ Quote ]
| Most of the time I spent testing Vista was with sluggish pre-release
| versions. I expected things to improve when I ran the finished software
| on PCs configured for the new Windows version. I now realize that
| Vista really is slow unless you throw a lot of hardware at it.
| Microsoft claims it will run with 512 megabytes of memory. I had
| recommended a minimum of a gigabyte, but 2 GB is more like it if
| you want snappy performance.
|
| [...]
|
| The most exasperating thing about Vista, though, is the security
| feature called User Account Control. UAC, satirized in an Apple
| ad as a security guy who constantly interrupts a conversation,
| appears as a pop-up asking permission before Windows...
`----
http://www.keepmedia.com/pubs/BusinessWeek/2007/03/26/3124001
|
|
