Complaints and changes

Complaints and changes

Let us face it: our marketshare is not increasing, and desktop linux is probably decreasing below 1% (cannibalized by Mac OS X users and Windows 7 defectors).

Actually your link shows Linux's marketshare at 0.62% six years ago and at 0.82% today. I don't think it's precise enough to do any large conclusions.

For every user that complains there are 9 that leave silently, and for every user that complains bitterly there are probably 99 that have already left.

Perhaps, but what does it change? As alankila said: Linux currently is for the 1%, not the 99% - you can afford to lose some of that 1% if you gain nearly any fraction of the 99%: number of users would increase dramatically.

Usability studies are something that you do when you do not have user feedback; it's not a substitute. Once you have user opinions there is no need to do fancy studies, you just have to listen. Users may not know what they want, but they sure know what they don't want.

Right, but irrelevant. They know what change they will complain about. They don't know what changes they will eventually accept. And this is vital metric. This is why Mozilla plans to track users: they are losing to Chrome (again, according to the link you've shown) - and they don't even know why.

As to Wayland, based on recent LWN.net articles 432 comments are something to take into account, and I wonder why its developers have not put a prominent message on the front page stating: We will strive to make Wayland network transparent as soon as possible.

Perhaps because good people are not supposed to lie?

In short, we need Free software to say out loud: People, we care about you.

s/we care/we DON'T care/

I think the people are doing what they are supposed to do but that they themselves are still in denial as to about why they need to do that.

Situation is very simple:

1. Linux desktop goes nowhere.
2. Small cosmetic changes don't cut it.
3. We need to do something drastic if we want to attract new users.
4. Old users may complain (or complain bitterly).
5. This is irrelevant because if we'll not attract new user soon (as in: the next 3-5 years) then it's the end.

It's as simple as that. Some people may try to sugarcoat the truth, some are still lying even to themselves, but that's the sad truth.

As consumers, however, our most important contribution is to make ourselves heard.

As consumers you (well, we because I'm a Linux user, too) are irrelevant because there are just not enough of us. Yet Bug #1 is as relevant today as it was half-dozen years ago. The fact that someone is finally taking it seriously is encouraging - even if I'm not all that sure they have chosen the right path to fix it.