Sharing this because i agree with the points in this persons video, don’t angrily downvote it because its not some closed source software shill but someone who is pointing out a major issue with some open source projects
TLDR: Some open source software devs don’t listen to and design the software for the actual intended users of the program
The number of times you told me not to downvote really made me want to downvote you more.
Because people started down-voting the post without even watching the video at all
Maybe part of the downvote is that it’s a 13 minute video of an opinion that could be summed up in a few paragraphs.
I think the video is a reasonable amount of time and some formats of delivery vary in length
Kagi Summary:
Open source software alternatives like GIMP, Kaden Live, and Inkscape often fall short compared to their closed-source counterparts like Photoshop and Premiere. This is because open source projects tend to lack dedicated designers, quality assurance teams, and overall management, resulting in subpar user interfaces and missing key features. However, there are successful examples of open source software like Blender and Thunderbird that have overcome these challenges by building dedicated teams, standardizing their designs, and engaging with users. The open source community faces difficulties in competing with the ease of monetizing software today, as independent developers are more likely to create their own closed-source apps rather than contribute to open source projects long-term. While open source has produced many great tools, improving the user experience and management of larger open source projects could help them better rival their commercial competitors.
As for “why the downvote” … this is a click bait title with a “tell me something I don’t know” levels of content. The #1 problem facing all OSS is a lack of volunteers. It’s rare that a project owner is actively malicious towards their user base or doesn’t understand that things like UI/UX and QA could be better.
This has similar energy to a Twitter argument I had with Liam from GamingOnLinux that made me lose all respect for him. OSS authors are not indebted to their users. If you want OSS to be better … go spend some time making it better or donate money to the authors of the software to allow them to spend more time on it.
Speaking from my own experience, having seen this over and over again…
Lack of UX due to toxic behavior towards would-be UX contributors.
A lot of projects don’t have UX people… and that is usually because when UX people try to contribute, they get shot down with prejudice by toxic, overprotective gatekeepers who take everything personally.
I have already gotten that kind of response Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg and unmagical@lemmy.ml 's comments
There is no point to shutting out people who want to help improve open source projects just because they are not developers
My point in sharing this video was to try and make people aware of this so open source could potentially be improved further by reaching more people but the response i got from those two users i mentioned makes me question what the point to even sharing this video was if I’m going to get that sort of hostile response from them
I don’t know programming and i dont have interest in learning it because my hobbies lay elsewhere like using krita to teach myself art from freely from available lessons and using anki to help with learning Japanese
i as a user of some open source programs simply want to see open source improve as a user
UX from outside is a very delicate manner.
But it doesn’t hurt to make feedback on a open source project more inclusive to end users and people who are not developers and want to help improve the project and both users and open source would benefit from it
Sounds like a skill issue.
I’ve watched this video before you posted, so to hammer my point home I also downvoted this post.
Why you may ask? The essayist is not willing to accept that different software have different workflows. He also peddles Gimp as an alternative to Photoshop, those days have long gone (perhaps 3.0 will change that, any day now…). The alternative to Photoshop is Krita or Photopea.
And why UX/UI is bad? well donate money, resources and or work and perhaps things get better.
Krita is more suited to digital art as someone who is using it to learn art
1 - if people don’t want reactions based on the title, they shouldn’t make clickbait titles.
2 - open source apps are not bad, but if you think they are… its a open code base.
- They absolutely do design it for the intended users: themselves. It just isn’t you. They’re scratching their own itch, not your’s.
- The OP opinion conflates free/paid with closed/open source. Paid software can still be open source, and so beholden to the paying customers. Free software can be closed source.
- The objection is really someone who isn’t contributing anything complaining that people giving away something for free aren’t acting like they owe them something.
This is a Choosy Begger situation. Want someone to work for you? Pay them. It has nothing to do with whether the software is open source, but whether it’s free or paid.
ill just delete this post then if lemmy is going to misinterpret it negatively and respond with hostility even though i had good intentions with it
all of this just makes lemmy unwelcoming and im sick and tired of it
