Are Linux developers wasting time?
The blog entry on Red Devil’s blog is interesting. It asks:
Where is the sense in striving for a unique look for your distribution if, within a few hours of installing it, the user has completely changed its appearance?
Seems a waste of time, doesn’t it? I know it would break my heart, if I’d spent hours working on a theme for my new distribution.
You might argue that some time needs to be spent on appearance to at least make a distribution stand out from the rest.
It certainly helps if, when you first log in to your new desktop, everything looks polished and professional.
But really, what’s the point of spending hours trying to decide which icon set to use, or even creating a new one, if some awkward Joe like me is immediately going to change it for one that better suits his current mood?
I almost haven’t changed anything about my Ubuntu install’s look and feel when I switched to Hardy Heron. No theme change, no icon changes. I just moved the panel on the left side instead of the top of the screen so that I could make Emacs fit the screen.
But I really like the default desktop of 8.04 because it looks clean. Plus the desktop background was awesome too! And because Compiz works fine now I didn’t disable it on my laptop. I used to find it difficult to use Compiz because it would often crash. I really think that they made the desktop like that.
So are developers who spend time on improving users’ desktop experience wasting their time? No, not really. Even for those with small teams who’d like to improve their desktop would benefit from such a thing IF they would like NEW Linux users to be at ease. But if they’re creating a Linux distro that’s mainly for old users, I think that they could keep the window manager and icon defaults.
What do you think?
Tags: linux, newbiesRelated Stories
POSTED IN: General
1 opinion for Are Linux developers wasting time?
Ben
Jun 29, 2008 at 1:52 pm
I think the standard theme is probably the most important aspect of enticing new users. People who are new to linux will be used to Windows/Mac preferences, in which it is difficult, if not impossible without using windowblinds, etc., to change the theme. If it doesn’t look good, it’s going to be less appealing to a new user, who may not realize he or she can change the theme. It is also important to recognize that the ability to customize the theme is another point on which linux wins.
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