Fwd: Gnome objectives

["dE ." <de techno gmail com>]

Sorry, sending to gnome-shell-list.


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: dE . <de techno gmail com>
Date: Mon, Nov 22, 2010 at 7:13 PM
Subject: Re: Gnome objectives
To: Johannes Schmid <jhs jsschmid de>


On Mon, Nov 22, 2010 at 1:36 PM, Johannes Schmid <jhs jsschmid de> wrote:
> Hi!
>
>> 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.
>
> Let's be honest, we tried to copy the MS Windows experience for ten
> years now without getting any real market share. What's the point in
> continuing it. Do you thing the iPhone was successfull because it was
> like all the other smartphones? No, it was because it had a new and
> clever concept.

It was not Gnome that did not get any market share -- it was Linux that didn't.

KDE also shows a new concept and is the best desktop environment
available to a PC, Compiz is the best window manager available to the
PC, and a Linux desktop is the most pretty looking desktop ever. So
why is the Desktop share less than 2%?

What I mean to say here is that the reason why Gnome has not gained a
high amount of Desktop share is cause Linux has not -- It's not
gnome's fault, it's Linux's. Linux needs an admin to setup a system
which functions properly and apparently most admins administer Servers
or are employed in a single company. So there's no one around to
install Linux.

Let me tell you that overall KDE is a lot more feature full than
Gnome, but Gnome is still used cause it's simple, KDE is not. If
you're trying to make things like gnome-shell, I suggest you merge
with the team and use the QT toolkit which's known to be better.

>
>> 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.
>
> The task bar doesn't exist. Anyway, take a look at the overview-relayout
> branch to get an impression on how the overview mode will look in the
> final GNOME Shell.
>
>> 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.
>
> This is a known issue and will be fixed until the final version arrives.
>
>> I hope the composting can be turned off for low hardware (I've talking
>> about 512 MB ram and a celeron class processor)
>
> Compositing is a key-part for the usuability concept and as such cannot
> be turned off. Gnome-Shell will work on any hardware sold in the last 5
> years (with Intel, Nvidia or ATI/AMD graphics). RAM is certainly not a
> problem, neither is cpu speed in general as long as there is some kind
> of supported GPU.
>
> Regards,
> Johannes
>

Considering Gnome is used in corporate enviourments -

Corporates do not like Composting. In fact most mature people who use
PC do not like composting... I'm telling you this first hand... it's
the young people (for e.g students) who use their Desktops as a toy
are the ones who like composting.

Your effects should have been limited so they look decent in front of
corporates who don't like flexing, twisting and turning windows, it
should have been made optional. Microsoft knows that, Apple knows
that, but Gnome does not. As a result MS and Apple have not put tons
of composting in their Desktop, otherwise I don't thing it's a vary
hard job for apple to port compiz to Mac.

If Gnome-shell will take over, it'll be more like a toy than something
really productive. And when we talk about productivity, we don't learn
un important new  things like the UI -- they should be standard.