Why software sucks

Programmers care deeply about the internals of the software whilst users care more deeply if the software does its work. And if software doesn’t do the work, then software sucks and is never used by the user. This is one of the main concerns of David Platt in this podcast.

David point out one of the main reasons why most of the time Open Source software fails in what concerns to user adoption. Open source communities are producing what they want to produce. They write software for themselves to use. And as long as they have what they want to produce they succeed. But they are not writing software for the users, thus users will not use the software they use. David also states that the guys who like Linux are writing code for themselves, and this I do also agree for most of the times.

This is a gotcha of OSS, and I recognize and agree with him. Fortunately, more and more OSS is also concerned about the end user.

If you want to succeed, think about to give your users what they want.

Written by j.pereira on January 26th, 2007 with no comments.
Read more posts on Open Source and Software development and Podcasts.

Open Source Podcasts

Just to spot a nice resource for all Open Source lovers.

Open Source Conversations is a site where you can find useful podcasts about open source related topics. For me these are the best podcasts about Open Source you can find around.

I Usually download the podcasts and listen to them while driving my car in long distance trips. It’s truly excellent and addicting.

Written by j.pereira on December 26th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more posts on Open Source and Podcasts.