GNOME 3.0 feedback and suggestions (for 3.2+)

[Frederik Hertzum <frederik hertzum gmail com>]

This was inspired by the discussion "Window controls for GNOME 3" by
Owen Taylor -- https://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-shell-list/2011-February/msg00192.html

=====================================================================

I think it's important for people to know a bit about how I use my
computer if they are to get anything out of reading my feedback -- so
here goes:

I am a CS student who frequently use SSH from terminals while reading
junk in Firefox or epiphany and having several editors open (either
gedit or anjuta) and compiling stuff in more terminals and talking to
people in Pidgin and listening to music almost all of the time. I have
two monitors. The primary monitor is 22" and the secondary is 20".

I group my windows so that my main editor is maximized on the primary
monitor, have a gnome-terminal with multiple tabs taking up half the
left of the secondary monitor and (usually) one IM session upon to
talk to people about the code I'm editing on the right half of the
secondary monitor.

I usually have everything else in separate desktops.

=====================================================================

The important stuff:

(De)Maximize/Minimize buttons:
=====================================================================
I don't miss the (de)maximize/minimize buttons at all


Close button:
=====================================================================
Getting rid of the close button didn't hurt at all. I now close by
hitting ALT+F4 or killing it in the overview.

Maximized windows and title bars:
=====================================================================
The extra bar below the top bar bar is annoying when maximizing a
window I suggest fusing the title bar of a window with the top bar
when maximized and possibly moving the clock to the side:

Current layout
AI ---- C ---- MU
------- T -------

Becomes one of

AI ---- T --- CMU
or
AI ---- T --- MCU

A = Activity area
I = current Icon (may want to get rid of that as well)
T = Title
C = Clock
M = Menu area (volume control, networkmanager interface etc)
U = User menu

This is especially nice on low resolution monitors since the top bar +
a title bar takes up a lot of space (I, for example, always go
fullscreen when I can on my EEE, which does not have GNOME 3).

Problems:
It may be confusing for people when there's nothing that separates the
window from the rest of the desktop.
It may be even more confusing if maximized windows on secondary
monitors look different from a maximized window on the primary monitor.

Horizontal desktops missing:
=====================================================================
This is really annoying. Especially when GNOME 3.0 is so focused on
using desktops. My ideal interface would be having horizontal
desktops, with each vertical desktop having it's own list of with one
of them being marked "current" (which means this is the desktop to
switch to when switching to that desktop) -- new desktops would be
created by moving a desktop (ctrl+alt+right arrow) to a new desktop or
by clicking some icon on the desktop in the overview (an empty desktop
for example)
Problems:
May take up too much space in the overview.
May be confusing if people have more than one physical monitor

Volume control:
=====================================================================
Since pulseaudio has per-application volume control it may be a good
idea to allow the user to control the volume of an app in the window
of that app, rather than forcing the user to open the volume control,
pick a tab with a list of connected apps, look for the app and then
change the volume. Problems: can't really see any, except that it
means GNOME 3 is tied up with pulseaudio. But that may not be a real
problem. Could be done using plugins if that's in place. Otherwise it
might be a good reason to put plugins in place.

Music:
=====================================================================
I'm missing a music "tab" (correct term?) in the overview; I'll make
it myself, if possible, some time after may 19 (date for BA project
hand in) -- unless someone beats me to it (naturally). Mind you I have
no experience with any of the interfaces involved at all.

Documents:
=====================================================================
I'm missing a Document tab too. Should contain files grouped by type
(may want to make a tab per document type) found in either $HOME or a
set of designated document directories (text, audio, video, source,
whatever).

Tags:
=====================================================================
Tags for documents to allow grouping in the Documents tabs. When I'm
reading roleplaying books, I would be likely to also want to read
other roleplaying books -- usually from the same set of books -- and
wouldn't care much about x86 processor manuals.

Hiding/minimizing windows:
=====================================================================
I'm not sure about this, but maybe a hiden window should appear as a
tab in the overview (either individual tabs for each window or one
huge one for all hidden windows).

Theme support:
=====================================================================
I don't really consider this to be an issue. I do miss being able to
pick fonts though.

Program menus:
=====================================================================
I am badly missing the set of menu entries which are not in
Programmes. I usually get around it though, but some times I really
need the menus and don't remember the name of the binary, meaning I
can't even launch it from a terminal before desperately searching the
web and where ever I think it might be. This quickly gets very
frustrating.

Locations:
=====================================================================
I miss a way to launch locations, especially for external media and
servers (sshfs and ftp for instance) in the overview.

Programmes remembering their desktop:
=====================================================================
Always remember which desktop a app was on when it was closed (this
really means remembering which apps where shared the same desktop) --
should be possible to disable (and maybe it should be disabled by
default and/or be possible to toggle per app). May want to allow
launching a desktop group (starting all apps which shared a particular
desktop)

I hope this is helpful.

Frederik Herzum

--
Date stamps are your friends