Migrating to New Software

Copying an email in my inbox that I recently read for what appears to be the first time.^1

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Marcello Romani
Date: Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 23:20
I think the lesson here is twofold:

1) before showing a new program to someone, be sure to know it well, or at least to know well the functions you want to show in that particular situation;

2) persuading someone to change habits is very hard; when "habit" means "I'm used to click there, there, and there and I've got my work done" the job becomes virtually impossible; so you have to be _very_ prepared to answer the typical question: that task in my usual software is done so and so, how do I do it in the new one ? If the motivation to try a new software is not coming from the user herself, she won't be very patient when encountering difficulties, so you have to ease the learning curve yourself;

Thanks for ranting publicly :-) I think your feelings are shared by many (I event felt quite the same sometimes when I first tried FOSS software years ago), so discussing them here might be helpful.

Marcello

^1:  On the email account in question, I am several years behind in looking at what is in my inbox.  For my other email accounts, the inbox is purged at least once a fortnight.