“User Friendly reads like Dilbert for the Information
Technology and Open Source communities.“
“The just-released follow-up to the extraordinarily popular
first collection of User Friendly comic strips from O’Reilly &
Associates, (“User Friendly”, $12.95), “Evil Geniuses in a
Nutshell” tells the continuing tale of Columbia Internet, “the
friendliest, hardest-working and most neurotic little Internet
Service Provider in the world.” Take three techs, two sales people,
a designer, two executives, a couple of administrative staff, mix
in a mischievous Artificial Intelligence and a “Dust Puppy” born
from the innards of a mega server, put them all together in a
crowded little office, and you have the makings of one of the most
off-beat, original and funny comic strips to come along in
years.”
“If you ask 20 people what User Friendly is about, you’ll get 20
subtly different answers,” says the cartoon’s creator, J.D.
‘Illiad’ Frazer. “Some say it’s a cartoon about Open Source; some
say it’s about the rift between technical and nontechnical staff;
others say its about the pain that technical people suffer when
dealing with the stubbornly unintelligent; some even say that User
Friendly is a cartoon about Internet Workers. User Friendly
addresses all those issues, but I don’t think that’s what it’s
about, strictly speaking. User Friendly’s universe revolves around
the simple idea that technology brings out both the best and the
worst in people, no matter who they are.”