Welcome!Better Desktop is a project dedicated to sharing usability data with Linux developers. Over the past year, we have conducted many usability tests on different parts of the KDE and GNOME desktops. We created this site to serve as a place where developers can watch videos of these tests. Here you will find over 200 videos of people using Mozilla Firefox, Evolution, Open Office, Banshee, F-Spot and other applications. All of these can be found in the data section of this site.
If there's one complaint that I have had regarding my own experience's with the various flavors of Linux it is this: Until recently (and being quite frank) there was a certain bit of arrogance in the Linux communities as a whole that "Of course we're better! You just have to try harder to overcome the "Windoze" trance Microsoft has put upon you and *THEN* you'll see and understand." to which I would answer:
"Better than what and at what? Oh, and just what is it that I am not understanding that you *OBVIOUSLY* understand better than I do?"
You see, it seems that what the Linux communities we're forgetting to consider (again, until now) was that there were reasons that Windows was designed a certain way, looked the way it did, reacted the way it reacted. This reason, whether they wanted to agree with the results or not, was and is really quite simple:
Millions of hours and Billions of dollars in research, development, and usability testing.
I must admit that as a hacker, and furthermore as someone who spends, on average, 12-14 hours (at least!) every single day in front of a computer, I have a tendency to have very little patience for people that just don't seem to get what to me is "obviously simple common sense." But I have to catch myself before I let things get too far out of hand as this is the exact "bug" that can quickly cause my own work to fall into this same category of "arrogance" that I am complaining about. Its easy to fall into and completely understandable as to why.
But that doesn't change the fact that there is a reason why Windows is the way it is. For hundreds of millions of people in this world Windows simply makes sense. That doesn't mean training isn't required or that everyone who uses Windows uses it "correctly." What it does mean, however, is that for a new feature and/or new idea to make it into the Windows family of operating systems and related software such as Office and Internet Explorer, a series of usability tests had to be performed to determine whether or not users of the software would "get it." Would it make sense? Could the user, within a reasonable amount of time, understand what this new feature was, what function it performed, and all-in-all did this feature have "stickyness" or, in other words, would it become a part of their daily computing "experience" or would it simply be forgotten about just as quickly as it was learned.
There is obviously more to usability testing than this, but I don't want to beat this point to death. What I do want to point out is that with Novell's acquisition of Ximian two things took place:
Lets face it... Novell hasn't had much luck when it has come to making any attempt what-so-ever to take on the Microsoft-owned desktop. In fact, in many ways one could argue that it was because of their original attempt to attack Microsoft's Office dominance with the acquisition of Wordperfect that led to the downfall of its networking dominance, something it once owned in the same way Microsoft now owns the desktop and a considerable share of the server market as well.
Will this time around be any different?
If the acquisition of Ximian and projects such as BetterDesktop are any sort of sign as to whether or not Novell has learned from their past "mistakes" and is well on its way to "getting it" in regards to understanding just what the desktop market is all about then I will most certainly and with a resounding voice suggest that:
Yeah, they get it.
FINALLY! ;) :D