Ubuntu 100 Paper Cuts Usability Initiative – Professional focus on one hundred usability issues within the Ubuntu operating system

For those who haven’t heard, Ubuntu’s One Hundred Paper Cuts is an initiative of sorts, to fix 100 minor usability bugs in Ubuntu (and Kubuntu). It is being working through over a period of 10 weeks with 10 bugs scheduled to be fixed in each one week long milestone. These ‘paper cuts’ are described as usability bugs that are easily fixed by developers and are issues that would likely be encountered by a new Ubuntu user on their first day of use. The paper cuts initiative is primarily focusing on the specific usability issues with the Ubuntu Desktop Edition, but several bugs also apply to, or have been specifically reported against Kubuntu components which will also be worked upon.

This initiative is great, not necessarily in implementation (although I do applaud those working on it directly), but in planning and mode of thought. It shows that Ubuntu really is striving to become the most usable and user-friendly distribution available. Some of the usability issues are very simple problems that are easily fixed, making them ideal to be defined as paper cuts. For example, the unexpected scrolling through available workspaces, a simple mis-leading tooltip, a proposed change of the file manager’s (Nautilus’) default toolbar layout or even an issue as simple as shipping more or less screensavers by default. Almost all of these usability bugs are incredibly simple fixes, in many cases (such as the ‘unexpected scrolling through available workspaces’ issue, the fix was a simple toggle of an existing boolean value. For the most part, these bugs have had much more time dedicated to discussion of the issue, and its intended resolution from dedicated community members, that the time required to fix them.

I personally think that this is fantastic way to tackle all the small issues with Ubuntu that can really annoy first-time users, but do not concern the more experienced or seasoned users of Ubuntu. It looks from the Launchpad interface for One Hundred Paper Cuts, that this initiative will be continued into further releases of Ubuntu. Hopefully, this is the case and not only will each release have more features, speed and stability, but also an ever increasing usability factor for new Ubuntu users.

There is plenty more information regarding 100 Paper Cuts, its initial progress and integration/planning for Kubuntu. Please comment and tell me, what do you think of the initiative? Do you think it should continue with each new release of Ubuntu, and should there be more focus on the core product Ubuntu, or should it be split more equally with Kubuntu and Xubuntu?

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