Re: Are we losing users to Gentoo?

[Philip Brown <phil@bolthole.com>]

On Wed, Nov 20, 2002 at 02:09:17PM -0500, Matt Zimmerman wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 20, 2002 at 11:10:40PM +1100, Glenn McGrath wrote:
> 
> > Gentoo's growth is a sign that they are doing something right, if we cant
> > even recognise that fact then its pointless continuing this conversation.
> 
> Microsoft's growth is a sign that they are doing something right, if we cant
> even recognise that fact then its pointless continuing this conversation.
> 
> Translation: they may be doing what is right for them, if their goals are to
> attract the users that they are successfully attracting, but not necessarily
> what is right for us.

You gave an example, yet took the exact opposite of what the example should
have taught you.

Microsoft IS doing something right. They aim to "make it easy for the user".
Same with Gentoo.


The fact that this conversation is happening on debian, is kinda scarey.

In some senses, debian was the ORIGINAL "make it easy on the user"
linux distribution. That was one of the major things that set it apart,
through the magic of apt-get.

The concept of easy upgrades, coupled with reliable results, made it a win
for an end-user experience.

Now the basic standard of "end user experience" has been raised. Now
not only does it have to be easy to install, AND things to work together,
but they expect them to look nice, be easy to use at the application level,
etc.


It's kind of like the progression in first person shooter games.
There was wolfenstein, which was amazing just for the concept of 3d.
Then there was doom, which had kinda-sorta impressive eye-candy for the
time.

Now a new game isnt even worth considering, if you cant see the sweat
dripping from your opponent's forehead, so to speak.

If debian as a whole does not raise its general standards of user
experience, then it risks being a "Doom II", in a Q3 Arena world.

That doesnt mean we have to have the latest rotating warping blood-splatter
code all the time. But we should always be looking to improve.

I'm glad the desktop group is trying to address the issue. But it seems
like the attitudes of debian developers in general need a serious
adjustment.