Re: gnome-shell-list Digest, Vol 20, Issue 18

[Jon Vivian <jon treshna com>]

Hi All,

I have been using gnome-shell almost exclusively since Christmas both at work and at home as well as following the mailing list and various related discussions. I agree wholeheartedly with all of the points raised by Niels. I realise that some of these things are either already addressed or likely to be, however all are, in my opinion, excellent comments and good suggestions.

Cheers,

Jon

 

It would be nice to have a simple and visible way to disable gnome-shell
animations. Perhaps the animations should be disabled by default.

It is difficult for a new user to guess you can use the "find"-dialog to
search for a general string such as "game" or "CD" or
"spreadsheet". Therefore it is difficult to use the activities dialog to
find a program to burn a CD or to create a spreadsheet.  Perhaps the
extended application menu could contain a links to a few predefined
searches such as "office program", "internet", "video", or "game". If I
pressed a link then the coresponding text could be typed in to the find
dialog, and I could get the search results. This would teach me how to
use the system.

If the activities menu is open I cannot open the menu in the upper right
corner. Ideally opening one menu should close the other.

If the activities menu is open and I then I cannot press an icon on the
menu bar to open a minimized program such as empathy, gnotes, or
gnome-xchat. Ideally pressing an icon on the menu bar should close the
activities dialog.

It would be nice to be able to use alt-ctrl-left/right while the
activities dialog is open.

On my laptop I have to press three buttons simultaneously to use the
shortcut alt-f1 to open the activities dialog. The problem is that f1 is
a two button combination. Perhaps you could change this shortcut to
something like ctrl-esc.

Once the activities dialog is open, I would like to be able to use the
tab key or arrow keys to select a program or document to open. Right now
I have to use the mouse.

The menu bar contains a small graphic with the name of the window that
is presently open. As far as I can see this graphic doesn't do anything.
Perhaps you can replace it with a window-list.

I would like the calendar dialog to contain information from evolution
calendar and evolution tasks.

The menu in the upper right corner allows me to set my IM-status, but it
doesn't allow me to send an IM-message. I find that confusing.

The menu in the upper right corner has my name as a title. That makes it
difficult for me to search for help on google and in the gnome help
system. If I type my name in to google I don't get help on the
gnome-shell menu system.

The sidebar contains the same information as the activities menu, so
perhaps it is redundant. It would be nice to have something like the
windows sidebar where I can place a list of small helpful gadgets.

The workspace selector applet of gnome 2.28 tells me which program is
opened in which workspace. This information is always visible, so I do
not have to press any buttons to get it, and that allows me to use
ctrl-alt-left/right very efectively. In gnome shell I have to open the
activities dialog and have a look at the work spaces, before I can make
a choice of where I want to go. That slows me down. Perhaps you could
solve this problem by adding more information to the popup that appears
when I press ctrl-alt-left/right.

That is all for now. I am looking forward to seeing how the gnome-shell
will evolve.

    Niels