Re: [gnome-love] Re: [Nautilus-list] GNOME user environmentbrainstorming

[Christian Rose <menthos menthos com>]

Sander Vesik wrote:
> > > How about a big red button with the text "MULTIPLE WORSPACES" that appears
> > > in the place of desk guide by defualt and gets converted to desk guide
> > > once user has clicked on it (even once)?
> > >
> > > There is presently no indications in the standard installation that gnome
> > > supports them - and that IMHO just plain wrong.
> >
> > IMHO, big red buttons is a no-no. Many users are simply not used
> > to/interested in multiple workspaces, and we should not need to warn
> > them about a feature(!). Better let it default to off.
> 
> Well, the big red button was suggested (by me) as a "kind of" alternative
> to having multiple workspaces on by default.
> 
> > I think the setting of workspace defaults should be done by the
> > packager. So if Sun are worried that their previous CDE customers won't
> > feel at home without multiple workspaces, Sun can ship GNOME with
> > multiple workspaces configured by default for their users.
> 
> I *DO* *NOT* speak for Sun. I absolutely don't speak for anybody but me on
> any usability issue - I just refuse to have a special yahoo.com (or
> similar) account to talk about these. Rest asures, whenever I'm talking
> for myself but som other entity (whichever that is), the text will be
> labeled as such.

I don't think you need a disclaimer. My Sun example was, well, an
example scenario. You can replace it with any other made-up scenario
with a packager that wants to have defaults that are better suited for
their users, and maybe with some advanced features enabled by default. I
just thought it fit very well.
I still think it's up to the packager to choose suitable defaults if
they need something else than what GNOME comes with. Most GNOME users
will get their GNOME from a packager of some sort anyway.


> Yes, I did mention CDE (which, welcome to the real world, isn't Sun
> specific anyways), but you could replace it with any other legacy/alternative
> desktop (like say XFCE) that has easily available multiple desktops in
> it's place.

You mentioned CDE defaults and users switching from CDE, and I have the
feeling that Sun will be trying to make the CDE -> GNOME switch as easy
as possible for their users. Another reason I chose Sun as an example.
Maybe HP is working on that too, I don't know. Ximian would be a bad
example, I have the feeling that they primarily want to target other
types of users.


> Or, if you absolutely want, you can continue to ignore the point.

That was not my intention and I deeply apologize if it seemed like I
ignored your point on purpose. I just probably missed it.


> > As for what default setup comes from GNOME sources and is thus
> > "recommended", I think it should only be a single workspace. As people
> > have already mentioned, people not used to the concept of multiple
> > workspaces can get horribly confused by them.
> > In the end I think it would be nice if the default was chosen according
> > to userlevel ("experienced" users are more likely to have encountered
> > the concept of multiple workspaces before).
> 
> People who find the idea of mutiple desktops confusing have zero, nada,
> zilch chance of surviving for more than 10 seconds in the GNOME
> environment with all it's quirky behaviours, gnome specific slang and
> general confusion anyways.

And we want to change that, don't we?


Christian