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    Free software scares normal people

    (danieldelaney.net)
    917 points cryptophreak | 12 comments | 30 Oct 25 15:07 UTC | HN request time: 0.738s | source | bottom
    1. advisedwang ◴[30 Oct 25 16:19 UTC] No.45761738[source]▶
    Meanwhile, every time Gnome makes UI adjustments along these lines, there's an outcry that it's dumbed downed, copying apple, removing features etc etc.
    replies(6): >>45761780 #>>45761782 #>>45761950 #>>45763905 #>>45766769 #>>45769340 #
    2. askonomm ◴[30 Oct 25 16:23 UTC] No.45761780[source]▶
    Well Gnome tells people that they should just know keyboard shortcuts for everything - which is literally something only power users know to do. Their entire design ethos is a weird opposition to itself where it is aiming to be so simple and minimal that in order to do basic things you have to memorize keyboard shortcuts as there is no visual interface possibility to do those things.
    replies(1): >>45769674 #
    3. jeremyjh ◴[30 Oct 25 16:23 UTC] No.45761782[source]▶
    Its an entire desktop environment, its not as simple as choosing between two different apps. Although people who make this complaint should probably just use KDE, maybe they've used Gnome for a long time and don't want to change.
    replies(1): >>45766615 #
    4. marcosdumay ◴[30 Oct 25 16:35 UTC] No.45761950[source]▶
    Yeah, and that's because the article's advice is bad.

    It works exactly for TV remote controls. Or, rather, it worked before everybody had an HDMI player or smart TVs. It doesn't work for TV remotes now either.

    Handbrake is a bit like TV remotes in the turn of the century. That's an exception even among free software, and absolutely no mainstream DE is like that.

    5. bluGill ◴[30 Oct 25 19:00 UTC] No.45763905[source]▶
    There is a massive amount of compromise in a UI. Adding features adds complexity. If you need that feature you have to accept the complexity that goes with it, and generally you are happy to. However if you don't need that complexity you don't want it. The average person uses 5% of the features of there word processor - but there is very little overlap between any two random users, and each wants the other 95% they don't use hidden (or perhaps 90% as there is another 5% they will need or think they will need) Gnome seems to be focusing on the 1% of features that are common to everyone, which means you can't get your 5%.

    Note that I've always been a KDE user...

    6. immibis ◴[30 Oct 25 23:23 UTC] No.45766615[source]▶
    > maybe they've used Gnome for a long time and don't want to change.

    By using GNOME and staying with it as it changed, they suffered more changes than they would have by switching to KDE at any point.

    replies(1): >>45770027 #
    7. array_key_first ◴[30 Oct 25 23:42 UTC] No.45766769[source]▶
    Well that's because it's all those things.

    They are actually, literally, removing features. That's not an opinion, that's what is actually happening, repeatedly.

    Now, maybe you say good riddance. Fine. However, it is indisputable that now the desktop is slightly less capable. The software can do less stuff than before.

    8. einpoklum ◴[31 Oct 25 07:50 UTC] No.45769340[source]▶
    Well, the outcry is completely justified. Suppose a video conversion app really did have just have a drop-target area and a "do it" button. It would be ridiculously bad. That kind of crutch is ok to install for illiterate users who don't know anything and won't learn anything - but:

    1. Some day, those users think "Hey, I'm not happy with some setting, what do I do?" and they can do nothing.

    2. The users who need more functionality can't get it - and feel like they have to constantly wrestle with the app, and that it constantly confounds and trips them up, even when they express their clear intents. It's not like the GNOME apps have a "simple mode" and an "advanced mode"

    3. The GNOME apps don't even really go along those lines. You see, even non-savvy users enjoy consistentcy and clarity; and the GNOME people have made their icons inscrutable; take over the window manager's decorations to "do their own thing"; hide items behind a hamburger menu, as though you're on a mobile phone with no screen space; etc. So, even for the non-savvy users - the UX is kind of bad. And just think of things like the GTK file picker. Man, that's a little Pandora's box right there, for the newbie and power user alike.

    replies(1): >>45769742 #
    9. jampekka ◴[31 Oct 25 08:40 UTC] No.45769674[source]▶
    Where do they tell to use keyboard shortcuts? I've been using Gnome 3 since it came out and I haven't encountered situations where I could do things with keyboard I couldn't do easily with mouse.
    replies(1): >>45770112 #
    10. jampekka ◴[31 Oct 25 08:49 UTC] No.45769742[source]▶
    > Well, the outcry is completely justified. Suppose a video conversion app really did have just have a drop-target area and a "do it" button. It would be ridiculously bad. That kind of crutch is ok to install for illiterate users who don't know anything and won't learn anything

    One could say the same about people who don't bother to learn ffmpeg CLI.

    11. jeremyjh ◴[31 Oct 25 09:34 UTC] No.45770027{3}[source]▶
    Yes, they've been slowly boiled alive and that is why they are so salty and resentful about it.
    12. a96 ◴[31 Oct 25 09:46 UTC] No.45770112{3}[source]▶
    They did in a few places about thirty versions ago.