On Thu, Nov 28, 2013 at 1:18 AM, Matthew Miller <mattdm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On Thu, Nov 28, 2013 at 12:01:25AM +0100, drago01 wrote: >> > I don't think we should aim at the general user, because not only is that >> > nebulous, it has all of those same problems. >> That happens to be what every successful desktop (and mobile) OS have >> been doing. >> They built a system that is generally useful, they don't really care >> whether you are a developer, graphics designer, gamer or whatever. >> >> If the operating system works for the general user case it works for >> pretty much everything else (it is just a matter of installing the >> right applications / tools). >> >> An operating system designed for a specific user type is doomed to end >> up being a niche OS. > > We're always going to be a niche OS, at least on the desktop -- which is, > itself, an increasingly small niche. But, let me restate my initial point. > It's great if we can be totally awesome for everyone, and sure, it's fine to > try for it. *And*, within that subset of everyone, there are some people we > want to make particularly happy. > > One subset that I've identified is the one I mentioned -- the sysadmin who > runs RHEL or Fedora server systems and has Fedora on his or her desktop. The > entire LISA conference was _full_ of these people. As I mentioned in the > earlier thread, they don't all use Gnome, but they do use Fedora, and very > well _could_ use Gnome if we tailored the experience to their needs. > > I think it's completely fair to say that previously, we've responded to > feedback from this demographic with "well, you're not a general user -- > you're a weird special case". What I want is to acknowledge that even after > all these years of that, this is still our loyal base, and to make every one > of those feel like we are actually directly listening to their concerns > (even if they can't all be addressed). > > That's what _I_ want out of a Fedora Workstation product. If there are other > classes of user where the same sort of feeling applies as well, let's > include those too. Maybe that *is* developers, although as expressed, I'm > skeptical. Maybe it's the maker/designer market -- at least the Creative > Commons / Free Culture segment of it. Those aren't areas where I have a huge > amount of history, interaction, or feedback from users. I talk about the > sysadmin case because there I *do* have those things and I'm quite sure of > myself. > > Is this a matter of just installing the right applications and tools? Maybe. s/Maybe/Yes/ ... To pick up your example what is so special about being a sysadmin? You ran an email client? Web browser with for some web based administration tools? Terminals? Some other tool / tools? Use more then one monitor? There simply is nothing here is specific to being a sysadmin. "I don't like the screenshield" isn't either (it has nothing to do with said user being a sysadmin or not). Just look at the rest of the market? Who is being successful the ones that target some niche or the ones that target "everyone" i.e provide a solid general purpose OS that lets people run their tools and applications. So make it easy to install applications. Are there any issues with multiple terminals? Improve multiple window handling (terminals are just a specific instance of "using many windows"). There are multimonitor issues? Not sysadmin specific either ... multiple monitors are being used everywhere. By focusing on a specific user you put your self in a niche by trying to create a solid overall usable operating systems you open the doors for pretty much every type of user. -- desktop mailing list desktop@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/desktop
