Re: Metacity, Mutter, GNOME Shell, GNOME-2.28

[Xavier Bestel <xavier bestel free fr>]

On Tue, 2009-03-24 at 13:53 -0400, Owen Taylor wrote:
> On Tue, 2009-03-24 at 18:33 +0100, Xavier Bestel wrote:
> > On Tue, 2009-03-24 at 10:28 -0700, Sandy Armstrong wrote:
> > > On 03/24/2009 08:47 AM, Owen Taylor wrote:
> > > > Using Compiz to create a GNOME desktop using GNOME applications, the
> > > > GNOME control-center, and so forth will of course remain possible. We
> > > > have no current plans to create hard dependencies on GNOME Shell within
> > > > the GNOME desktop (just as there are no hard dependencies on gnome-panel
> > > > now.)
> > > 
> > > Yeah, but I can still use gnome-panel in compiz.  I understand the 
> > > reasoning here, and don't have any suggestions or anything, but it's a 
> > > bit disappointing that the new desktop experience will be so tied to the 
> > > window manager.
> > 
> > Asking to leave all the compiz goodness will be a tough sell :)
> 
> What in particular would you miss? We're not looking to take goodness
> away from you, we are looking to replace it with better goodness (*).
> 
> - Owen
> 
> (*) Better here means, in particular, better integrated with GNOME.
> Hopefully more concentrated on consistent design and usability. Probably
> not quite as pretty, at least initially. Though there's no inherent
> reason we can't match Compiz bling for bling; we have access to the same
> hardware capabilities and a better programming environment.

Admittedly I never tried gnome-shell. When I first tried compiz, I found
the bling really just that: bling. I used it for a while, then came back
to metacity - oh the horror ! Once you're accustomed to wobbly windows
and workspaces-on-a-cube, there's no going back. The feeling of a
"solid" desktop, with tangible windows is true usability, not just eye
candy. There's more: non-computer-savvy people can't really grasp the
workspace concept with metacity, whereas with compiz's cube (or one of
its variants) it's obvious to them.
Yes, metacity has a compositor. It's better but still far away.

Of course I'm open to other ways to map my mind to the multiple
applications running on my desktop, like most. But if gnome-shell feels
clunky, if it looses the objects-I-can-touch feeling that compiz has,
it's gonna be a tough sell.

	Xav