[Usability]making GNOME more usable

[Eglë G <eglyte centras lt>]

Hello,

 I'd like to share some thoughts about Gnome usability. For a simple user,
I am, it isn't very easy to find a program for a task I want to do - there
are lots of programs in 'Applications' menu for every task (ex. Internet,
Office, etc.). For me it would be much better if the list of programs was
shorter. I do believe, that it is very good that Linux has great variety
of different programs for one task, but for simple users and expecially
newbies the system, which exists now, is too complex.
	Adam Wiggins, in  'Top 10 Things Wrong With Linux, Today' has touched the
same problem (http://people.trustcommerce.com/~adam/top10/wrong.html#4). 
In GNOME2 the list of things one wants to do could be under 'Actions'
dialog. Or it can be changed to "I want to..." as Adam suggests. The
program , which is set as default (in GNOME Control Center) for specific
task, (ex.Internet browser->Mozilla, office suite ->OpenOffice) , would
run. And in the same list could be the task - change default program of
the task, so if user don't like the selected default program, he can
change it by himself.
Some more things to the list:
	play music from CD
	work with office program (or separately - work with text document; work
with spreadsheet, etc.)
	manage files on this computer
	configure the system (it could run GNOME Control Center)
	etc.
It is very important that the tasks in the list could be changed to meet
the user's needs - ex. I don't have the internet connection, so I'm not
interested in how to write an e-mail or browse the web. 

Some usability problems of GNOME are analyzed in Usability test
http://primates.ximian.com/~anna/summit/.

BIG DISCOMFORT - program windows can hide  under GNOME upper menu panel.
 

Best regards, Egle G.


BTW  On GDM  screen would be more clear if  POSIX/C English was changed to
English (POSIX/C). Much easier to find the english language then.



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