Re: We need a logical way to switch through active windows.

[Jason Sauders <roastedtiresx gmail com>]

And see, that's what's great about Gnome Shell, is you can do things like that that you don't see in other desktop environments. However, I feel as though Gnome Shell is focusing too much on the ease of use with the keyboard and not really focused on the mouse portion of it too.

To gain the best of both worlds, I just feel like there needs to be an OPTION for some sort of dock-like way to manage active tasks. I love Gnome Shell, but I've done all of the adapting I feel as though I can do, and I still need that darn dock to feel efficient when using Gnome Shell. As much as I love docks, I have a hard time accepting that adding a 3rd party dock is the almighty answer to make Gnome Shell feel quick and easier to use.

Look at Gnome 2.X with panels. There's a panel option there to handle task management. If a user doesn't like it, they can delete the panel and add a dock. Blam. Perfect. Look at that. 2.X has out-of-the-box functionality to handle that, but if you don't like it, you can go with a dock if you prefer. Choice. Customization. I can't customize Gnome Shell to handle applications the way I like to unless I add a dock. To me, Gnome Shell out-of-the-box doesn't have an efficient way for us click-happy mouse pushers to quick open thunderbird, then back to VLC, then over to firefox, etc. To use the overlay for this for each and every single time is just... nauseating. I LOVE the overlay, I just don't think using it for every little window movement is the answer.

It's come leaps and bounds, and I'm sure only more good will come out of it. But let's look at the reality of it. We are Linux users. The beauty of Linux is choice, customization, etc. I understand customizing Gnome Shell right now might not be in the cards, but to plop Gnome Shell (assuming its current task-management state will be similar to now when it's finally released) in front of somebody and say, hey, here ya go, Alt+Tab and overlay are your friends. That's not smart, in my opinion. If people prefer that, great. But there's a tremendous amount of users out there who are using Gnome Shell with a dock because they're in the same boat I am. Gnome Shell is that 1969 Stingray Corvette that any car guy has ever wanted, yet it's on 3 wheels with a spare donut tire.

I'm not saying cater to my request. I'm just speaking for a large portion of the Gnome Shell community when I say, we'd like to see an option like what I suggested in my original message to become available. That would breathe choice and customizability into the Gnome Shell realm... something that Gnome 2.X users will most definitely expect when the time to migrate comes.

2010/2/2 Stéphan Peccini <stephan peccini fr>

Le mardi 02 février 2010 à 13:26 -0500, Jason Sauders a écrit :

> Sure, the overlay mode is there, but it's not user friendly when a
> user wants to sort through a bunch of instant messages or gimp
> windows. Having to hot corner to switch applications is not the way to
> go. Overlay mode is excellent for desktop management and utilizing the
> different workspaces to their full potential, but I don't view it as a
> task management tool.

I use the overlay to manage my tasks. And I can tell you that it is the
feature that made me switched from KDE that I have used for years. I
find very interesting to have only one gesture in order to be able to
manage a lot of actions or informations.

This is the only thing I can say. As long as I am able to use the
overlay to switch between tasks, manage desktops organisation or launch
actions (from recent items, ...), see tasks progress, I will keep on
using Gnome Shell.

--
Stéphan Peccini
Les photos : <URL:http://photonature.fr>
Les Pyrénées : <URL:http://photonature.fr/pyrenees>
Le blog : <URL:http://pyrenees.peccini.fr>

_______________________________________________
gnome-shell-list mailing list
gnome-shell-list gnome org
http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-shell-list