Re: Gnome support? we don´t need no stinking support!

[1920119 googlemail com]

> easier for Windows converts to grasp
> too confusing
> confuse newbies

This is contempt for the (l)user's intelligence is exactly the
attitude that drives people away from Windows in the first place.
Generally, people will ignore what they don't understand, and look an
icon or label that relates to what they want to do. Gnome 2's approch
was very descriptive and helpful in this respect.

Besides, for me at least, a huge part of the appeal of GNOME/GNU/Linux
was that it didn't disempower the user by giving presenting them with
a simplified-but-crippled interface, but enabled the kind of
exploration that is absolutely necessary for confidence and actual
learning. It may be difficult to accept, but all interfaces will be
unfamiliar and frightening at first.

I'm not suggesting making Emacs the default text editor, but even the
"average Joe" can work out how to use a workspace switcher (which sits
unobtrusively on the panel, not doing anything until you decide to see
what it does), and will see immediately that the ten seconds of
confusion suffered will save him a lot of time and effort later on.

> hideous mess of tiny buttons

Ironic, as Gnome's panels manage to squander a lot more screen space
than Windows, despite my XP 'start bar' having more icons than my
Gnome panels. Actually, icons on the three current Windows systems all
seem to be smaller than on Gnome, though maybe it's a matter of how it
scales with screen resolution.

On 27/05/2011, Andrew Wood <a j w me com> wrote:
> Personally though I think Gnome 3 is going to be much easier for Windows
> converts to grasp, I think they had an tendency to find all the applets
> and the workspace switcher in 2, too confusing.
>
> I also think that the new way of switching between windows is far better
> if you have lots of windows open - in which case the switcher bar in
> Gnome 2 just became a hideous mess of far too many tiny buttons, which
> you couldnt distinguish between without hovering your mouse over each
> one and reading the tooltip to see which one was for what window.
>
> If youve only got a handful of windows open you can just move one to the
> side and click the other without having to goto 'Activities', and even
> when you do need to, a single press of the Windows key saves you having
> to move the mouse to it.
>
> Maybe its just my zen minimalist ideal but Im glad the applets have gone
> -- too much 'junk' which had the potential to confuse newbies. Like
> Dashboard in Mac OS X - out of all the Mac users I know, and I know a
> lot, no one uses it, and many are confused by its presence.
>
> I guess it depends what you want - a power Unix user style workstation
> or something which has the potential to attract average Windows
> consumers who still throw a fit if you put a PC in front of them which
> isnt running something made by Microsoft.
>
> Personally Im happy to see Gnome going after the latter, others will
> have different ideals of course, but mine is a world where Linux is a
> true desktop contender for the average Joe.
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