Re: The future of gnome-pim - and Balsa, too?

[David Pettersson <dave se linux org>]

On 13 Aug 2001 17:39:41 +0200, Toralf Lund wrote:

> OK. The occasional flaming can be fun, as long as it doesn't
> get out of hand.

:-)

> I can understand this argument to a certain extent. However, I'm not sure
> you would be able to convice your average management that you can switch
> from Outlook to Evolution with no additional training required because it's
> looks exactly the same.

True. However, I know a lot of people that have two machines on their
desktop - one running Windows used only for Outlook and another running
GNU/Linux for development. That is, IMO, something that might not be
necessary once Evolution is launched.

> I don't think Balsa requires so much fiddling about, though. It's really a
> lot simpler to use than Evolution, simply because there's less of it.

Yes - I've used Mutt for quite some time (until I switched to Evolution
to help out with the bug reporting). And I live in terminal-land most of
my time - I only use X for browsing the web, ICQ/Jabber and now
Evolution.

> Actually, I don't think usability has anything to do with it. John Doe uses
> Windows because everyone else does.

That is the main reason yes, and that is why I wrote "with usability in
concern". I should have emphasised it a bit more. Again, average users
don't want it to be difficult to use.

> he'll be just as
> confused as if you put him in front of an old fashioned teletext terminal.
> It may be easier to teach him what to do, though.

That's what I meant. Sort of :-).

> convinced that a graphical interface is "friendlier" or more intuitive by
> nature than a textual one.

True. I spend most of my time in a terminal window. But being able to
relate has a lot to do with it. If there were brand new users out there
that had no idea about what a desktop environment was and had to learn
from scratch - I still think they'd choose Windows.

But if we want to have people migrate from Windows to GNOME, we have to
make sure that they can relate. Unfortunately I might add.

> Well, obviously this is true for some applications, but not for
> others. I'm just asking for a bit more critical thinking when it comes
> to copying MS features, and I wish the GNOME core developers would 
> look a bit more at other environments, too.

I totally agree. There are a lot of nice features from other operating
systems and desktops that I'd like to see in GNOME too. This is
something that we have to work on.

> Quite, but we shouldn't think that people aren't willing to accept
> different approaches from the ones Microsoft use just because they are
> "stupid users" and not "hackers".

Not all of them. But I've heard "But it doesn't work like Windows",
"Windows is better" and so on so many times now that I am getting fed up
with it. I am not saying that we should revert to Windows or mimic it -
but we should learn from competition.

I think that we think very alike, and that we both have the same goals
but somewhat different approaches. Anyway, it's nice to discuss these
things, since it makes us think carefully about it.

Sincerely,
-- 
David Pettersson
dave se linux org