Re: [Usability] Netbook experience

[Allan Day <allanpday gmail com>]

Hi Mirek,

Mirek M. <mazelm gmail com> wrote:
> Hi everyone,
> I have been following Gnome Shell development for quite a while, reading
> blogs and watching videos of it in action. While I really like its user
> interface in theory (Hot corner, Exposé, Messaging tray, ...), I was really
> disappointed when I tried the final version of Gnome Shell on my netbook
> today.
>
> Because Gnome 3 features bigger UI elements than Gnome 2, Gnome Shell is
> unfit for small screens.

Some of these are theming bugs. See this one [1], for example, which
was just recently fixed. There are other improvements that are in the
works, too.

> A number of windows can't even fit on the screen,
> and, unless you know that you can move a window using "Alt" (which most
> users don't know), you're out of luck [1]. Sometimes, you can't even close
> this window because the "Close" button has been removed from the title bar
> and resides at the bottom [2] [3].

That's nasty indeed. We need to fix that dialog.

> Some applications, although they fit inside the screen, are unusable in
> their default state. Rhythmbox, for example, can only show about 2 songs in
> its default state [4].

That's not good. Rhthmbox could certainly be more efficient in its use
of screen space. Feel free to file bugs!.

> Nautilus, although it is somewhat usable, is still a
> disappointment over my current Nautilus Elementary window [5][6].

Why?

> Before this is fixed, I will stick to the standard Gnome desktop (or perhaps
> switch to Ubuntu's Unity desktop). Or is there a way to fix this right now?

GNOME 3 offers a lot of advantages for netbook users. (We've worked
very hard to make sure it works well with low-precision pointing
devices, for instance.) I would hope that would be enough to make you
want to use it. It's up to you, of course.

> Also, will fixing this be even considered by the Gnome team or is it too
> late for a fix?

We obviously want to offer a good netbook experience, and work doesn't
stop with 3.0. There will be updates to 3.0 and 3.2 will be released
in 6 months time.

Best,

Allan

> (I'm assuming that the fix will come when the Resolution Independence work
> is done [7].)
>
> [1]
> https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/wA89CvByxNbpvxGT_Gao9g?feat=directlink
> [2]
> https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/vL3pm9qQSf4CPv0JFxEm8g?feat=directlink
> [3]
> https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/jWXIgN27woTpyf9GNU0rOg?feat=directlink
> [4]
> https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/3LBm6bUky5UMC3dpLmzdNw?feat=directlink
> [5]
> https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Q2yQZlNB4zm2wndkUhx7DQ?feat=directlink
> [6]
> https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/6dN2-ZtMzf0kx-2Y833jqQ?feat=directlink
> [7] https://live.gnome.org/GTK+/RI
>
> P. S. I'm new here, so tell me if I did something wrong or if this message
> belongs somewhere else. Thanks.
>
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