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Free software scares normal people

(danieldelaney.net)
917 points cryptophreak | 2 comments | 30 Oct 25 15:07 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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squeedles ◴[30 Oct 25 16:12 UTC] No.45761639[source]▶
Good article, but the reasoning is wrong. It isn't easy to make a simple interface in the same way that Pascal apologized for writing a long letter because he didn't have time to write a shorter one.

Implementing the UI for one exact use case is not much trouble, but figuring out what that use case is difficult. And defending that use case from the line of people who want "that + this little extra thing", or the "I just need ..." is difficult. It takes a single strong-willed defender, or some sort of onerous management structure, to prevent the interface from quickly devolving back into the million options or schizming into other projects.

Simply put, it is a desirable state, but an unstable one.

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dayvid ◴[30 Oct 25 16:15 UTC] No.45761688[source]▶
The contributors of free software tend to be power users who want to ensure their use case works. I don't think they're investing a lot of thought into the 80/20 use case for normal/majority or users or would risk hurting their workflow to make it easier for others
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zeroq ◴[30 Oct 25 16:25 UTC] No.45761808[source]▶
> contributors of free software tend to be power users

or, simply put, nerds

it takes both a different background, approach and skillset to design ux and interface

if anything FOSS should figure out how to attract skilled artists so majority of designs and logos doesn't look so blatantly amateurish.

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1. array_key_first ◴[30 Oct 25 23:12 UTC] No.45766506{3}[source]▶
They're not just nerds, they're power users. These are different things.

Pretty much everyone is a power user of SOME software. That might be Excel, that might be their payroll processor, that might be their employee data platform. Because you have to be if you work a normal desk job.

If Excel was simpler and had an intuitive UI, it would be worthless. Because simple UI works for the first 100 hours, maybe. Then it's actively an obstacle because you need to do eccentric shit as fast as possible and you can't.

Then, that's where the keyboard shortcuts and 100 buttons shoved on a page somewhere come in. That's where the lack of whitespace comes in. Those aren't downsides anymore.

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2. csin ◴[31 Oct 25 07:57 UTC] No.45769377[source]▶
"If Excel was simpler and had an intuitive UI, it would be worthless."

Excel is a simple intuitive UI.

I use 10% of Excel. I don't even know the 90% of what it's capable of.

It hides away it's complexity.

For people that need the complex stuff, they can access it via menus/formulas.

For the rest of us, we don't even know it's there.

Whereas, Handbrake shoves all the complexity in your face. It's overwhelming for first time users.