Re: One very unhappy Linux user

[John Jason Jordan <johnxj comcast net>]

On Mon, 28 Nov 2011 08:26:16 -0500
"Brian J. Murrell" <brian interlinx bc ca> dijo:

>On Mon, 2011-11-28 at 10:48 +0100, Olav Vitters wrote:
>> Furthermore, tablet? GNOME 3 is hardly usable on a tablet.

>Hardly usable on a desktop and hardly usable on a tablet?  What an epic
>fail then.  I was at least hoping that the poor desktop experience was
>a trade-off for an exceptional tablet experience.
>
>If it's hardly usable on a tablet and hardly usable on a desktop, where
>is it usable?

I have been reading this thread with some interest, since I recently
moved to Xfce as a refugee from Gnome 3. I have little to say regarding
usability and preferences, because those are so subjective that my
opinion on them would be largely useless to anyone else anyway.

I did want to comment on the tablet issue, because it appears that
people here have completely misunderstood the reason that Gnome 3 looks
sort of like a tablet. It is not so that Gnome 3 will run on a tablet.
It is to make Gnome 3 appear comfortable to those who have learned how
to use tablets and, to a lesser extent, the newer smartphones.

Just about all tablets and the vast majority of smartphones run Android
or Apple operating systems, and the GUIs are so similar that the largest
Android phone manufacturer (Samsung) is in court with Apple in more
countries than I can count. That GUI is very icon-centric, as would be
expected of a touchscreen device. Gnome developers are banking on the
further proliferation of tablets and smartphones in the marketplace, and
their gamble may be well placed. Forget about making a GUI that Windows
or Mac users are comfortable with; both those platforms are going to
lose market share to tablets, or so the Gnome developers expect. Indeed,
tablets may become the entry computer of the future, and when I watch
people fiddling with their phones in the mall they are overwhelmingly
smartphones with touchscreens.

It would not surprise me to see Microsoft and Apple release tablet-like
GUIs for Windows and MacOS. It's all about marketing. People will buy
what they are comfortable with; people do not want to be challenged
(present company excepted).