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A comment on Why Have a Start Button to Shutdown Windows?.

Re:Why Have a Start Button to Shutdown Windows? by gaius on Monday August 18, 2008 @02:55AM (#279030)
This is just more illustration of the cultural difference between the two camps of developers:

Microsoft: Yes this seems strange, but this is actually what the users want - and we have tests to prove it - so we'll do it

Linux: RTFM n00bz! Ubuntu! Ubuntu!

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Re:Why Have a Start Button to Shutdown Windows? by d0mine on Monday August 18, 2008 @04:04AM (#279063)
As a Windows and Ubuntu user I would find it offensive in a face to face talk.

Your statement is an overgeneralization to say the least.

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Re:Why Have a Start Button to Shutdown Windows? by gaius on Monday August 18, 2008 @05:20AM (#279104)
Well here's a question for you:

1) Does Canonical operate a usability lab?

2) Would Ubuntu developers pay any attention if it did?

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Re:Why Have a Start Button to Shutdown Windows? by captain-m on Monday August 18, 2008 @06:58AM (#279156)
Canonical doesn't, gnome does. http://usability.gnome.org/
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Re:Why Have a Start Button to Shutdown Windows? by jauco on Monday August 18, 2008 @06:52AM (#279154)
(1) Novell (the guys with more money) do.

(1a) I care about usability a _lot_ and I don't have a lab. A simple pc in a room is quite adequate for most studies. (For some of them you don't even need a pc)

(2) https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-discuss/2007-...

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Re:Why Have a Start Button to Shutdown Windows? by orib on Monday August 18, 2008 @02:12PM (#279499)
Sorry, but all the larger Linux vendors -- Gnome Foundation, Novell, KDE Foundation, Canonical, Redhat, Mandriva, and more -- have spent time and money on usability studies.

The biggest usability issue Linux has these days is a holdover reputation from the '90s.

The second biggest usability issue is that it's not a Windows clone, so muscle-memory no longer applies.

That's not to say that Linux usability is perfect, but I find that for the most part it's miles ahead of Windows, it's easier to debug when things do go wrong, and Just Works out of the box to a greater degree (downloading drivers is so 1990s) if your hardware is supported.

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Re:Why Have a Start Button to Shutdown Windows? by gaius on Wednesday August 20, 2008 @07:38AM (#281381)
If you are even thinking about debugging your OS then you are not a typical end user. In fact you could probably figure out and use almost any interface. So for the purpose of usability studies, you're not representative.
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