What Open Source Can Learn From Apple 309
Linux and open source have long struggled to gain acceptance from the wider (read: non-technical) audience. This has improved in recent years, but still has a long way to go. Columnist Matt Asay suggests that perhaps open source projects should attempt to emulate Apple's design philosophy, with whoever succeeds becoming the "winner" of the hearts and minds of the vast majority of users. "Some projects already accomplish this to some extent. The strength of Mozilla, for example, is that it has figured out how to enable 40 percent of its development to be done by outside contributors, as BusinessWeek recently wrote. The downside is that these contributors are techies, but the upside is that they're techies who add language packs, accessibility features, and other "niche" areas that Mozilla might otherwise struggle to deliver. This suggests a start: enable your open-source project to accept meaningful outside contributions that make the project reflective of a wider development community. But the real goldmine is broadening the definition of "developer" to include lay users of your software. The day that I, as a nontechnical software user, can meaningfully participate in an open-source project is the day that open source will truly have won."
Re:user analytics (Score:4, Interesting)
Umm (Score:3, Interesting)
This suggests a start: enable your open-source project to accept meaningful outside contributions that make the project reflective of a wider development community.
Isn't that already the case with most of the free software anyway? I mean not many people might be contributing to every project, but I don't think that is because the core team wouldn't accept outside contributions. In fact, what the hell does "outsider" mean in this context? I suppose anyone is usually free to start contributing to any project they like; usually it is hard to get accepted as part of the team but that is mostly because you can't expect to just get up one morning and figure out everything about an already existing project or convince everyone that what you want to add is in fact a desirable feature.
Seriously, with every Jack writing a piece of "analysis" these days, I am reminded of the saying: "Opinions are like assholes, everybody's got one".
Easier said than done (Score:5, Interesting)
Apple spends a lot of money implementing their design philosophies. Lets face it. It's not cheap to design user friendly high quality UI. Most companies that build open source products aren't serving the Desktop; they're serving the server market. The few that actually are (Ubuntu) are taking Linux and the open source desktop to a higher level.
I am very thankful for Mark Shuttleworth and what he is doing for the Linux Desktop. Everyone knows Redhat flip-flops on the Desktop subject all the time and never actually get much done for it.
Really? (Score:3, Interesting)
Do they really? Consensus on Slashdot seems to be "If they can't figure it out, screw 'em".
Re:user analytics (Score:2, Interesting)
But would user analysts spend their spare time analysing users like hackers spend their spare time hacking?
I Can Tell You This About Users (Score:5, Interesting)
They're not impressed nor amused by app names like gtkWTF, IAMRECURSIVERECURSIVEIAM, and, especially, The GIMP. Also, stop talking about programs being "stable." Isotopes are "stable." Programs either run well, or are buggy.
People mock Microsoft, but I tell ya... I've worked with people who have no idea what Silverlight is or does, but they want it cuz it sounds cool and has something to do with the Web. It's almost as if Linux developers go out of their way to be non-MS in everything -- including creating marketable names for their wares.
The problem, of course, is that the same guys doing the codewriting are the same guys doing the naming and marketing ("...because, after all, I've written the code, and that's the tough part that really matters, right? And if people don't get the Linus/Stallman/Montypython joke upon which I've based the app's name, then fuck 'em, who needs 'em, I'm only doing it for love anyway...").
Why isn't there any open-source marketing? Maybe some of the bigger projects could reach out to some university business and marketing students who could take on the work in much the same way they attract coders?
Apple is the bipolar opposite of open source (Score:3, Interesting)
Apple is one man's dream, and it will die with that man.
Open Source will outlive any particular person.
Re:It's not about contributers (Score:4, Interesting)
I don't even think Apple's success is about UI guidelines. I mean, sure, they help, but Apple seems to have a... I don't know... what's the opposite of "tin ear"? Anyway, they just have a very good sense of design. Not just UI design like "graphic design", but engineering a product, like figuring out which features to include and how those features should work.
I've always thought that one of the interesting differences in design approach that Apple uses is that they don't throw in the kitchen sink right away. Some people hate them for it and feel like their products aren't feature-rich enough, but it really seems to work. They just start with a basic product that basically does one thing simply and well, but might not yet have all the features you want. Then their next release of that product adds a few features, but very carefully integrated in to the existing feature set. The next version adds some more in the same way. What you very rarely hear as a criticism about Apple's products is, "this feature feels tacked-on". You might hear, "It doesn't hear every feature you might want," but it's usually followed by, "but if you only want the features it has, it will do those things well."
Microsoft, for example, has in the past had the exact opposite design philosophy. It used to be that version 1 or 2 of their products had pretty much every major feature they're ever going to have, but none of it was actually usable until version 3. It's only then that Microsoft seems to focus on making those features work well together.
Re:user analytics (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm a scientist who writes C code on a weekly or semi-weekly basis on average and have written a theme for e17 as well as done some writing some small "in house" type guis used for interface with instruments. My bug reports to open source projects are largely ignored as well (to the point that I rarely issue one now). But then again, Apple devs ignored all my complaints about the Finder when they removed the horizontal scroll bar from the Finder when you clicked on a special location awhile back too. They had a vision of what they wanted to do and they did that and didn't care what I thought. It's nothing to do with you, it's that open source developers are doing this usually for some small salary or part time and what they get paid to do is sometimes not what what you want them to do and there's only so many hours in a day.
Re:More whining from fashion designers (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:What users want, not what they say they want (Score:5, Interesting)
Hmmm...as a recent convert from Linux to OS X, I have to comment here.
I like iPhoto. I like the app-centric database. I like the simplicity of time machine. I never noticed anything wrong with the red-eye tool. It is more than good enough for the casual photographer.
I never told anyone that I wanted this. I didn't even know I wanted it until I tried it.
As far as I am concerned, when I started needing to get stuff done, instead of 'messing around on the computer' is when the shift from Linux to OS X happened for my home computer use. At work I am still forced into using windows and still use Linux for the server functions.
Re:What users want, not what they say they want (Score:4, Interesting)
As far as I am concerned, when I started needing to get stuff done, instead of 'messing around on the computer' is when the shift from Linux to OS X happened for my home computer use.
Really? I find Linux (or at least Ubuntu) is the opposite way. Set it up for a half an hour, and then everything works behind the scenes. Updates OS-wide, various configurations and whatnot, new programs, etc. It seems so hands-off to me. Maybe I'm just a weird Linux user.
Enlightenment .17 (Score:3, Interesting)
e17.
If there was ever an example of a "closed" open source project...
e16 was damn cool window manager. And then e17 happened.
Re:It's not about contributers (Score:3, Interesting)
It's a GUI. Evolutions happen in spurts. There was (in Microsoft land) the Start button/taskbar in Win 95, and the widget panel in Vista. Oh, and an add on that shows all the open windows when you alt-tab. Whole lotta evolution. Apple has had three evolutions, their taskbar variant (the dock?), their widget panel, and their program switching, show all the apps screen.
I suppose, in fairness, Vista and some release of OS X also added screenshots when you roll over the icons on the taskbar/dock.
But interfaces have had for evolutionary steps in 14 years. And all at the OS level. I think that's fine, don't you?
Open source doesn't need any lessons (Score:4, Interesting)
Apple is an open source success story. OS X and WebKit are massive open source successes. The iPod is as good an Internet citizen as BSD Unix. The Mac is the easiest to use computer yet gets no viruses. The Web was created on an early OS X and ported easily to open source Unix as a result.
The people who should be learning from Apple are not open source coders who work on the many successful projects. Open source is at least 1 step further into behind-the-scenes than the consumer. It's HP, Dell, Sony, possibly Google and Microsoft, and maybe other manufacturers of consumer technology like car makers who should be studying Apple very closely. Not only to notice Apple's design chops, but also to notice their very successful engineering, including open source efforts.
You only have to say "What Microsoft can Learn from Apple" and contemplate how much better Windows XP would have been if the core OS was BSD-compatible. No viruses. No botnets. All of the engineering efforts that went into the failed Windows 2004 could have been used more productively in the user-facing features. All of the engineering efforts to redo that for Vista could have been used more productively. The typical Windows user installs more patches than apps, and the patches are for stuff they never see or use. Microsoft could be platform-independent through open source, so they could choose to run Windows on ARM right now, which they are not at all prepared for. If they had done their browser engine a la Gecko and WebKit, then they wouldn't have 4 wholly incompatible engines running in great numbers on the Web right now, which they analogized to puke in a recent ad and they were the last ones to admit it. Apple has none of these problems. Apple runs the same kernel on iPod, iPhone, Mac, and XServe and no crashes or viruses anywhere.
On the other hand, with Palm, in the Pre you have a Linux kernel and WebKit browser engine replacing Windows Mobile and IE Mobile from the Treo. Because of Apple. That is Palm learning from Apple about open source.
So it's Apple's competition that needs to learn both from Apple and from open source. Apple and open source are both very successful.