[opencms-dev] Horrid start

[Tim Pizey]

Hi, 

OpenCMS gives a bizarre first impression, 
on the one hand it is brilliant, on the other stupid. 

Great start:
Download, copy war to webapps, go!

Oh no, download Documentation module, 
oh no download zipped PDF to find out how to install 
Documentation module, 
unzip
startup pdf browser, ferret through PDF, 
to find that all you needed to do was click on upload module, 
two levels in. 

What is the explanation?

I think you must have technical authors on the staff, 
who review their work in printed form. 

PLEASE get rid of all PDF files, or at least have them as 
an option, they are horrid, even if they look good and 
print well they are the antithesis of what the web is about. 

I have now spent the time available to me to evaluate OpenCMS, 
most of that time was wasted reading waffle. 

Please bundle EVERYTHING into one download.
Please get rid of the verbiage, the last time I saw 
such waffle was when I tried to get to grips with 
the Swedish Mimer DB, before that it was in 
the eighties - people don't want leisurly prose 
they want to know what to do, for preference in a text file, 
html if you must, PDF is for managers not people who use systems. 

I hope to get time to come back to OpenCMS, 
but you never get a second chance to make a first impression, 
out of the box I had no idea what this product was, what it could do 
why I would need it, two hours later I have still got no idea. 

yours
Tim Pizey