Re: OS questions draft, III

["Pete St. Onge" <pete_st_onge@iname.com>]

The survey has really been developing over the last few weeks. I tried
to expand the issues Roger flagged in his email.

I've updated the survey to Roger's last email, and we're now at v.0x004.
I'll update the page on Wednesday night, and pledge to update the page
on subsequent Wednesdays, and Sundays if the traffic warrants it.

!* ability to act as servers for email, web pages, file access,
!  telnet, file  transfer, etc.
> !  [was: ability to run servers for email, web pages, file access, telnet, file
> !   transfer, etc.]
>   [was: running servers (mail, httpd, samba, telnetd, ftpd, etc)]
> ![should this be 'server' or 'servers'?]

I would suggest separating these somewhat:

* Being able to use your computer to be a mail server, web page server.
* Being able to use your computer to share files over the network (file
  server) or over the internet (file transfer (FTP) server)
* Being able to connect to your computer from another computer (telnet)


> !* ISP support for technical questions
> !  [was: Adequate ISP support for technical questions]
>   [was: ISP support]

* Having sufficient technical support from your internet service
  provider to resolve difficult technical problems ('difficult'
  from the perspective of the computerphobe).

> !* usergroup support for technical questions
> ! [was: Adequate usergroup support for technical questions]
>   [was: usergroup support]
(See below *1*)

!* ability to integrate computer with communications devices
!  (telephone, video conferencing, etc)
> ! [was: telephony (integrating computers and communications) [needs help]]

[This is pretty broad. What if we tease these out a little bit more]

* Being able to use your computer to:
 - dial the telephone for a voice call
 - send and receive faxes
 - answer calls (answering machine)
 - voice mail for several people
 - fax-on-demand

* Being able to use your computer to communicate / conference with
  others using audio / and video?
* Being able to use your computer for speech to text transcription
  (ie. NaturallySpeaking or ViaVoice-type stuff)?


> !* multimedia: ability to integrate computer with audio/visual devices (CD player, foo)
> ![i want to come up with another example here. 'television' came to mind, but perhaps that's more confusing than useful.]
> !  [was: multimedia (integrating computers and audio/video) [needs help]]

* Being able to use your computer to use and control audiovisual
  equipment, like CD player, DVD, television, radio)?

> [games, graphics manipulation, sound - Should this be split further? Or is it
> already covered in earlier "what do you want to use your computer for"
> sections?]
> ![this should be elaborated for some usertypes and ignored for others, if we
> ! decide to have user-type-specific questions]

     Suggest that we make this a broad question as possible, then give
the user the option of filling out questionaires specific to the
application types later or separately?


> * being able to use (read/write/convert) files saved in industry standard word
>   processing file formats
>   [was: being able to use (read/write/convert) industry standard word processing file
>   formats]
> * being able to use (read/write/convert) files saved in industry standard graphics
>   file formats
>   [was: being able to use (read/write/convert) industry standard graphics file
>   formats]
>   [was: being able to use (read/write/both) industry standard word/graphics file
>     formats
>   [was: being able to convert from one word/graphics file format to another]

Suggest add: being able to use (read/write/convert) files saved in
industry standard work processing file formats.

!* Access to OS source code (for modification, configuring, etc.).
* Source code contains all of the computer instructions for a given
  operating system or application. How important is being able to
  customize the OS source code for configuration or modification so
  as to optimize the basic OS for your computer system or to improve
  the OS for your needs?

!* Access to application source code (for modification, configuring,
   etc.)
> ! [was: ability to modify the os/application source]
>   [was: being able to modify the os/application source]
>   [was: being able to read the os/application source
>     being able to modify/redistribute the os/application source]
> !* Freedom to redistribute OS/application source code and modifications
> !  [was: ability to read/redistribute the os/application source]
>   [was: being able to read/redistribute the os/application source]
> ![note question reorder]

* How important is being able to have access to the source code for
  the software packages you use so that you may customize the
  application for your own needs or optimize the application for your
  computer system?


> * being able to transparently encrypt data going to and from your computer
>   via the network.
> * being able to transparently encrypt data stored on your computer
>   [was: encryption]
> ["transparently" probably needs some help here]
> !['transparently' means that it's happening without the user's direct
> ! intervention. That is, everything works the same way as it would if
> ! there weren't encryption happening, and the user doesn't have to
>   care.]

* How important is being able to have data encrypted on the computer
  so that other cannot access your data, while being able to use your
  own data as easily as if it were not encrypted.

!* Operating system (OS) stability (computer runs without crashing or
!  requiring restart)
!  [was: computer stability (computer runs without crashing or
!  requiring restart)]

* How important is using an operating system which is stable, running
  for a long (weeks, months, years) without crashing or requiring a
  restart.

> * application stability (applications run without crashing or
>   requiring restart)
>   [was: stability (computer and applications run without crashing or
>    requiring restart)

* How important is being able to use applications which are stable,
  and can run without crashing or requiring a restart?

> * prompt bugfixes
> [proposal to nuke this question. opinions?]
> ![kimboo: by 'prompt bugfixes', I mean that when the people in charge
> ! of the OS (or applications, I guess) get told about a bug, they
> ! provide a bugfix for it in a short amount of time. I had assumed
> ! that the actual patching of the bug would be automated. Nobody
> ! would accept it if it weren't fully automated.]

Adequate software support? (I rant a bit about this down below)

!* Documentation on the internet that can be downloaded and/or printed
!  [was: printed docs from the internet (and a directory of said docs)]

* How important is being able to find documentation for your software
  which you can download, copy and print for your personal use?

> !* Availability of printed documentation/guides at book stores
> !  [was:printed docs available at book stores]

* How important is being able to find good books dealing with the
  operating system and the programs you use at book stores?
* How important is the price of these books to your purchasing
  decisions?


!* Software tutorials that interactively teach you how to use your
!  computer and applications
!  [was: having the os send each new user an email containing 'how
!  to use MAN, APROPOS; where to find docs, how to read docs etc.']

* Having a set of interactive software tutorials to help you learn the
  basics of how to use your computer and its applications (General
  orientation to OS and software in order to access basic OS/ App
  functionality)?
* Having an intuitive way to find detailed information quickly for a
  given operating system or software feature (Specific information to
  access intermediate advanced OS / App functionality)?

!* accessability of support over the Internet
!  [was: accessability of support over the Internet or www]
* Being able to ask technical questions about specific operating system 
  or application problems in an open forum over the Internet or the
  Web?

> !* software brand reputation (good or bad)
> !* hardware brand reputation (good or bad)
> !  [was: brand reputation (good or bad)]
>   [was: corporate reputation]
     I think I see where you're going here. If the software has no
brand on it (like most open source software), will the user still
want to use it? I mean, you know if you get a shrink wrap box from
Corel, Red Hat, Netscape, etc that it should really work. Now what
about the open source stuff that doesn't have the name of a
corporation on it, or if the app has a 'strange' name (all lower case,
sometimes not intuitively pronouncable for a newless cluebie), will
the same implicit trust of the user still be there? Given the pride
that the community has in producing lots of very usable software for
free, perhaps this has to be impressed on the potential user community
a bit more.

* How important is obtaining software from a reputable corporate
  source?
* If the software was appropriate to your needs, would you consider
  obtaining non-commercial (sometimes called 'freeware' or 'open
  source') software build by a group of reputable programmers?

(*1* There's a lot of good stuff out there - stating reputable
 programmers means for me that the programmers provide at least some
 level of support, bug fixes, etc., or that these services are
 provided by the community - ie. Andrew Tridgewell (sp?) and SAMBA).

* How important is obtaining hardware from a reputable computer
  reseller (IBM, Dell, Compaq, etc)?
* How important is obtaining brand-type hardware from a respectable
  computer reseller - like a SoundBlaster sound card vs. generic sound
  card, 3Com network card vs. generic network card?


*Whew* Lots has been happening with the survey. I've been reading the
 email as they came in, and I noticed a few trends. First one seeming
 to me that we're getting away from application functionality to focus
 on the OS and UI. Given the size of the task, this is quite logical.
 If at some point we want to focus on the apps later, we should keep
 some broad app questions in the survey (like we're doing now), and
 perhaps bring up some secondary surveys for later work. What do folks
 think?

I've been laid up for a couple of weeks with my supervisor breathing
 down my neck (wants me to finish my thesis asap). Of course, the RSI
 in both wrists didn't help much either, so heretofore I haven't been
 doing too much typing anyways. All this to say that I'm back and
 feeling much better. And I will be keeping the survey more up to date, 
 please accept my appologies for the lapse.

-- 
Pete St. Onge - McGill U.  Limnology - Fun with Ropes & Buckets
pete_st_onge@iname.com         http://wwp.mirabilis.com/4322052
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