48 Hours Enduring Ubuntu 5.04

ceswiedler writes "Matthew Thomas lists 69 interface issues he has with the new Ubuntu release "Hoary Hedgehog", ranging from desktop and Nautilius behavior to Firefox and Evolution. They're serious interface issues, he claims, but he also says that Ubuntu 5.04 "is the first Linux-based system I have encountered that is tolerable enough for me to use for everyday work." That's a rather backhanded compliment...the suprising thing is that he's an interface designer working for Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu." As Thomas mentions, "Many of these flaws probably exist in other Gnome-based systems, and some of them also exist in Microsoft Windows and/or Mac OS."

Usernames

[SouperIan]

Apparently, usernames are design flaws: "The login screen uses the term "username"." As is rebooting the computer: "The login screen uses the term "reboot". (My shoes are fine as they are, thanks.)"

Excellent basis for improvements

[thsths]

The guy is a genius. Sometimes I feel like compiling a list like this myself, but I rarely install a system from scratch, so it is difficult to point them back to a single source.

But Linux needs more people like. Interface bugs are bugs, because the confuse the user, and (thus) the software does not work for them. Calling the user "stupid" wont help either, because you are still stuck with the same user :-).

The most obvious UI bug I remember is the GNOME pop up box when you exit a program without saving. They keep changing it, but it still makes me hesitate every time. It is just extremely nonintuitive. (Yes, and MacOS also took many revisions before they got it right. Microsoft this didn't get it...) Openoffice is a lot better, as is KDE.

Now if the developer would take these issues serious and fix them, Desktop Linux would be a lot closer already.

flaming assholes missing the point

[snorklewacker]

Defect reports are by and large nitpicks. Many of these are even bigger than nitpicks. But that's what UI polish is all about. You get your car detailed, you don't expect them to leave a few streaks and smudges here and there, do you?

And he wasn't exactly using multiple exclamation points or making comments on how this rendered the whole thing unusable or shoddy. He simply listed defects and sometimes the reason this constituted a defect.

It's pathetic, the way some people create this personal attachment to software like this. It's not like he whitegloved your damn homes. If the GNOME developers share the reaction of the slashdot crowd, then frankly I too think he should shut up -- because he's otherwise wasting time and effort on a project that doesn't deserve any.

Re:Hmm...

[scotlewis]

Hiding the mouse pointer completely is usually a pretty stupid idea. It's quicker for the user to move the pointer out of the way than it is to find a hidden pointer when they need to use the mouse again...

Reacquiring the pointer after it's been hidden is actually quite easy: either you have some idea of where you left it, or you just move it around quickly to spot it.

Having to move it is is incredibly annoying. Because you leave the mouse, move to the keyboard, begin typing, realize you have to move the pointer, move back to the mouse, move the pointer, then go back to the keyboard and finish typing. Which is very disruptive.

Either way, the user has to do something about the pointer: either reacquire it or move it out of the way. It's better to make the user do this in-between tasks (i.e. between typing and mousing) than to interrupt a task with another one.

Re:Usernames

[eraserewind]

The problem is that they (and many other things) are technical jargon that shouldn't appear in an end user oriented product if at all possible. Now, I agree that for a developer it's hard and annoying to replace everything that is the correct technical name for something with some newbified baby words, but it is apparently necesssary, and that's why companies are supposed to employ usability and localization experts (including localization from Computereze to English).