** On Jul 29, Andre Berger scribbled: > grendel@vip.net.pl (Marek Habersack) writes: > > > it as on a marketing/support factor. If any of your customers would come to > > you and say "hm... I would switch to Linux, but I kinda like the M$ Outlook. > > If Linux had something like that...". Now you will be able to say "Voila! > > Evolution - right here for you!" :-). Besides, the product will no doubt be > > dozens of times more secure than any of the M$ incarnations of Outlook. > > When my department switched to Linux (CorelLinux w/ KDE), our intent > was to provide a familiar UI for the designated Ex-Windows users. (We > purged that perverted slink stuff quickly in favor of woody w/ Gnome > for technical reasons. And KDE can't handle 800x600 in a way that > would make us happy.) The user fraction on their side were also seriously > disappointed from "Linux Windows"... because they have to mount > removables now: "But you have to admit that Windows is easier to use", > repeated by two dozen people every once a while we show up. I guess it's > psychologically important for "the man on the keyboard" not only to use > SW that makes a difference on the system level but visualize the > difference on the GUI level. This helps not to confuse apples and > pears, and also won't force us to compete with MS's featuritis. I agree with you 100% - and Evolution as well as any other GNOME software makes exactly that difference - the UI has different appearance, so that one can immediately tell what is being used. My point wasn't that the software must/should be a GPL-ed mirror of the "other" software, no - my point is that the transition curve for the newcomer to the Linux OSes should be minimized by providing the most common features/screen layout _by default_ in the software s/he is to use. You cannot and should not force anyone to learn anything completely new when he is just a mere user, not programmer, developer or die-hard hacker, whatever. I don't know whether you have ever had anything to do with support services but if you would, then you'd know how hard it is to persuade common users of software to using anything else they familiar with. And that's the whole point I want to make - they want software which is similar enough to what they have used before for them not to spend weeks in learning everything anew. marek
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