Ionrock Dot Org

I was thinking in the shower today about different kinds of usability studies. The obvious is testing general users for how they use different applications or deal with the overall desktop. I was thinking it might be interesting to test how GNOME works for someone like a Windows Sysadmin or a VS .NET developer. I realize these are corner cases but what keeps making me think of why it could be helpful falls back to the beginnings of the software industry. The killer detail in the debate between Mac and Windows ended up being the mass amounts of software available for the PC. Bill Gates specifically made sure the development tools were better than anyone elses in order to help make Windows the best platform. The result is probably more crappy software than people know what to do with but the idea still seems relevant. If developers and system administrators like the platform, it becomes an option that is exposed to people like managers and higher ups who trust these power user's judgement. With this in mind, there are some interesting usability issues regarding things like documentation that power users would be more apt to appreciate. Who knows... it was just a thought ;)