Re: Gnome objectives

["Allan E. Registos" <allan registos smpc steniel com ph>]

>Most people wanna switch between their windows with minimal effort and not -
>1) Move the mouse to the left
>2) "Guess" which one of the pictures is representing the task bar...
>in fact he'll think the task bar doesn't exist.
>3) Move around the tiny task bar to select your one of the
>applications which might be running on another desktop.

These are all my biggest concerns for Gnome shell.

We should understand that Gnome shell is still in alpha stage if I'm correct. But the current build on Fedora 14 still shows these show stoppers.

>In contrast to Gnome 2, you don't even need to train for the new UI
>(of gnome 2)... it's so obvious and easy.

I agree 100%. All the users at an NGO where I installed both Fedora and Ubuntu doesn't care of the top/bottom panels. All they have to do is click Applications > Internet > Firefox/Chrome. No fuss. No call support.  

Switching Windows? 

It is so easy with MS Windows and Gnome 2.x desktop than in OSx with that "taskbar" in hand.

I hope this is the same easy as Gnome shell when it gets released. But with the current build, I do not think so. Developers and end users will think and use the desktop differently. I can hope that there are more inputs from non-developers(As I think that this is extremely important) on how should the desktop behaves. 

Then:

>Let's look at the application menu now. The applications are arranged
>as if it's a classifieds without any grouping at all... I have to hunt
>around for my favorite application in it.

The ultimate show-stopper. A single picture(ICON) can paint a thousand words, and it is confusing "which" is "which" not to mention the newly installed app, yes I forgot the name. Yes a developer can type it at the CLI or search the app, but _do not_ expect millions of users worldwide to do the same thing. Again, in alpha, but _with_ the current build a show-stopper.

Eye candy should be lowered in the priority list, the shell should be designed in a way that "eye-candy" can be easily implemented later _not_ the other way around, else, the shell is flawed from the beginning.

From: "dE ." <de techno gmail com>
To: gnome-shell-list gnome org
Sent: Monday, November 22, 2010 10:15:31 AM
Subject: Gnome objectives

Hello everyone.

I decided to discuss on this mailing list mainly cause of the
developments in Gnome-3 and especially Gnome shell. It has appeared in
the mailing list and keeping in mind that, I suggest and make the
gnome-shell team realize a few things.

Firstly something which's hard to maintain and hard to code on doesn't
mean it has to go away. If we went by this thought the Linux kernel
and GCC would have stopped development by 1.x. Yes, the thing can be
rewritten such that it's easy to maintain.

If an application depends on a library or framework which has been
deprecated, it doesn't mean you redefine the design foundation of that
application, it means you code fresh for the same application to give
the same UI, backwards compatibility and possibly additional
enhancements or scope of enhancements. The same is true for Gnome3.

People don't care, know or wanna know about the insides of an
application like what library it uses, if it uses SMP or not, if the
FTP server is vsftpd or ProFTPD, if it uses the latest libraries and
if the file sharing protocol is SMB or NFS . All a users cares about
is the real thing -- Ergonomics, security and reliability, and often
if it's opensource software or not.

Considering these points I think gnome-shell is a complete failure.
Lets take the ergonomics section of gnome-shell

So, I've this mutter window manager running right now with this pretty
looking interface around... but where do I start?... where's the
desktop where's my computer... and most importantly, where's the
taskbar? To explicitly state if a corporate or someone similar is
greeted with such a UI like gnome-shell, he'll drop it completely
saying he wants Windows back.
In contrast to Gnome 2, you don't even need to train for the new UI
(of gnome 2)... it's so obvious and easy.

Most people wanna switch between their windows with minimal effort and not -
1) Move the mouse to the left
2) "Guess" which one of the pictures is representing the task bar...
in fact he'll think the task bar doesn't exist.
3) Move around the tiny task bar to select your one of the
applications which might be running on another desktop.

Let's look at the application menu now. The applications are arranged
as if it's a classifieds without any grouping at all... I have to hunt
around for my favorite application in it.

Honest speaking I've never seen such an unergonomic UI.... even KDE is better.

Now lets see the objectives of gnome and more importantly what people
(and not developers) think of gnome -

1) A no nonsense productive Desktop.
2) Works swift on low hardware
3) Very reliable
4) Very ergonomic
5) Very secure

Gnome-shell will remove all that saying, if the goal of the new gnome is to -

1) Make a fabulous eye candy
2) Very good overall productivity
3) Everyone has Windows-styled hardware, so make a UI which's a
challenge for that.


Then I think the Gnome project should merge with KDE since there's no
difference at all!

I hope the composting can be turned off for low hardware (I've talking
about 512 MB ram and a celeron class processor)

It's high time Gnome panel should be deprecated but it should be
replaced with something which's more ergonomic.... and Gnome Shell is
not that.

By Gnome team being involved in development of Gnome shell primarily,
over time the panels will be deprecated completely leaving people with
that horrible shell. Shell looks like it's for an embedded device
rather than laptops and desktops, it's priority should be at best like
another project of Gnome like Brasero and gnome-terminal.

If you're lacking ideas of what will be the major change in Gnome 3,
I've got enough of them to keep you all busy for the next 10 years but
they all maintain the basic aspects of a Desktop. Ideas on how panels
can be removed to making something better.
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