For the love of Bob, please help Linux and open-source applications get better.
The KDE organization has a usability project you can contribute to. So does the GNOME project.
If you’re interested in making open source software easier to use, start with the two GNU/Linux desktop vendors. Or start here.
If open source software and GNU/Linux are ever going to win hearts and minds, they have to stop focusing on the hobbyists and the already-converted. I doubt that any of our mothers and fathers want to stop/start X servers, or log in at different runlevels.
I really, really want to like Linux. But it’s just not likable. Because it’s just not usable! Case in point: I downloaded and installed the latest version of the Xandros Desktop distribution. I actually got further than I did with the Ubuntu cluster-f of April, in that Xandros recognized my Ethernet card, grabbed a DHCP-assigned NAT address from my router, and got onto the Internet without me having to futz around.
But here’s the thing: anytime I try to do ANYTHING to a Linux installation that requires even a small bit of customization, everything goes down the toilet.
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Way back in 2004 Daring Fireball’s John Gruber posted a long but very interesting rant about why open-source GNU/Linux software is hard to use.
The article itself was a response to a misguided, condescending post from a Linux alpha geek about how he couldn’t figure out printer-sharing on a networked Linux box. The geek’s take was that the software should be made “easy enough for Aunt Tillie,” and implied that UI design in the open-source world was close to achieving this.
Gruber rightly pointed out that the open-source developer ranks were nowhere near to achieving that level of usability in their software, and would never achieve it as long as they treated UI design as an afterthought.
A somewhat long, but worthwhile read.
I just ran across openusability.org, a site devoted to connecting open source software developers and usability practitioners with an interest in contributing to open source projects.
