[HIG] Re: [Usability] Re: Decision: instant apply window buttons

[Havoc Pennington <hp redhat com>]

Gregory Merchan <merchan baton phys lsu edu> writes:  
> I've also seen a bug in some sawfish themes that treats all WM_TRANSIENT_FOR
> windows as dialogs

This is necessary to recognize dialogs from tons of older apps.
 
> Because the frame close button should not be present on every window, any
> buttons distanced from the edge of the window by it would be shifted over
> were the gap closed. Placing it spaced from the edge by other buttons
> would seem awkward to perhaps everyone, so it should be placed on a corner
> alone. This should also be done to avoid the misclicks that are so common on
> Windows which places Maximize next to Close. (I've heard that the resulting
> screams tend to raise the noise level in offices.)

Being different from Windows in this respect would in practice bother
more people. Ditto on the no-close-button-for-dialogs thing.

We already have quite a large problem with Windows users finding GNOME
uncomfortable and using more Windows-like software instead. I don't
see copying Windows when it's truly doing something lame, but I also
don't see being gratuitously different from it in trivial ways.

Yeah, flame me. Sorry. Truth hurts.

People have an undefinable "not quite right" feeling when they use an
unfamiliar system, no matter how "good" that system is. Joel has a
nice explanation of this someplace. And I've seen it from countless
users talking about GNOME. I've also gotten questions from Red Hat
corporate customers where they want to configure things to be like
Windows.

There's no point creating this I-cant-explain-it discomfort in users
unless we really have some substantive improvement to make. It just
makes people use some other software.

Even if we are successful beyond our wildest dreams, nearly all our
users will be using Windows as well from time to time for, I don't
know, at least 5 years. I don't think we do them any service by being
different from the other computers they use in a hundred trivial
little details.

Havoc