Re: Gnome 3 usability - one user's comments

[Frederic Muller <fredm gnome org>]

On 06/17/2011 12:48 PM, Sergio de Almeida Lenzi wrote:
> > So yes it is some work, but innovating in free software and on the
> > desktop is as well. While we (free software developers) tend to be
> > labeled as copycats for once there is a project that dares to try new
> > ways of doing things. I think it is very good for free software (my
> > personal opinion) and the GNOME project.
> >
> > Now we need users feedback to fine tune all those little remaining glitches.
> >
> > Thank you.
> >
> > Fred
> Thank you for your kindly answer...
> In my case (the 200 users), I shut down the Linux server and
> setup a FreeBSD 8.2 with ZFS and gnome 2.32 that make all the users happy...
> by the way, they liked the gdm 2.28 too that have the nice "gdmsetup"
> utility to change colors, backgrounds....
> and works with the console-kit...
>
> Now my problem is with the notebook users only (about 40-50) that runs
> on archlinux,
> it is becoming "old" and I cannot upgrade them...
> I ask to archlinux list, but they too does not understand that the users
> cannot live without
> the icons in the background, the panel, the switch applet, and the
> various applets that
> exists in the "old panel" ...
>
> The users came all from windows, and windows have the panel, the
> background icons, the drop down/up menus...
> and so on.. For us (me) windows gui is bad, is madness, is ugly, those
> applets are foolish things,
> and some of them love the "fish" or the "eye" applet, but it is what
> they (end users want)...
> imagine that some of them have about 30 to 50 icons in the background..
> a kind of thing they
> cannot live without..
>
> Gnome3 is a major advance, I know, it is faster, reliable, can do many
> more things, but what is missing
> is the interface end users used to work with, that includes: desktop
> icons, panel, and applets. if gnome3
> provides this 3 things, than problem is solved...
>
> by the way, I use archlinux in the notebooks because the hibernate, the
> camera, the network manager, the automount of volumes... and so on.
>
> Now I am thinking in installing FreeBSD 8.3 or 9.0 in their notebook, at
> least in 2 HP and 2 samsung it is working.
>
> I have others notebooks (acer 3050, 5050) running NetBSD, that is
> lightning fast..
>
> It is really a pity, archlinux worked very well for more than 2 years
> now...
>
> Sergio

Thank you for all those explanations. So you also understand that some 
of those old habits that users want are bad computing habits. It's a bit 
like trying to make your father/mother stop smoking because it's bad for 
their health. They want it though ;-)

I think you have about another 6 months to postponed any upgrade and use 
this time to prepare them. GNOME has some marketing material (slides, 
videos, etc) to explain why we made those changes. Most of them (please 
don't ask me about the others) have been made for good reasons.

As a side note you can enable the desktop icons through a key in Dconf . 
You might also want to check the other thread which has a lot of links 
and advice about customization of the current 3.0 release.

Good luck and hopefully everybody will be very excited to work with 
their shiny brand new GNOME 3!

Fred