response times was: [plug] [link] Linus and the fire-hose

[Jacqueline McNally]

At 11:54 AM 02/09/2003, you wrote:
>On Sunday 09 February 2003 11:05 am, Harry McNally wrote:
> > A single, lightweight install (even on powerful donated
> > machines) means common training and simpler interface for our novice
> > users. The only addition thus far has been OpenOffice.org on systems
> > with >=128MB memory.
>
>I have customers running OOo in 64MB under KDE. It's not quick, but it works.
>Linux swaps a lot of stuff out during the first few minutes' use, and after
>that it's OK for most stuff.

"it werks" is not an acceptable specification to the people whom we 
"promote and encourage computer literacy". New users are easily confused if 
they do not see something happening within about 1 second of hitting a key 
or clicking a mouse. I think the rule of thumb is that if it takes more 
time than this (up to 7-10 seconds) then you need to provide feedback (e.g. 
% loading). For any direct manipulation, the acceptable response time is 
0.1 seconds. The computer _has_ to be equivalent or better than they have 
at school, next door, or what their mate's got.

Also, while I would especially like OpenOffice.org to go out on the boxes, 
it is doing OpenOffice.org a disservice if it is seen to be compared less 
than favourably to another office suite that is currently ubiquitous in our 
society.

All the best
Jacqueline McNally
http://mc2.vicnet.net.au/users/zenryaku/

Community Contact, Australia/New Zealand
OpenOffice.org Marketing Project
(www.openoffice.org)

Are you a computer angel? (www.ca.asn.au)