unity-design team mailing list archive

[Scott Kitterman <ubuntu@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Monday, March 28, 2011 09:18:35 am zekopeko wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 28, 2011 at 1:25 PM, David Stevenson <david@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
wrote:
> > On 28/03/11 11:44, Vishnoo wrote:
> >> We really need to collect mass user data as to how people are using
> >> their application windows, at what sizes they use the app and how often
> >> they are resizing.
> > 
> > While I absolutely agree on collecting user data, I am concerned with
> > the idea that we then try to find a highest common multiple and force
> > everyone to use it.
> > 
> > FOSS is about choice, not conforming to predefined norms.
> > 
> > David
> 
> This is incorrect and I wish if that particular meme died. FOSS isn't
> about choice. It is about providing source code and a set of
> accompanying  freedoms to all users in the case of Free Software. The
> choice one has is simply a byproduct of the availability of the source
> code. It does not give the user any legal, moral or ethical right to
> force the developer to provide options for some user's UI perceived
> problem. In fact I believe that the whole "FOSS is about choice" meme
> is damaging to providing high quality user interfaces on Linux, simply
> because FOSS developers have historically been coders with little
> (in)formal education in the problem of user interface design and it
> was easier for them to simply add an option in the GUI every time a
> design choice confronted them.

Personally I wish the alternate meme, that it's possible to create one 
magically wonderful design that will work for everyone so we don't need 
options would die.

The truth is somewhere in between and different projects have been too far to 
one or the other extreme and we need to find balance.  Balance is particularly 
difficult to achieve through low bandwidth communication mediums we normally 
use in distributed development.

Scott K