If a problem is preventing you from using git-annex, or the git-annex assistant, please indicate it here.
If you're currently using git-annex, you can instead answer on behalf of less technically adept friends or family, and identify a problem blocking them from using the git-annex assistant.
too hard to install (3%)
too hard to use (22%)
not good enough documentation (7%)
because of a bug (that has been reported) (3%)
because of a bug (that's not been reported yet) (3%)
because I don't think it's ready (7%)
Need easy way to use assistant (webapp) with sites like github for people not having access to a server to sync computers that are never simultaneously on (16%)
information gets lost on a hard shutdown (0%)
assistant doesn't run on windows (10%)
doesn't work in older Android (0%)
To use it for real, I would need the assistant to be able to handle more functions (in particular: decide which files to keep locally and which files to store only remotely; yes, I know about the archive subdirectory, but it is too coarse for me) (12%)
because of missing Windows support (webapp) (1%)
OSX problems with symlinks - http://git-annex.branchable.com/design/assistant/desymlink/ (1%)
Too slow for large archive (5%)
It doesn't work on Mac OS Snow Leopard (1%)
Needs better support for NAS drives (3%)
Total votes: 193
(Note that missing ports covers ports to Windows etc, so don't add them here.)
On behalf of my girlfriend and her friends, who are heavy tech users but love things to "just work" Apple style. This means: Lowest conceivable cognitive load, always a "dominant path of action", and compelling metaphors for any required action that remains.
I believe a major thing that is in the way of general usability is jargon: It is logical that git-annex-assistant is an assistant with which to add an annex with git, but she'd probably try to parse that word, give up, and use something else. She would assume that she needs to understand what "git annex assistant" means in order to use it. By comparison, dropbox is an excellent metaphor: It tells you what it is and what to do with it right in the name. Nevertheless, she would love what git annex assistant can do for her, including all the parts that git does, but she only would want to be confronted with the functionality when she needs it, such as being able to "search" for an old deleted file and find it in the "deleted files" search results.
jitsi might be a decent place to look for an example. I would have been hard pressed to recommend "sip communicator" to my girlfriend and her friends. Cognitive overload is a really bad state of mind for someone you're pitching something to. By contrast, while jitsi is no usability maverick by any measure, the simple name and the pretty blue color branding made it a piece of cake to migrate them once they understood the benefits ("no eavesdropping"). The simple name and pretty brand made them assume the product was made "for them too". They never learned what "OTR" is nor did they care, they just wanted me to tell them they can trust jitsi.
Aside the naming thing, what would be needed would be a dead simple "instant gratification" setup. You just sign up with your email and password, and you just install the app and enter your password on all devices, and that's it. Setting up some encrypted transfer storage, creating repositories on devices, and getting an XMPP account would all have to happen completely behind the scenes, at least at the first default signup, or we're talking "instant cognitive overload" again. Probably lots of what is currently done in the web app should be done in config files instead, or at least an "advanced" section, because it's already power user stuff. Most of the benefit will probably just come from "just get a sync folder", the same way the main benefit of Excel is that you can arrange data in a table and print it.
A friend came over last night, and I copied one of my git-annex archives to his external drive. I did the following:
First, this mostly failed, because there were weird accents in the filenames and NTFS didn't like that. After explaining the implications of switching to a Linux filesystem, I reformatted and did it again. The second thing is that this clone takes quite a while, which is understandable because there are a lot of files and around 130GB of data.
The other thing is that when I tried to explain to him how git-annex worked, I ended up showing him the symlinks, which kind of freaked him out. I knew I had lost him already, but I persevered: see, to make your life easier, I'll switch to direct mode, here. See the files that we picked earlier? They are really there now!
cd foo git annex get bar # oops, scary symlinks! git annex direct # feel a little better
Of course, the scary commandline had a dissuading effect already. I probably should have stuck with the webapp in the first place, but there I didn't exactly know how to add an external drive to my annex - and besides I didn't trust that he wouldn't simply remove most of the files i copied over.
His general response was that he was curious, but he was an "analog type of guy" that manages his stuff like his manages his collection of records (I find his organisation messy, personnally, and there are no backups but that's just me :P). He found the project interesting, especially the possibility of syncing up later, but since he had forgotten the way to access my server through SSH, this was also lost on him.
He may end up using it without him knowing, in a way: the files are all physically there, thanks to direct mode, and I left him with the
.gitdirectory lying around, so I can easily sync if he brings the drive back. But he will not use it himself. I think one of the biggest blocker for him is that the assistant webapp actually does so little: the cool feature he liked was the possibility of syncing only parts of the annex, and the webapp doesn't make that really easy.The other thing is that he wanted to reorganise the files in his own copy of the annex, which I think is possible, but again, nothing in the webapp there.
One day, maybe.
Oh and another thing: he asked me about how to backup his files on his computer to this external drive. I explained him the basic "drag and drop the folder" trick, which basically does a
One problem there is that git-annex assumes a certain level of organisation of your data, which a lot of people simply don't have. It may be fine for the
cp -aof everything each time (ugh), and again brought back the point aboutgit-annexbeing able to do stuff like that, at which point he looked at the sky and I felt I was trying to sell him an old used car so I stopped.~/Desktopdirectory for example, but then his backups wouldn't have covered his desktop configuration (thedotfiles) which he cares about...Hopefully that is useful usability data.