HTML by default in KMail

[Mackenzie Morgan]

On Monday, August 09, 2010 11:09:03 pm Yuval Levy wrote:
> On August 9, 2010 04:28:20 am Aurélien Gâteau wrote:
> > Turning HTML on for *displaying* email is something I have done every
> > time I introduced someone to KMail.
> 
> You did one step in the process that Kubuntu/Kmail can't do (yet): you
> analyzed "someone" and their situation.  You came to the conclusion that
> HTML fits their needs best.  This conclusion can't be generalized.

Maybe not to 100% of people, but then nothing can be.  To >90% though?  Very 
likely.  Things should Just Work.  "I'm going to not display the pretty 
colours just because a bunch of geeks don't want to admit the year 1992 is 
over even though I am fully capable of providing a better user experience by 
doing so"  != Just Work.

The "user education" megapixels rant:
If you've got a souped up engine on your car, but it looks like the wheels 
will fall off as soon as I poke it, and the paint is peeling, anyone looking at 
it is still going to think it's a piece of junk.

> > What does showing email in plain text protects you from?
> 
> Not much, you are right.  Security is not the issue.  Leaving users behind
> is.

If you're suggesting "make users learn things they don't care about"...it just 
doesn't strike me as a good idea.  Users don't want to think.  They don't want 
to learn.  They just want it to go.  

If an annoying window popped up listing tips such as you had below on each 
load, here's what one of my family members would do:
1.  Not read far enough through it to find out there's a checkbox to disable 
the annoying popup window
2. Click the X on the annoying popup window
3. Repeat every time they open the program

Though my family are a bit moot in this case, since I certainly wasn't going 
to give them KDE3 when I switched them to Ubuntu 4 years ago (I wouldn't even 
give me KDE3).  Still, that's what I've seen them do in the case of "tip of 
the day" boxes on applications for the last 15 years.  Users don't read.

-- 
Mackenzie Morgan
http://ubuntulinuxtipstricks.blogspot.com
apt-get moo