Thoughtful feedback

[coby ingram <coby peru com>]

Friends--

I've been using gnome-shell for a couple months now (and computers for
almost 30 years) and there are a couple things I hope you adjust as
you go along.

First of all I am a generalizing thinker.  It occurs to me that the
Activities overlay is like nothing so much as the XP Start Menu.  It
has all the same components.  We have reinvented the wheel, and Lo! It
is round!

Research says there are four main personality types / learning styles.
 How about optimizing the shell for different thinking styles?

You already have Search, and a Recently Used space for both apps and
files.  That covers people who think a couple different ways.  But be
careful, please, as you whittle down non-essentials, not to take away
the best parts of Linux.  Don't let user-friendliness become a
creeping fog that hides the transparency we love.

If Windows and Mac are like black boxes, Linux is kind of like a
grandfather clock where you can see the gears.

My solution?  From my point of view what I use most (on any OS I'm on
at the moment) is the Tree sidebar in the file browser.  I like to
organize my thoughts in files and directories.

How about, instead of just trying to make the best window manager
possible, you combine functionalities with the file browser?  When the
overlay comes up it should have the functionality of the Nautilus
sidebar, give or take.  That means if I want a tree menu, or a
semitransparent icon overlay inside a directory, that's an option.  I
know, that's been the default since Windows 3.  Is that a bad thing?

There you have it, kind of.  Different navigation styles for different
folks.  Search, file types (which at this point is your App menu),
history, and logical organization.

I really like the new shell.  I find myself hunting for that hot
corner (and being disappointed) when I'm at work or the college on a
borrowed Windows box.  Besides, I don't know how to uninstall it :D

It's kind of Wii-like.  That's a good direction, IMHO.  I wouldn't
mind more icons (as an option), like a phone.

If I could make a Christmas wish for a couple more things it'd be that
I hope you guys are working on making the overlay skinnable (e.g. CSS)
and that you're focusing on whittling down the number of clicks or
mouseovers it takes to begin a given task.

Hope that's an encouragement,

Cool runnings,

Coby