Re: some more questions on the control center shell, etc

[Nathaniel McCallum <nathaniel natemccallum com>]

On Wed, 2007-01-24 at 17:43 +0000, Thomas Wood wrote:
> Calum Benson wrote:
> > On Wed, 2007-01-24 at 14:23 +0100, Rodrigo Moya wrote:
> >> On Wed, 2007-01-24 at 08:05 -0500, Matthias Clasen wrote:
> > 
> >>> I don't think this needs to be removed. We probably just need to complete
> >>> the classification of the capplets, and work on the real control center
> >>> problem, which is "too many capplets".
> >>>
> >> this is #1 priority for 2.19/2.20 development, so if you have any idea,
> >> please bring it to us.
> > 
> > Of course if we'd tackled that problem first, we might not have needed
> > to switch back to a shell at all :/
> 
> Change back? I thought people had agreed that in the long run the menus 
> were not a good idea, and that a usable shell was much nicer?
> 
> The current shell is not perfect and it still has issues that need to be 
> ironed out, but I don't think that any blocker issues cannot be resolved 
> before release. Are we suggesting that even if we had a perfect shell, 
> it would still not be more usable and accessible as using a menu?

I have two disappointments with the shell.  The first is the increased
length of time it takes for me to load a capplet.  For instance, when I
switch networks, I have to load the shell (which takes its dear sweet
time) and then find the proxy icon and then load the capplet. I've timed
it and it takes between 10-12 seconds including my time hunting down the
icon.  The menu takes about 2 seconds.  This is on a 2GHz Core Duo with
2GB memory.

Granted, the real problem with this scenario is that my proxy doesn't
just switch automatically with my network.  And yes, I can cut down the
time to about 5 seconds if I search for "proxy" when the shell loads.
But still, a 2.5x to 6x slowdown is a regression in my book.  I think it
would be far better to just trim down the number of capplets.

My second disappointment is much less tangible than speed: I no longer
have the ability to easily distinguish between preferences or settings.
Which of these utilities affects users other than myself?  I liked that
separation in the old menu.  Of course, that is just my personal
opinion.

Nathaniel