An introduction with a request



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






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