Category: OPEN SOURCE WORLD.

Linux makers should have Windows users in mind

When creating Linux software and when combining together Linux distributions, keep in mind the Windows user. Many if not all Linux fans would be happy to see their operating system adopted by all computer users in the world. But many tend to forget the very human nature and with this, the nature of a long-time Windows user when creating applications for Linux.

The reason why many new software implementations in a company (for example a new intranet infrastructure) fail is the human nature which tends to avoid in the daily life procedures that are different than what we are used with from the past. The effort for learning a new way of doing simple things has the cost of slowing down work and reducing concentration on the work itself. And I, as a worker, want to get things done easier and therefore I’ll preffer older procedures rather than learning new ones.

Of course, in a company it’s easier to start learning something if the alternative is firing and loosing the job. You’ll have to do it. But a resistance to change still exists.

In the daily home computing life things are different.
Nobody forces you to learn anything new if you don’t want to. And this is the place where Linux makers still fail with costs also in their large scale corporate implementations, because if a user hasn’t tasted something from home first, will try and resist to changes at work too.

Here is where Windows still wins: Many Linux users and contributors struggle to make Linux different than the ‘old way of doing things in Windows’. The fight for offering something different goes too far in many cases with the cost of loosing prospective new users for this great operating system. Until Linux reaches 50% + 1 desktop market share, Windows users must be taken into account.

Different programs.
I am not going in deep examples, I’ll point out some which I commonly met:

Take for example the music player Winamp. It is used by all my coleagues, friends and my relatives on Windows. I am not a reference and perhaps milions of other Windows users use something else for playing music. This is where the trends must be carefully watched when making decisions in softare bundling.

BUT: One powerfull point in migrating my friends (read ‘home computer users’) to Linux was the good old XMMS player which resembles Winamp looks and functions and which I saw removed from many Linux distros. It made it easier for them to accept the challenge of trying to get used with the many other smaller or bigger differences between Linux and Windows.

Small but annoying differences in simple procedures:
I’ve heared Linux arguments that Microsoft had not researched the most ergonomic way of placing the buttons in a dialog box. OK. I agree. But when I want to convince one of the bilions Windows users to try for one day to use Linux, I always get the same upset response: “I had to concentrate where to click in simple things like saving something and lost a lot of concentration from my work“. Some of my former employees in a small company I worked with simply paniked and refused to work anymore because of these small but annoying things.

Some examples here:
- you will find the Cancel button in a dialog box named in different ways: Cancel, Discard, etc and you have to actually read it. When you don’t and press from a reflex move, you get a non-desired result for sure.
- dialog boxes text: Some ask you if you want to leave without saving the work and others ask you if you want to save. YES has different meanings from one program to another at the same dialog box.
- Mozilla Firefox changed the “close Tab” button position recently from the end of the tabs row to putting as many buttons as one on each tab. I don’t follow the discussions on the Mozilla lists to know the reasons, but this generated the need to do extra efforts to spot the right button to close the current tab, especially because these buttons change positions by each tab you close.

Solutions ?
1. Assemble Linux desktop distributions with options to have familiar programs installed right from the start. I don’t own a company living from maintaining Linux distributions, but if I did, I would try and have a separate installation kit bundled with the programs that most resemble the ones Windows users are used with. I have not tested Ubuntu yet, I am writing from my experience with other Linux distros, so please correct me with a comment if I am wrong.

2. Double the efforts towards standardization. There are still too many different Linux programs in which the same simple procedure (for instance the “Exit program with or without saving a document” have different names, differen texts on the buttons or different button positions). These are small but very annoying things which contradict the human nature of a computer worker who tends to do small things automatically by already knowing where to click.

Linux distributions maintainers: try and agree on a standard inside your distributions if doing it globally in all Linux distributions is not possible at this stage. Have at least the same buttons positions and agree on the button texts. Make it so that writing a manual for operating a desktop Linux works the same in all programs. This is somehow the message I got in my numerous attempts on migrating people to Linux.

Being different: if you are different, keep the same difference in all places. A human is able to learn, but a teacher has to give simple and clear indications that can be followed throughout the entire object of learning. Decide and stick with it.

Have fun, and as always, you are welcome to drop a line in a comment. I am for sure wrong in many places accross the article. Let’s talk.