From LQWiki

A system is described as user-friendly when it is easy to use by the people who use the system. It is not just non-technical or inexperienced users, but an intuitive system benefits all users. User-friendly applications have intuitive and obvious user-interfaces, so new users do not have to refer to documentation in order to perform simple tasks. Its very definition is also what makes the term a oxymoron, as users will often find that "intuitive" happens to be what they expect based on using previous software.

Linux is often criticized for a lack of user-friendliness in its use of the command-line interface and its reliance on configuration files rather than graphical setup tools. This problem is steadily being addressed by Linux distributors such as Red Hat, for example by writing graphical tools to perform automated editing of configuration files. It should also be noted that others find the command-line and configuration files more user friendly then the GUI.

The term "user friendly" is also used when referring to user communities in the Linux and OSS world. Some say many Linux communities are "user friendly" because they will tolerate newer users asking redundant FAQs without flaming, whereas others feel other communities, such as the OpenBSD community, is less user friendly because behaviour such as including asking of questions which are addressed by the documentation (one of the OpenBSD goals is to deliver improved documentation), is not as tolerated - both communities are addressing different types of users. It has also been said that BSD guys practice "intellectual incest".

See also

usability

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User Friendly is also a comic strip that deals with many issues that people in the Linux community identify with.

http://www.userfriendly.org/cartoons/archives/06jun/uf009209.gif

External links

• userfriendly.org (www.userfriendly.org)