[kde]

[Frank Reifenstahl]

> > > Usability is not only about making things easy to learn. It is also
> > > about making things enjoyable, fun and aesthetically pleasing. The
> > > latest number of the ACM magazine "interactions" (July 2002) publishes
> > > Donald Norman's article "Emotion & Design - Attractive things work
> > > better". Norman writes: "The surprise is that we now have evidence that
> > > pleasing things work better, are easier to learn, and produce a more
> > > harmonious result." He also explains that affect has a major impact on
> > > what products we choose to use.
> >
> > First of all, for me usability implies not only aspects of look'n'feel,
> > but also or above all whether a desktop/GUI is ready to use at that
> > moment I want to use it. So, IMO, stability is a mandatory quality of
> > software which suffices high usability claims.
>
> Sure, but, that's you, and, in this world, fortunately, not everyone is
> the same.  There are a great many people, who would rather have
> something that looks great but is not so reliable (like a Ferrrai ;-)),
> then something that is reliable but doesn't look nice.  The simple truth
> is, there is absolutely no unanimity on what is important or most
> important in life.  KDE handles that by letting you turn all the eye
> candy off if you want.  Heck, you can even switch to console mode to get
> rid of it all ;-).

Whether candy is an optional feature or not, that's not the point I am driving 
at. The KDE project exposed high usability as a top priority target. And in a 
more or less oblique way they want to be the better windows. MS is collecting 
aplenty of cutup for the discrepancy between promises and results, why not 
KDE? Heck, they can do what they like to do, but by talking large one 
generates expectations. Not to perform those expectations, that's mild-spoken 
a cheekiness.

> > I agree with the "pleasing things - easier to learn" connection and the
> > "pleasing things - products we choose" connection. But nowadays mostly
> > there's no "pleasing things - high quality" connection, rather the
> > contrary. I do know a lot of users enjoying those colourful screens,
> > freezing ten times a day or taken in turns by blue screens. Does not
> > work? No matter [pushing reset]...
>
> I fail to see how KDE freezes ten times a day, mine hasn't frozen in
> months (and when my system has frozen in the past, it's usu. been an X
> or Motif bug, and also currently my kernel has APIC problems with my
> dual motherboard APIC chip, but that's another story).

*misunderstanding* The freezing bears on Windows - but stop! A few weeks ago I 
pulled 3.0.2. Since then I got a freeze a day. A long time in my 8 years of 
age relationship with linux watching this. And it's not only the screen, but 
a system freeze!

Kind regards
Frank

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