Comment 153 for bug 668415

On 28/10/11 16:10, Fernando wrote:
> I would recommend Mark to get a laptop with Ubuntu installed, and start
> walking through the street of some capital of the world (like London, New
> York, São Paulo, Tokio ...) and ask people to do basic things in this and
> get their opinions about their experience. I'm pretty sure that people will
> not be comfortable with Unity, specially people that usually uses Windows.

This is exactly what we do, every month. We have 10 people who don't
know Ubuntu sit down and try to achieve some key tasks. The sessions are
usually videotaped, and we observe and ask a lot of questions. So I can
definitively tell you that people are more successful on those tasks
with 11.10 than they were with 11.04, and that was better than 10.10.

I don't get everything I want with Ubuntu. Neither will you, or anybody
else. That's the nature of it. To make this into a celebrity issue is
simply wasteful. It really isn't worth it.

This is not a contest of wills. This is not about forcing one persons
idea over another. This is about measuring what works for people off the
street, just as you describe, and deciding to focus on those things done
that way. For every option we add, we add a burden for every single
user. The bar is high, and this issue simply does not get over the bar.

There is a substantial constructive community that is actively building
ubuntu and unity every day. You can choose whether you want to be part
of that, or to shoot from the sidelines. What you choose says a lot more
about you than it does about me or anybody else in the project.

Mark