Date: Sat, 12 Jul 1997 10:42:48 -0500 (EST) From: John Fieber <jfieber@indiana.edu> To: Andrew Perry <andrew@python.shoal.net.au> Cc: jonahkuo@mail.ttn.com.tw, chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: My opinion about freebsd (fwd) Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.96.970712100729.308B-100000@fallout.campusview.indiana.edu> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSI.3.95.970712182115.12340G-100000@python.shoal.net.au>
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On Sat, 12 Jul 1997, Andrew Perry wrote: > > Of course, it is possible that a volunteer project could produce > > quality software with a high high degree usability by > > non-programmers. However, given the incentive system that drives > > these volunteer software projects, I believe such cases will > > always be rare exceptions, not the rule. > > I believe that this is one of those rare cases, and so do you:-) For dimensions of quality that don't involve usability by humans, I would say no because such quality in software developed by volunteers is indeed common. Those dimensions were not what I was thinking about when I wrote that. In terms of usability (as distinct from functionality), I would say no. Sure, there are bits here and there that are pretty good, but a few isolated usability successes cannot change the total usability of a system whose design has neglected consideration of non-programmers for over two decades. A re-engineering of unix to address usability problems, applying all we have learned about human factors in software systems in the last decade would probably yield a system that few old-timers would even recognize as unix. I speculate that such a renovation would not come out of a volunteer software project because the people who would benefit the most probably don't have the programming skill to implement it and those with the skill are basically content with unix as it is now, modulo incremental enhancements and cool new stuff in the kernel. -john
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