An introduction with a request

[Jesse Krenzelok <jlkrenzelok riversidemachine com>]

Hello-

Let me start with acknowledging that there are a lot of Gnome haters 
around.  I'm not one of them- I'm an ex-Windows user, at least in my 
private life (though by day, I still do IT work on Windows, because 
that's just the way it is for now, if you want a paycheck,) and I 
absolutely love almost everything about Gnome 3- it's fresh, clean, 
smooth and fast.  I know why people don't like it because I see what 
they *do* like, which is more Windows, only with a Penguin logo pasted 
on it.

I'm actually okay with that, because I know that those folks are a dying 
breed- even MS is trying to kill them with their Metro interface.  My 
kids don't really "get" Windows, but they'll use the heck out of Gnome 3 
or Android without a second thought, and I like that- a new generation 
should have a new interface- later on, we can have a retro Windows 
revival if people want it.

So, that being said, I'm going to go against what I've read, and assume 
that you kind folks who have developed Gnome to where it is today are 
not going to simply ignore feedback- I can see why you would, if people 
are demanding that your desktop look and feel like Windows 2000, but 
that's not what I am looking for.  I want exactly what you have going 
on, with a teeny-tiny tweak that is irritating to keep setting up manually.

All I want for Christmas, Gnome team, is a little status bar on the 
bottom of my Nautilus pane that tells me how much hard-drive space I 
have left.  Come on, guys- I have ok-ish computers, and they're all 
running OpenSUSE 12.3 with Gnome 3.  Part of what makes them decent is 
SSDs- and at a buck a Gb, give or take, I've been sort of stingy with 
space- it's one thing to splurge on a single machine, but I have eight 
Linux boxes and laptops, and they only have 128Gb each on average.  
That's fine for spreadsheets and pdfs, but my crown jewel is a custom 
built i7 machine with a fast GPU and 16 GB of RAM- and Play on Linux 
will only install on the primary drive because they're annoying like 
that. so matter how many extra drives I add, it's still starving for 
storage space if I want to play more than one or two modern games.

It doesn't matter when you have plenty of space, but when things start 
to get tight, no one wants to right-click and select properties every 
time they need to do something.  I know you're blazing new ground, and 
I'm happy to march with you and wave the flag, but cutting that really 
simple and expected piece of functionality seems kind of bizarre.

So, what do you say?  Don't change anything else, I like what you've 
done with the place- but could you please just let me manage my memory 
without jumping through hoops?  Maybe an easy option in the system settings?

Now that I asked for my thing, here's what I love about what you've 
done- because you deserve my praise, not just a critique.  The hotspot 
in the upper left is superb- didn't know I wanted it, but now I get 
irritated when I use my work computer because it isn't there.  Even 
better is the sliding workspace- with the right hot keys, that is the 
best thing since sliced bread- on a Lenovo thinkpad, the page up and 
page down keys on either side of the up arrow have become my most 
beloved things to tap.  After getting that functionality, I forgot that 
desktops and their stupid wallpaper even existed in the first place as I 
merrily zip from Evince to Firefox to Thunderbird to Amarok to Skype and 
back again, never leaving full-screen, and with only the slightest and 
quickest of taps.

And thank you for making my applications search-able.  I don't know why 
people love folders like they do, but filing cabinets annoy the hell out 
of me.  I know what what I want is called, and it's truly great to be 
able to type in the first two or three letters and be where I need to 
go, without scrolling and drilling down.  Even better than that, the 
whole thing is kind of cartoon-y and fun- which really shouldn't matter, 
but I have enough things to worry about in a day without being reminded 
that I am supposed to make frown-faces and be serious as work-related 
stress kills me.

Oh, and that Gnome 3 extensions site you have- it's like art, only nicer 
to look at and easier to use.  I don't need most of that stuff, but I've 
never had a better experience installing things that I wanted on any 
OS.  Want the weather on you task bar?  Ok, click here and it's done 
right now, with no other BS.  It can't be any better than that without 
actually reading peoples' minds.

So, good job folks.  I appreciate it.  I had that one thing I'd like to 
see, but that's really pretty petty in the grand scheme of things.  
Please keep doing what you do for as long as you can- most folks want 
everything to be as comfortable as an old slipper, but some of us still 
love to see new ways to do things, even if they're not just what we 
expected.

Thanks,

Jesse