Ubuntu Usability review

[Brent of Liquid5th]

This guy is well known as a UI nazi. Yes he's anal, but that's his job. Regardless of what the tech-oriented people want to think, these things matter and contribute to the usability of the computing environment. As a nerd who switched to the Mac a couple years ago, I find glaring UI inconsistencies to be extremely annoying and time wasting. This is not to say the Mac is without UI problems.

 

[edmicman]

What about the teachers or librarians or whomever who types up a quick "flyer" or something in Word? I've seen tons of little signs or whatnot that people will type up to post things on walls, etc., that are written in all caps. Its a PITA to hold shift down for all of those, and the highlight-and-select to convert to all caps isn't that common, either. Personally I think things like removing the caps lock or insert keys or whatever are retarded. All of those have a use at some point, and blaming that for stupid people who accidentally hit them because they can't figure out how to type is ridiculous. Just my $.02.

 

[kamper]

Originally posted by: edmicman
What about the teachers or librarians or whomever who types up a quick "flyer" or something in Word? I've seen tons of little signs or whatnot that people will type up to post things on walls, etc., that are written in all caps. Its a PITA to hold shift down for all of those, and the highlight-and-select to convert to all caps isn't that common, either. Personally I think things like removing the caps lock or insert keys or whatever are retarded. All of those have a use at some point, and blaming that for stupid people who accidentally hit them because they can't figure out how to type is ridiculous. Just my $.02.

Having a caps lock key isn't required for typing in all caps without the shift key. It would be trivial for any application to implement a caps mode with a checked menu item or something.

You don't have font buttons on the keyboard.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: edmicman
What about the teachers or librarians or whomever who types up a quick "flyer" or something in Word? I've seen tons of little signs or whatnot that people will type up to post things on walls, etc., that are written in all caps. Its a PITA to hold shift down for all of those, and the highlight-and-select to convert to all caps isn't that common, either. Personally I think things like removing the caps lock or insert keys or whatever are retarded. All of those have a use at some point, and blaming that for stupid people who accidentally hit them because they can't figure out how to type is ridiculous. Just my $.02.

It should still be moved out of a position of power to one of those places where you won't accidentally hit it. Maybe with the other useless keys, like scroll lock.

These small situations aren't worth taking up valuable keyboard real estate for something that gets used very RARELY (shift key was used here, without issues).

 

[TechnoPro]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey

Originally posted by: edmicman
What about the teachers or librarians or whomever who types up a quick "flyer" or something in Word? I've seen tons of little signs or whatnot that people will type up to post things on walls, etc., that are written in all caps. Its a PITA to hold shift down for all of those, and the highlight-and-select to convert to all caps isn't that common, either. Personally I think things like removing the caps lock or insert keys or whatever are retarded. All of those have a use at some point, and blaming that for stupid people who accidentally hit them because they can't figure out how to type is ridiculous. Just my $.02.

It should still be moved out of a position of power to one of those places where you won't accidentally hit it. Maybe with the other useless keys, like scroll lock.

These small situations aren't worth taking up valuable keyboard real estate for something that gets used very RARELY (shift key was used here, without issues).

Are we talking physical keyboard layout or the fact that Ubuntu recognizes the Caps Lock key? Hell, I'm all for redesigning the keybaord if it could realistically improve efficiency somehow, and/or reduce wrist stress and the like. But there are plenty of times that I keep Caps on and it is not from SHOUTING or some other nonsense like that, and I would expect my OS to allow it.

The insert key, on the other hand, that I could safely see unsupported. Not just from personal prefference, but I have yet to see any contemporary use of that function.