Open source solutions

I have a couple questions that are vaguely related to programming. Lately I've been trying out open source software and really making an effort to appreciate the value that it brings to the table. The problem is this: It continues to fall short of my expectations one way or another.

And that's not like "durr hurr it shud b winders," this is simply basic things relating to a positive user experience. Something that is not difficult to do, but the programmer said, "Well, fuck the user."

My questions are the following:

1. Why is it so hard to put usability in mind? I really don't mind if OpenOffice doesn't have every single feature that MS Office does, for example, but it lacks ways to do what you want quickly when compared with the other product.

You could, perhaps, compile the source yourself with the accelerations you want, but that's a waste of time and extra maintenance costs, bottom line. Cheaper than playing Microsoft's game? Definitely. Does any user actually want to do this? None that are interested in getting things done.

I installed Fedora the other day, and the partition formatter actually gave me options that it refused to enact. If Linux is supposedly about power over your machine, it should either shut the fuck up and do it or not give you these options at all. I did not notice this on my first time through, however, because at that point, I only used the default options (which apparently caused my system to somehow fail to boot into a Windows setup CD, which is why I went spelunking into the options).

I found using it to be a crapshoot at best. Upon first boot into root, it kept flashing this annoying tool tip in the system tray once per second and prattled on about some segfault error that I couldn't have possibly caused because it was my first boot into root and I used pretty much default install settings.

I felt that I would be better served by booting into my user, so I tried that. It said that it found wireless connections and that I could connect if I clicked the tip. I thought, "Okay, let's try that and get on IRC." Turns out that it didn't connect at all. I had to manually set up a wireless connection, go figure. I thought that when it said it would connect, it would actually connect. Novel concept.

2. Am I just not using the right products (even though I feel that I'm testing fairly reputable open source solutions)? Is there some free grand directive that prevents open source solutions from being as useful and awesome as they could be?

The Linux kernel was initially launched in 1991, and here we are, 18 years later - with nothing to show for it? StarOffice was acquired by Sun in 1999. How does this happen? What am I missing? It's just small general stuff like that that is a total turnoff to using things like OpenOffice and Linux.

>>2
I wrote the post while quite tired, I recognize that the kernel has nothing to do with usability, what I'm going for with this is that the kernel has been around for 18 years and all the ways to interact with this glorious kernel still fall short.

I also recognize that Fedora is simply one subset of Linux. It "sells" itself by being a Linux distribution. I wouldn't have bothered with Fedora at all if it was simply Fedora, some crackerfuck operating system. But it's Fedora Linux. I might try Ubanto. Thanks for the tip.



>>3
And you were booting into root why?
Because I didn't want to be hindered by lacking permissions to dick around with the operating system. As I understand it, root has capabilities that no other user does.

Unless your wireless connection is unencypted there is nothing new here.
It was.

>>4
For example, superscript/subscript has no keyboard shortcut. When doing numerous chemical formulae, for example, this is very irritating. You must stop your chemical formula every chemical symbol and move the mouse to the superscript/subscript buttons.

The only thing that it has going for it is that it goes back to the document automatically when you press the buttons so you don't have to move the mouse back to it. This is good. Now if they added a keyboard shortcut for it, it would be perfect.

It's the little stuff that counts.

>>5-14
I hadn't considered some of those factors. I'm satisfied with the aggregate ideas put forth in these posts.

>>4,7
Perhaps metatrolled, but not trolled in a normal way.