FreeBSD and SSD drives

[Chad Perrin]

On Sun, Feb 13, 2011 at 08:58:05AM -0500, Jerry wrote:
> On Sun, 13 Feb 2011 13:10:51 +0000
> Bruce Cran <bruce at cran.org.uk> articulated:
> 
> > On Sun, 13 Feb 2011 07:38:01 -0500
> > Jerry <freebsd.user at seibercom.net> wrote:
> > 
> > > Despite all of the rubbish the FOSS community
> > > has spewed for over 10 years, OpenOffice is nothing more than a poor
> > > clone of Office 97. The newly released "libreoffice" might be usable
> > > someday; however, it is now only in its infancy. There is no way it
> > > can be compared to a full blown MS Office 10 suite.
> > 
> > For some, Office is unusable due to the new Ribbon interface and
> > libreoffice is the usable office suite due to its familiar menus.
> 
> New, as in four years old? That is one of the worst straw man arguments
> I have heard in a while. In any case, In 2008 OpenOffice.org started
> the project Renaissance to improve the user interface of OpenOffice. So
> far the prototypes of the project are frequently seen as similar to the
> ribbon interface.

I do not think you understand the term "straw man" as used in reference
to a logical fallacy.  A straw man fallacy involves using a distraction
in place of a valid argument, supplanting someone else's argument with
this distraction, attributing it to that other person for the sake of
attacking it rather than the argument that other person actually made.
How, exactly, does the comment about the ribbon fit that definition at
all?


> 
> Obviously, the use and customization of any software is a personal
> experience. However, if the use of the "ribbon" is beyond your
> abilities, and I am assuming that you are aware that the "ribbon" can
> be hidden, modified and that there are many "add-ons" available that
> can be used to manage it, then so be it. I would rather work with an
> application with a minor annoyance, and I do not find the "ribbon" to be
> one, then to use a less robust application. Again, it is up to the end
> user to ascertain their requirements and find the tool that is best
> fitted to that job.

"Beyond your abilities" is a better example of a straw man fallacy, since
I don't think anyone here said "Use of the ribbon is beyond my
abilities," or anything even remotely equivalent to that.


> 
> In any case, I am quite confident that your condemnation of the
> "ribbon" is totally based on your reading of Slashdot and other similar
> documents and not from any personal experience.

Interfaces that change without a consistent use model being presented to
the user -- as is the case with all but the most basic, unsophisticated
users who are presented with the ribbon -- have long been recognized as a
failure of usability design, and for good reason.  This is why the words
"consisten navigation" are so important in Web design circles.

-- 
Chad Perrin [ original content licensed OWL: http://owl.apotheon.org ]
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