Re: Experiencing Gnome-Shell as of Jan 02, 2011

["Jasper St. Pierre" <jstpierre mecheye net>]

My two cents (I am not a developer or a designer):

On Sun, Jan 2, 2011 at 2:14 AM, Onyeibo Oku <twohotis gmail com> wrote:
> I finally got Gnome-shell got the recent Gnome-Shell running.  Actually, I
> succeeded yesterday but discovered that success this morning. Messages on
> the terminal can be distracting sometimes :) So, this is the latest
> Gnome-shell?
>
> Looking around, I observed more appealing shadows around the
> windows/dialogues and, hey! ... the maximize/minimize/close buttons now have
> life. I like the new favourites tab -- a single column -- cool. The visuals
> for the desktop search box is deadly (I mean wicked).  I love it! ...
> probably the best in the graphic upgrades so far. I can feel this work-flow
> amidst the odds (I'll point out later).  The System settings have been
> stripped down to the essentials and related administrative tasks have been
> grouped underneath. Nice.  Adding new desktops became more artistic with the
> docking tab at the right. Generally, I think this is much better except for
> the observations below:
>
> 1. I get a fantastic animation when I grab a window in Activities mode (the
> reduction in size is dramatic), but the exchange to neighbouring desktops
> misses the standard. The cut-outs representing the next/previous desktop is
> disappointing (took some time to realize they were indicators ... not
> intuitive, I'd say).  Maybe a faint outline sticking further out will do ...
> something with rounded edges like the existing tabs but glassy or totally
> transparent with faint gray outline fading away towards the edges of the
> screen. If it glows when the Window is being dropped, that is perfect!
>
> 2. This one is more of a wish:  It would be nice to be able to grab the
> current desktop in the Activities mode and give it a 'whirl'... and watch
> the desktops scroll away rapidly like a roulette and then *click*, 'Stop! ..
> that's the one I want to see'.  You know what I mean? I see a lot of that
> effect on touch-phones these days but why not? The velocity of the scroll is
> usually dependent on the velocity of the 'whirl'

According to a bug, there's a similar effect, but it would be an easter egg,
and we don't have too much time left:

https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=638463

I agree that these things make the computer so much more fun to use, but
it's an extra.

> 3. I think we should loose the gray background around the Window buttons and
> have the icons enlarge a bit on hover event. The minimize icon is no longer
> applicable since there are no task bars ... the 'dash' icon is symbolic of a
> button on a tab -- I believe the present concept doesn't agree with that.
>  So, I'd suggest we go for a different icon ... like an arrow pointing in
> the direction of the 'activities' button.  Trivial you might say.

Minimize is going to be replaced with a "Park" button where they'll go
to a special
zone in the overview below the workspaces, click on them and they'll come back.
Everybody knows what the "dash, box, line" icons are, and even if they
do something
different, there's no reason to change them. There's planned to be an
animation fading
them to the top left.

> 4. The worst performance happens when I move to the 'Activities' hot zone
> (top-left).  I get the most awful animation.  This is more of a performance
> issue, I guess.  It drags and flickers ... not smooth at all,..No, I can't
> advertise that to my friends.  Is there no way to improve the performance on
> Nvidia Cards (using Quadro FX1600M)?  Is this an issue with Mutter?

This is an issue with nVidia drivers and the XEmbed windows for the
message tray:

http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/xorg-devel/2010-December/016876.html

I agree that it's awful as well.

> 5. The fonts at the top bar are still relatively huge.  I see a different
> font in the Mock-ups.  Can that be achieved with the recent builds?  What
> should I tweak?  I hope the users will be able to make adjustments as
> necessary in the end.

It's planned to hook those up to the gconf keys having font size.

> 6. It seems to me that some elements should be mirrored.  I'd say freeze the
> Search Box, Applications,Windows and associated menus and mirror everything
> else. That way, one doesn't have to move the mouse across the screen much.
>  From the Activities button, you can reach the search box, the favourites,
> ... at the right. ***OR**** move the Search Box to the left (Argh!... but I
> like it where it is now). Having the activities, and other things, at the
> right side will deviate from the norm (which is a good thing IMHO) and will
> minimize mouse movements across the screen.

I don't think any big design changes will happen in that regard, but
the Windows key
and Alt+F1 are both shortcuts to the overview, and you don't need to
click on the search
box, just start typing. That doesn't really solve the problem, I know.

> 7. The Chat 'Toaster' still needs some tweaking. The input box is huge and
> messages are still on a frame having a gradient background.  I'd suggest we
> loose the background and have it all black with white text. As the text
> scrolls up, they should fade away making room for new ones.

> What if the
> User's Avatar is Bigger, exceeding the boarders of the 'toaster' and with a
> bit of perspective to it?  I don't know what you guys think.

I like the idea of it being bigger, and being at the top left hanging
off of the box,
maybe with a shadow? Not sure what you mean by 'a bit of perspective', though.

> 8. In Activities mode: The 'ALL' view in the Applications section is a
> puzzle -- like a serious jigsaw for older brains. It would help to separate
> the sections with a line to ease the search.

Design around the category filter view are still evolving. There's
some people who want it
removed completely, some who think it would be better with a 'toggle'
filter, etc.

> That is it for now.  Its my observations ... hope there were fruitful ideas
> in all that rant.  The project has evolved well. Great work.