GNOME v. KDE, December 2005 edition [LWN.net]

GNOME v. KDE, December 2005 edition

Posted Dec 13, 2005 20:43 UTC (Tue) by proski (subscriber, #104)
In reply to: GNOME v. KDE, December 2005 edition by jdub
Parent article: GNOME v. KDE, December 2005 edition

Where did you get that 99.999% number? Many people care about computing technology, they just care about different aspects of it. I think that the 99.999% myth is used as an excuse for lazy programming. You may be surprised how much a designer cares about color quality of the monitor or how much a helicopter pilot cares about real time properties of the flight control software.

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GNOME v. KDE, December 2005 edition

Posted Dec 13, 2005 22:28 UTC (Tue) by elanthis (subscriber, #6227) [Link]

Those users don't care about either of those things.

They just care that the computer does what they need. The details of how it does it is irrelevant to them. They especially do not want to have to learn how to edit rc files or memorize patterns of double-click icon -> right-click interface -> select Options -> select Advanced tab -> click Computer button -> check checkbox -> click OK or so on.

The designer wants an efficient application for doing their work, and they want to be able to ensure colors are correct, preferably by using a likewise efficient and simple tool. They do not want to need 12 steps to do it, either.

The pilot likewise couldn't give a crap about how the software works. He just wants to know that it works. Whether it's well-written real-time software or a staving kid in a box with a chalkboard and an abacus is entirely unimportant, so long as the helicopter stays up in the air and goes where the pilot wants it to.