KDE Programs Naming Convention

[Dotan Cohen]

On 09/01/2008, Stew Schneider <stew.schneider at gmail.com> wrote:
> WANSTALL Malcolm wrote:
> > Simply put, a _potential_ user saw an incredibly minor aesthetic issue
> > and it turned her off using the entire system (what a shame).
>
> We are clear, aren't we, that the naming convention, in all likelihood,
> *wasn't* the problem? I don't disagree that the K naming convention is
> cute to the point of pointlessness, but that's hardly the problem. The
> problem is that KDE is different.
>
> Sit down at anybody else's computer. Try to do anything. Does not, "this
> is *wrong*", scream at you, even if the computer is well maintained and
> functioning? It's just human inertia. We don't like to change things
> after we've become used to something else.
>
> For most folks "the computer" is synonymous with MS Windows. Ask most
> folks where the computer is and they'll point to the screen. The box is
> just there to hold the carpet down. The Start button is at the lower
> left, because that is where it was prophesied to be by the prophet
> Jeremiah and it darn well better have that Windows thing on it. Most
> folks have no idea what an operating system is, and don't care to. What
> they want to do is type a letter or browse the web and anything that
> gets in the way of their doing that by being different or looking
> different screams "this is wrong". This is part of the reason why VISTA
> uptake is so slow. It's different. Of course, the rest of the reason is
> that it's trash, but I digress....
>
> Linux users tend to be those too cussed to deal with Microsoft's
> nuttiness, or interested enough to know why "the computer" has to have
> that box hooked onto it, or people who actually know and care what goes
> on inside the box. We're a distinct subset of the typical computer user.
>
> It's like the Jimmy Dean sausage commercial. Sun is cooking up a Jimmy
> Dean breakfast and offering it to Cloud. Cloud says he only eats cold
> cereal.
>
> Sun asks "Come on! Why wouldn't you try something different?"
> Cloud responds, "Cereal is cold and wet. It's a cloud thing. You
> wouldn't understand."
>
> Windows is cold and wet. It's an ordinary user thing...
>
>  Just my 2 cents worth.
>
> stew

Very well written, and the point about the computer being the screen
is well taken. Despite your many valid points, my mother in law has no
problem navigating and clicking around her new Kubuntu installation.
She never configures anything, so as long as there are icons on her
desktop for Firefox, OOo, Skype, and all her files (yes, all saved to
the desktop), she is fine. She had no problem that the blue I is now
an orange fox, and that the big W is now a dove.

Dotan Cohen

http://what-is-what.com
http://gibberish.co.il
א-ב-ג-ד-ה-ו-ז-ח-ט-י-ך-כ-ל-ם-מ-ן-נ-ס-ע-ף-פ-ץ-צ-ק-ר-ש-ת

A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?