Re: [Usability] Re: The importance of good mouse acceleration

["Jonathan Vaughan" <vaughan xandmail com>]

> Please oh please, why is a Windows/Mac user supposed to be the ideal
> tester for anything? I don't know about Mac users (macs are not at all
> big around here) but Windows users are hardly to be expected to be
> greatly accustomed to good UIs, let alone to judge them-they'd be
> formatting their hds en masse otherwise.

I understand why you feel this way, but I really don't think this kind of
mindset is going to get us very far, if our aim is to provide "an intuitive
and attractive desktop for end-users", which apparently is what GNOME is all
about.

What I am saying is this: If GNOME can't be set up so that the mouse
acceleration feels 'nice' to Windows and Mac users, then it has failed to
achieve its aim, since for those users it is not "an intuitive and attractive
desktop". And I see no reason why this should be the case, given that we have
the possibility to improve it.

To test this one specific aspect of GNOME, who is better suited: a long-term
Linux user who has grown accustomed to X's mouse acceleration and no longer
feels it is a problem, or a long-term Windows/Mac user? We need both to test
properly, but we have to remember that the former is already being catered for
 by GNOME, whereas the latter is not.

More generally, I think it would be great if we could get away from the idea
that "Everything about the Windows UI is bad" and "Windows users wouldn't know
good UI if it jumped up and slapped them in the face". This is hugely
condescending and does little to advance our cause. Windows has its good and
bad points, just like everything else, and should be judged objectively on its
merits. In many areas it is clear that we can do things better; when it comes
to mouse acceleration, we should have the good grace to accept that their
scheme works well, and learn from it.


Many thanks,

Jonathan