Experiences with Gnome-Shell
First of all, I must admit that the new design and concept of
gnome-shell surprised and convinced me. I was quite doubtfully when I
first read of the Gnome 3.0 ideas. Now, after trying gnome-shell 2.28
for myself, I think it is really a step into the right direction and
some evolution to the desktop. It is not just some cool effects rather
the use of new technical capabilities in order to simplify (or
re-organize) the way people are used to computers.
Nevertheless, there are some issues I have faced during my first trials.
I present them here regardless they are already fixed in more recent
versions.
* Calender item
The calender item in the middle of the topbar should behave as the
calendar applet in Gnome < 3.0 did, i.e. it shows date and time in a
tooltip on hover, it uses the calender from Evolution and is
configurable (format of time, date, appointments and weather). I want to
access my appointments stored in Evolution by this item. I want to know
the current date very simple when writing a letter without having it
permanently displayed in the panel.
* Window list missing
I am unsure if the display of the current window within the topbar is
useful. Since the current window is visible I know what this window is,
however a quick overview of the open windows on the current workspace is
missing. Due to this lack I am quite often unsure what keys to use, Alt
+Tab in order to jump to the next window on the current workspace or
Ctrl+Alt+Cursor in order to change the workspace.
Some ideas:
1. Maybe, small icons indicating any open windows on a workspace
would help.
2. Another idea is a drop-down menu like window selector on hover
over the display of the current window in the topbar.
3. A hot corner that shows an overview of the current workspace
quickly without displaying the Activity menu (as already
proposed in another thread here).
This issue is a blocker for me! Simple switching between windows on a
workspace by mouse is a must (IMO). A typical usecase is: I use one
workspace for Internet and communication (Firefox and Evolution) another
for programming. Here are the following windows open: Olive, several
shells, an editor, maybe Eclipse and a File manager. It is tedious to
tab through the whole application switcher in order to change from one
application to another not recently used. Quick switching with Alt+Tab
is good but I really want to access windows individually in an easy way.
Moreover, frequent changes between mouse and keyboard interaction should
be avoided. I like using the keyboard but when I am already scrolling
within a window using the mouse, I don't want to change to keyboard in
order to switch the application.
* Alignment of workspaces
When using the workspace switcher I have to use ArrowUp and ArrowDown
(the workspace are located in a column) however in the Overview the
workspaces are located in a row. This is confusing.
* Colors, Fonts and Theming in general
The overall appearance needs improvements. The fonts used in the topbar
look quite ugly on my machine and the color scheme in black is not a
good solution for me. Since my laptop display is one of the glare kind
where color reproduction highly depends on the angle of view, using pure
black on my screen is really bad to recognize. This holds especially in
light and sunny environments.
Good job and keep at it. I am looking for your comments.
Best regards.
Jean-Peer
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: Dies ist ein digital signierter Nachrichtenteil