A really good article on software usability

Les hlhowell at pacbell.net
Fri Jan 5 16:29:59 UTC 2007


On Thu, 2007-01-04 at 13:34 -0500, William Case wrote:
Snip
> The second expectation I had for Linux, is that somewhere amongst all
> the normal routine applications, programs and development that a living
> Operating System needs, would be a few inventive, radical experimenting
> people who would be trying new things way before their time.  I have
> looked throughout the Linux world and have not had that expectation met.
> I suppose the article referred to hinted at the hope someone would take
> up the user's gauntlet.
> 
> Thanks for lending me your ear (eye?).  

Hi, Bill, 
	The comments you made prior to the one above were spot on!
	
	As to the one above, there are lots of innovative things going on in
Linux, from robotics and artificial intelligence to personal portable
devices;  from CD's and DVD's that will mount and boot with the OS
running, to the massively parallel computers running up to 1.7 teraflops
(one being designed is for over 17 teraflops); AI projects that include
an animated human body, CAM and CASE tools, even stock market predictive
tools.  Music programs, video editing programs, games, distributed
computing, communications process experiments, and even amature radio
systems with packet communications are all being done on Linux.  

	My personal interest is robotics and stereo vision tools, with some
interest in radar visualization.  So I guess I am wondering what kind of
radical tools you are thinking about?  

	There is a force driving the user interface toward windows and away
from the CLI, which I think is OK, but the CLI offers much more
potential for voice interface type systems and is a better model for
that.  Some of the new video interfaces, using cameras to track the
users body movements or eye movements are good also, and I have not seen
the video interfaces on Linux yet, but I have no direct interest in that
form of interface.  However, I think if you google video tracking or
video interface type queries you would find some Linux work going on
there as well.

	I have not seen natural language translation software either, although
the number of font packages available would show you the interest in
Linux world wide, so I think it is safe to believe that such translation
tools are in development somewhere if not everywhere.

	I also believe that there is a core of interested, participating
individuals in most colleges, as many schools support the distribution
of Linux software by hosting archives.  Many of the larger schools are
active in one or more "Linux Labs" where active learning and development
in Linux take place everyday.

	So, what is the interest you have that is not being met at this time?

Regards,
Les H




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