From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,3cd3b8571c28b75f X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-08-26 05:51:44 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!newshub.sdsu.edu!elnk-nf2-pas!newsfeed.earthlink.net!stamper.news.pas.earthlink.net!stamper.news.atl.earthlink.net!newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net.POSTED!not-for-mail Message-ID: <3F4B57D7.8070702@noplace.com> From: Marin David Condic User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.0.1) Gecko/20020823 Netscape/7.0 (OEM-HPQ-PRS1C03) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: A Customer's Request For Open Source Software References: <3F44BC65.4020203@noplace.com> <3F460D73.7090801@noplace.com> <20030822153839.5ec5c918.david@realityrift.com> <20030822184004.7e8c53bf.david@realityrift.com> <3F4769A7.6020503@noplace.com> <4Jy2b.939$zL2.310@nwrdny01.gnilink.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2003 12:51:44 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 209.165.4.188 X-Complaints-To: abuse@earthlink.net X-Trace: newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net 1061902304 209.165.4.188 (Tue, 26 Aug 2003 05:51:44 PDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2003 05:51:44 PDT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:41862 Date: 2003-08-26T12:51:44+00:00 List-Id: Yes, user interface is important. But also a lot of other usability factors. Many "Open Source" things out there might have some marvelous functionality but you have to download them, then all the pieces they rely on and maybe you have to compile them. Perhaps you then discover there are subtle differences in your system versus the author's system and you're trying to figure out what switch settings or environment variables you have to tweak, etc. Whereas with a typical application bought from a commercial company, one expects to insert the disk, click on "Install", answer "Yes" to everything and see the app come up and work. It had better have either really easy to understand features on its face or it had better have really good documentation - or both. If it doesn't look good in these and other respects, the company will be out of business soon. Whereas your typical freebie download "Open Source" project can easily afford to say "If you don't like it, go pile sand! I'm a *volunteer* and you're getting it *free*." That's basically what I meant about an "Open Source" project needing to meet up with certain quality expectations people will have in the business world. Not all Open Source projects are going to be a pile of defication and not all commercial products are going to be amazing wonders. But if one wants to make an Open Source product that is going to draw users away from shrink-wrapped packages from commercial vendors, one had better look at the market's expectations and what the competition is doing *right* in meeting with them. Commercial software users are not "geeks". They don't find great pleasure in tinkering with an app or marveling at how wonderfully it was constructed internally. They want to take it out of the box and use it to get a job done. That's what "Open Source" has to deal with if it wants to overcome Microsoft's market dominance. MDC Stephane Richard wrote: > > And to that, I have to agree. A good user interface (in today's business > world) is just as important than good functionality. Let's face it, > business users today just dont want to have to do Shift-Ctrl-Alt-F4 to get > something to print. they wanna click the file menu, then print. Or they > want to push that little button with the Printer drawn on it. It's been my > professional experiences. Some hard core users like to have that complicate > key combo. -- ====================================================================== Marin David Condic I work for: http://www.belcan.com/ My project is: http://www.jast.mil/ Send Replies To: m c o n d i c @ a c m . o r g "In general the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to the other." -- Voltaire ======================================================================