Spray-On Usability, Reloaded
by Volker Weber
John Gruber is trying to get his traffic through the roof with some serious flame-bait:
The key is that there’s never going to be a good desktop user interface for Linux that pleases the Linux nerds who don’t care about usability. If the reason you use Linux is that you value tweakability over usability, or if you get off on the fact that a normal person couldn’t sit down in front of your computer and figure out how to use it, you’re probably not going to like a system that doesn’t even have a replaceable “window manager”. Trying to create a cohesive GUI system that appeals to these guys is like trying to write music that appeals to the tone deaf. The worst part is that if anyone succeeds at putting together a usable desktop for Linux, these anti-usability Linux advocates will piss all over it. It’s not worth listening to the opinions of assholes; and but once you shut them off, they just get angrier.
Comments
Knowing Gruber, that isn't really flame-bait. That's just him on a regular basis (whatever he turns his mind to gets ranted on). There are some nuggets there, though, like dsandler and Tao point out.
Paulo Fortes, 2004-04-07
