Re: Gnome-Shell - questions and opinions

[Filip Štědronský <regnarg seznam cz>]

Dne 3.1.2011 12:21:54 napsal Adam Williamson:
> No, I have no data, but I rather suspect a lot of users don't actually
> open enough windows at once - and, particularly, enough *small* windows
> which you can sensibly arrange in non-overlapping fashion on a typical
> monitor - to benefit from workspaces, much less the ridiculous numbers
> of workspaces lately being discussed on this list. A typical work
> session of mine has only two windows - a terminal and my password
> manager - which I could really usefully organize as an individual
> workspace; obviously, a password manager and a console ain't a useful
> work area. All my other windows are full-screen or close to it.
> 
> Are we really expecting everyone to voluntarily migrate to a new method
> of working, whose benefits are probably small and likely obscure to
> them? History suggests this is not likely to happen. Am I missing some
> vital principle of a workspace-based system which would enable me to
> take some advantage from it (what)? If so, I like to flatter myself that
> I'm a vaguely savvy and informed user; do we expect others won't have
> this problem? Or do we expect that my use case is sufficiently odd that
> I'm not a useful test subject and most people really will have such a
> set of windows as will be conducive to a workspace-based system? Are
> there plans to somehow expose the greatness of workspaces to users to
> mitigate it?

Hi,
It's not just about small windows. I dare say most of the 
windows we use today are maximized (be it browser, mail client,
text editor). The workspace concept is useful particularly for
_those_. Because when I have several such maximized windows 
opened (any way of switching between them from the old-school
Alt+Tab to expose-like views is slow and costly). However, 
switching workspaces can be lighting fast. If I assign 
keystrokes to each (which is the only reasonable way 
of switching workspaces anyway), I can get _directly_ to the one
I want. For example I know I have my browser running 
at workspace, so I press Super+F3 or sth similar and I 
_am there_. It takes about a tenth of a second. When I am 
copying information from a website (WS 3) to a document (WS 5)
and sometimes I need a dictionary (WS 6), I am just alternately
pressing Super+F3 and Super+F5 and even the occasional Super+F6
doesn't mess it up. Because the keystrokes are absolute, 
context-independent. You don't have to think about where you 
are, just about where you want to go. And you go right there,
with one keystroke, you don't have to look for the right 
application, either by repeatedly pressing Alt+Tab or by looking
it up in some kind of an overview. It's useful from three 
windows upwards and especially for the "static" ones that you
access a lot (browser, IM, etc.). Anytime I want to google 
something in the middle of any work, I just press Super+F3 
Ctrl+K <query> Return. Less than a second.

So, that's the point, I suppose
Regards
Filip Štědronský

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