Re: We want task bar back. Pretty please.

[Tim Murphy <tnmurphy gmail com>]

On 5 May 2011 19:29, Sriram Ramkrishna <sri ramkrishna me> wrote:
>
>
> On Thu, May 5, 2011 at 11:13 AM, Tim Murphy <tnmurphy gmail com> wrote:

>> There are hidden negatives too - the linux users in my office, for
>> example, tried it and gave up or gave it no chance at all -  they are
>> using XFCE or just not updating their distros or are trying out Ubuntu
>> instead or they are using the fallback for the moment now that they
>> have found out how to do it. They haven't emailed this list though.
>>
>
> Is their objection that it is different?  Office workers are generally
> vulnerable to change.  The reason being that they don't copious amount of
> time to learn a new interface in the face of deadlines and what not.  A
> transition plan is generally required for those.. so they get a chance to
> learn the new interface while at the same time be able to switch back in
> case there are issues with bad behaviour with important applications.

No, they are software engineers who go out of their way to use Linux
in a fairly Linux hostile environment because it builds their code
faster than when they were building on windows (cross compilation for
mobile devices) and because they find it a better day-by-day
environment. I would say that their resistance to change is fairly
minimal as they started trying out gnome-shell before it was the
default and before I did, actually.  It was rejected then by choice
because they could try it out as an option and they removed it.  But
you guys can't watch what everyone does, obviously.

In any case, there is a lot of reliance on the inability to change
argument and it does remind me of how people at my work used to defend
what is now an infamous product worldwide against the competition that
has recently slaughtered it.  Basically they thought that a lot of
explaining would help and they had a reason why every complaint was
invalid or was important or why it was unavoidable for some other
reason.

I think that instant delight is the kind of reaction that you actually
need to have in something that you are selling and just because the
gnome shell is not being sold doesn't mean that it doesn't matter.

> My co-workers don't particularly like the new interface just from the
> presentation I did (they were my guinea pigs).  But then these people are
> people who use fvwm2 over VNC on windows laptops or desktops.

Well there I was thinking that people who wanted to use fvwm were
missing out because GNOME with Nautilus was really rather slick and
that speed was not so relevant anymore as it was when I had a much
less powerful computer.  But now I'm in worse position than them with
a way of organising my life that was friendly seeming being about to
disappear.  I cannot now make the new thing do what I could do before
which, in my case, was to create a kind of substitute user interface
that suited me using my desktop and shortcuts on the panel.  98% of
the applets that were out there were of no interest but a couple of
them were very useful to me in particular.

I have used a lot of GUIs from  GEM (ST and PC), Geos, Amigas, RiscOS,
one my pal designed, NextStep, The Mac, OpenDesktop etc etc.  There
are innovative concepts that have not made it to Linux yet even though
they are years old. I don't really believe that revolutionary is a
word that can be applied here to the change in the user experience and
that's why the changes are contentious - they are not really amazingly
good enough to make up for the disruption  (to some of us).

Having said all that I look forward to investigating the extension
mechanism to see how much I might be able to "make things right" and
also to trying out the ROX Desktop once more :-).

Regards,

Tim

---

You could help some brave and decent people to have access to
uncensored news by making a donation at:

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/