familarity trumps all

Product loyalty: consumers mistake familiarity with superiority Overall, the results suggest that all the years of arguments over […]

Product loyalty: consumers mistake familiarity with superiority

Overall, the results suggest that all the years of arguments over the relative merits of things like the Mac and Windows user interfaces were a waste of time: we’re generally convinced that whatever we’re familiar with is the best.

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    Lawrence Krubner

    That might be true in a general sense, though I think for specific tasks an expert should be able to somewhat objectively judge which tool/software/product works best. I’d assume a carpenter can tell what kind of hammer is best for framing, and what kind of hammer is best for flooring.

    Likewise, I worked with Macs from 1992 to 1997, then switched over to Windows. I was astounded how hard it was to customize the operating system on Windows machines. I thought it was only a matter of time before I understood Windows to the same degree as I understood Macs, but I worked with Windows machines pretty much full time from 1997 to 2006, and I never was able to figure out the interals to the same extent as I was able to figure out the Macs.

    Nowadays I use Ubuntu pretty much for all my work, and in less than 2 years I understand how to customize it much better than I was ever able to figure out Windows.

    On specific tasks, such as changing what should appear in a context menu when you right-click, it is demonstratable that Ubuntu is easier to customize than Windows. That is not mere bias arising from familiarity.

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