Opinion: Lack of Usablity in Open-Source Software
by Dusty SchnabelUsability has always been an issue when it comes to software design. It doesn’t matter if you are debating command line interfaces verses graphical user interfaces or commercial versus open source. But, it is noticeable that very few open source projects take the time to get to know their user and design interfaces around them.
Now, being particularly fond of Apple products, I think they do quite a good job in giving the user what they need to get the job done in a very effective way. I have found that it is very easy to ‘figure out’ what needs to be done to get an application to do what you wish. This includes setup and operation of the system. The reverse of this is that you may not always get the level of control you want. What we often forget as power-users of OS X and Linux is that often our end-users cannot be expected to jump through a plethora of hoops to get stuff done (or installed for that matter). Since I started in open source in 2001, a lot has changed for the better, but there is a way to go.
Since I run both commercial and open source applications on my MacBook, you can clearly tell the difference when it comes to usability between the two, in my opinion. I have found this both from an end-user and administration view point. I have tried a plethora of open source apps from Jarnal, Dia, Scribus, and Nagios just to name a few off the top of my head. I usually find myself going back to my commercially backed apps. OpenOffice, more specifically NeoOffice and FireFox are two exceptions on my laptop.
The usability argument is leveled against open source adoption, which for end-users, I believe it is totally justified. Open source provides a much steeper learning curve for users with non-standard interfaces and nomenclatures often causing confusion. Matthew Paul Thomas has posted an article on his blog “Why Free Software has poor usability, and how to improve it” which reviews some of the reasons usability often comes in last with open source. This is the one issue that still holds back wide adoption of open source in the enterprise and among end-users and would-be administrators.
This is not to say Apple, Microsoft, IBM, or Sun have always gotten it right.. We have to keep in mind that often usability should be our number one goal (Survey: Software Usability Is More Important Than Features). More on that in an upcoming post.
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