RE: gnome panel features and looks

[Jorg Rathlev <joerg jrsoftware de>]

> I was wondering if there are any plans to enhance the current look of
> the gnome panel. After looking at Mac OS X, it's looking behind times if
> you know what I mean. Personally, I like the basic look but fancy
> interfaces draws in people.

I think it is a misunderstanding that Mac OS X is just a "fancy interface".
If you take a look at the feature list, and especially at Apple's new OS X
interface guidelines (they're online somewhere at apple.com), you'll see
that there's much more than just Aqua and transparency. Note however that I
can only guess from the documentation and screenshots, I have not worked
with OS X yet (I don't have a Mac).

Adding a fancy look can make a good interface much better, but often makes a
bad interface even worse (the best example are probably web sites that use
flash for navigation). IMHO "feel" is much more important than "look".

Both the look and feel of GNOME need to be improved, but adding a bit of
alpha transparency at some fancy places won't do it.

Maybe fancy interfaces draw in people, but good interfaces do as well.
Compare the success of Windows CE to that of the Palm. Windows CE obviuosly
looks better (on a color display), but still the Palm is much more
successful. That might be because it's a bit cheaper and more widely
supported, but I guess it's also because all magazine reviews will tell you
that the Palm has an interface that is designed for the device, instead of
just putting Windows on that tiny screen like Microsoft did.

Anyway, I'd love to see alpha transparency in GNOME (or GTK), but it's not
the top requirement and it needs to be used very selectively.


Jorg