Re: Gnome-Shell - questions and opinions

[Nex6 <borg borg1911 com>]

On 12/29/2010 02:50 PM, Giovanni Campagna wrote:
> Il giorno mer, 29/12/2010 alle 14.17 -0800, Nex6 ha scritto:
> > hi all,
> >
> > First I would like to say great work on Gnome/Gnome-shell. I loaded
> > Gnome-Shell on Fedora 14 and messed arround with it for awhile. I also,
> > poked around the NET, and the archives of this list (just joined today).
> Current (2.91.4 / git master) gnome-shell experience is very different
> from the Fedora 14 packaged one (2.31.5). You should use jhbuild to get
> the latest version, follow instructions at
> http://live.gnome.org/GnomeShell#building


as soon as I get a chance I will upgrade to the latest.
> > But I sadly, I agree with those that think the use patterns/work-flows
> > of Gnome-Shell is not right. I really like the "control center" and the
> > lay-out under your user name. but the whole, activities, pop/zoom thing
> > click click click. just does not work. it would force you to create
> > shortcuts on the desktop. just to avoid that mess, the idea of a desktop
> > environment is to help the users with their work-flow. I am not saying
> > Gnome should copy OSX or windows. but, don't go off the deep end
> > different just to be different from them. when flipping around the
> > shell, the constant changing and zooming started to give me a headache.
> While being different is a marketing point, as it marks the reason for
> switching to GNOME, gnome-shell is not different for the sake of beign
> different, every design decision (including the most discussed ones, and
> including those still under discussion) have been made for its merits.
> Moving in particular to the zooming effect exposed by the Activities
> button, this has been reported many times by various users, but it is
> explicitly part of the design, as the purpose of that mode is to give an
> overview (hence the technical name, "Activities Overview") of active
> windows, applications, and tasks (in the future,>  3.1, it will have
> contacts, desktop search, zeitgeist logging, etc.).
> Still under discussion is the behaviour wrt window management inside the
> workspace. Some proposals concentrated on gesture-based window
> management + shading of minimized windows (possibly shading to icon
> only), other instead wanted a gesture or button to emulate Alt-tab, or
> showing the favourite application list on the left of the workspace.


while I, as a Systems Design Engineer fully understand the "its by 
design" reasoning
and although I have not seen the latest builds the paradigm that 
Gnome-Shell brings
does not necessary mean that its correct. in fact, the OSX influences 
are very apparent.
and for the record I don't like them in OSX either... why should after I 
login by default getting
to my first application is two clicks at least? (unless I create a 
desktop shortcut?)

and the whole, copying OSXs application view (which I think is terrible 
in OSX) is likewise
a bad idea.  if it was combined with a category like view it would be 
fine but the whole OSX
likeness is flawed. and is less useful then even OSX as I can turn off 
expose in osx.

while Gnome shell brings alot of good things that could be great, the 
workflow and use patterns
seem very flawed. (at least with the build I have seen).

if your going to try and be different the windows and OSX, at least 
offer productivity gains
not costs....

> > ok, why not:
> >
> > make the activities a drop down menu/sidebar with no zooming, or better
> > yet make it optional/move the zoom some where else.
> The main point of the Activities Overview is to show all the windows at
> the same time, so this does not make sense in the current design.

flawed, if its the main view your interacting with. you can not add 
icons to the taskbar only the desktop. and using
alt-tab is now broken as if I have 4 terminal windows open the alt tab 
on loads all of them does not flip thru them as single windows.


> > next:
> >
> > make it possible to add icons/shortcuts to the top menu bar. infact make
> > it easy to do so like add a right click menu item under add to
> > favorites, as add to top menu. (make it movable)
> Why clobbering the top menu bar, when adding a favourite is just as
> clean and fast?
> (I'm referring to the new overview layout here, 2.31.5 still has the old
> layout, please update to see what I mean)

again its flawed, as it makes everything two clicks, why? and forces you 
into the expose like zooming
which screws with your eyes and focus.
> > also in the same vain, add a, "add to desktop item"
> The desktop (as the icon view behind the windows) is going to die,
> either in 3.0 or 3.2. We should not add more features to it.
wow..  yup true design productivity lets over design just because we can.
> > ok, that's good for now as I explore Gnome Shell I will add more.
> Thanks for your time reporting, it is always useful getting feedback
> before gnome-shell is released.

thanks....

> Giovanni