Re: F-Spot mission statement

["Ben Monnahan" <monnahan gmail com>]

2006/8/28, Marcus Hast <marcushast gmail com>:

I think the crucial part is just how much editing is supposed to be
included in the package. Are we shooting for what other similar tools
(Picasa, Aperture, iPhoto, Lighttable) do or more or less?

Also I think it's a bit misdirected to aim for the "simple" or
"casual" user. To be blunt, a "simple" user isn't going to be running
a Linux desktop and isn't going to be running F-Spot. (I'm sure there
are a few, but they will be vastly outnumbered by more experienced
users.)

While this may have been true 1-2 years ago, now I'm not so sure.  My wife uses my laptop and hasn't booted into Windows ever.  My mom has been using Ubuntu for over a year now and likes it more than Windows.  Ask RH/Novell/Ubuntu about all their deployments.  Here in Spain, regional governments and schools have huge Linux deployments.  Lots of non-technical users are finding themselves using Linux, and the more accessible we can make it to them the better IMHO.  (Please understand I'm not asking for a completely dumbed down F-Spot either, non-technical people are intelligent, but we can't overload them.  Its all about making it intuitive)

As I said in my other email, I don't think we need to limit ourselves to only serving the "casual" users.  But I'd like to see us commit to usability for these users first, and then add in other features for expert users where possible.  Plugins can hopefully big a help here, not just for maintainability of the code, but allowing users to pick and choose what they need.  Your expert features I'm sure aren't the same as mine.

Just my opinion,
Ben