FreeLists / openbeos / [openbeos] Re: Windows Vista Performance Kludges (that Haiku does

[Simon Taylor <simontaylor1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> This is the 
> problem with many Linux applications, in my opinion, and even as a long
> -time computer user and developer I am sometimes shocked and dismayed 
> by a configuration dialog with multiple pages of complex controls 
> (*cough*VLC*cough*.)

Both open source and commercial software unfortunately has this tendency to 
become bloated, and for different reasons. Joel judges "success" of software 
based on commercial profit measurements. In that space more features almost 
always equals more "successful" software - few people would pay to upgrade to 
"v2 - now with a more streamlined workflow and 30% less toolbar buttons".

As an open-source project Haiku can strive for something more idealistic and 
can recognise usability, elegance and simplicity as important parts of the 
"success" of software.

Although Open Source can remove all the commercial pressures that can get in 
the way of creating great software, it brings its own problems. As people can 
contribute any feature they like there is a huge battle to avoid bloat.

Back to Joel's features==success message - my counter-example would be the 
Background preferences in KDE vs BeOS. The KDE one allows you to select an 
image and combine it with a user-definable gradient using many combination 
modes (blend/add/subtract). It has an in built mechanism to download new 
backgrounds from the web. Yet for me the BeOS one is far more successful - I 
instantly open it and know I just drag an image to it and hit Apply. I have 
graphics packages to deal with any of the other rare use cases. Really it's not 
about removing features, it's about having the right features in the right 
places.

I do feel Haiku needs some more formal way of preventing bloat. At the moment 
it is safeguarded by the people who have SVN access having the "right idea". In 
future though, Haiku is likely to be swamped with contributions from people 
from Linux backgrounds adding the particular features they feel they couldn't 
live without, and I think Haiku needs a way of dealing with that. Honestly I 
think we will have a fight on our hands to prevent the Haiku user experience 
tending towards that of Linux - the only reason I'm still following Haiku is I 
believe it's one we can win.

Simon

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