Re: Feedback on gnome-shell 2.29.0-3

[niels ellegaard gmail com (Niels L. Ellegaard)]

Johannes Schmid <jhs jsschmid de> writes:

> Am Freitag, den 18.06.2010, 13:03 +0200 schrieb Niels L. Ellegaard:
>> Today I made gnome-shell work for the first time, and I have spend a few
>> hours toying around in gnome-shell 2.29.0-3 on Debian. It looks shiny,
>> but I also discovered some problems. I don't know how many of these are
>> fixed in the newest version of gnome-shell, so feel free to ignore
>> selectively.
>
> It not really makes sense to discuss things when you only tested 2.29.0
> which is very pre alpha. You should at least try one of the 2.31.x
> builds to get a useful impression.

That is a good point. Here is an updated version of my mail. I use
the following instructions to build, and I had no problem compiling. I
like the way that the script suggested me which debian packages to
install

http://live.gnome.org/GnomeShell

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.  

One suggestion is to add a few links such as as "office
program", "Internet", "video", or "game" to the extended application
menu. If I pressed a link then the corresponding text could be typed in
to the find dialog, and I could get the search results. That would teach
me how to use the system. Alternatively you could use vertical lines to
part the extended application menu in to sections.

It would be nice to have more meta data describing each program. If
I search for a string such as "calendar", "schedule" or "appointment"
or "date" then I would like to find evolution-calendar. If I search for
a part of a mime-type such as "ogg" and "excel", then I would like to
find the programs that can handle the given mime-type.

I like the idea of having 6 visible application icons in the
activities menu, but it is confusing that these 6 icons are a mixture
between a favorite list and a kind of windows list. The icons
corresponding to running programs disappear when I close the program,
but the favorites do not disappear when I close the program. That leaves
an impression that gnome-shell is somewhat  unpredictable. If I right
click on one of the 6 application icons then I get a menu that mixes up
configuration behavior (changing favorites) with navigation behavior
(find a running instance of a given program). I find that confusing, and
it slows me down because I am afraid of pressing a menu entry that adds
or removes a favorite. 

If you train new users to use the 6 icons in the activities menu as a
windows switcher then they may run in to problems as soon as their
browser creates two windows. The problem is that new users will not
automatically guess that they have to use the right click menu to find
the hidden browser window.

Maybe the best solution is to remove the icons of running programs from
the "applications" section of the "activities" menu. This will not cause
problems because the user can always use the workspace selector to move
between windows. Of course some vision imparted users will find fit
distinguish be between the windows in the window selector, but perhaps
you can solve this by placing icons on top of the programs on top of the
windows in the workspace selector. (Place a firefox icon on to of the
firefix window... etc.)

If the activities menu is open then I cannot press an icon 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. (Omar suggested that this was a gtk issue)

If I use the workspace selector and press in the space between
two windows in one of the minimized work spaces then nothing happens. I
have to press exactly on top of a window in a minimized
workspace. That requires me to spend extra time aiming with the mouse.

I don't think that users should be allowed to use the workspace selector
 to close a running program. I think that the danger of closing a
program by mistake is too high. If a user makes this  mistake once, he
may gain a lasting mistrust to the workspace selector.

Between the activities menu and the clock I found a widget dsiplaying
the name of the window that is presently open. Maybe this widget work in
progress, but right now it is not so useful. Maybe it would be better to
place a window list or a list of active programs here. If you are afraid
of using too much space, then you can remove the text and just put the
icons coprespnoding to the active windows.

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

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

Perhaps you could rename the menu in the upper right corner
into "account". That would allow me to search for the strings "account"
and "gnome-shell" on google. A title such as "account" would also help
me understand what the entries in the menu have in common.

The workspace selector applet of gnome 2.28 provides graphical
information telling 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
effectively. 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 pop up that appears when I press
ctrl-alt-left/right.

Maybe the  menu could contain an item that told me that I am running
gnome 2.31.

I hope that this mail was not too much of a rant. It has been a pleasant
experience to try out the gnome-shell. I think that it has the potential
to become a nice desktop environment to work with.

          Niels