yum-presto not on by default

[Adam Williamson]

On Fri, 2009-09-25 at 00:48 -0400, Seth Vidal wrote:

> >> I know that when I have problems with something I google for the answer.
> >
> > But they wouldn't be having any problems. It's not as if anything
> > doesn't work if you're not using yum-presto. They'd just be missing out
> > on a possible improvement.
> 
> So having an item like:
> 
> "I have a slow network connection. Is there anything you can do to make 
> it easier to update fedora?"
> Yes: install the yum-presto pkg

but as you pointed out, most people interact with documentation in a 'I
am having a problem, hence I will search for a solution to it' paradigm.
This isn't hard to demonstrate. Look how often you see blog posts / IRC
comments where someone serendipitously discovers a utility or parameter
which makes their life easier, and which is also very well documented.
Because they weren't having any actual _problems_ (just doing something
less efficiently than they possibly could be), they hadn't thought to
look through the documentation and learn about it. Hell, that's probably
happened to all of us. I know it happens to me, frequently.

I suspect there are detailed studies on this done by usability
researchers, somewhere out there. of course, there are tensions; it's
hard (well, impossible) to design a complex interface with defaults that
are correct for all uses by all users. but you have to take into account
the tendency for people not to discover useful but non-necessary
enhancements that are not enabled by default, when you're deciding on
your defaults, and try to accommodate it where this doesn't lead to
egregious horribleness.

-- 
Adam Williamson
Fedora QA Community Monkey
IRC: adamw | Fedora Talk: adamwill AT fedoraproject DOT org
http://www.happyassassin.net