[Usability]User competency level selection

[Mathew Johnston <johnston capsaicin ca>]

Hi. First, thanks. :) 

As a long time GNOME user, I am finding myself feeling kind of left
behind. I remember when GNOME (and sawfish, the defacto window manager)
seemed hugely configurable, and tailored towards advanced users. Perhaps
that is because at the time, I was not as 'advanced' a user as I am
today. However, a lot of other people seem to be picking up on this vibe
as well.

I also remember an awesome feature - user competency level selection.
People are beginners by default, but can just switch to advanced if they
like. I wish that we had of kept that idea. For example, as an advanced
user, I'd really love a file selector sporting a regexp filter and a
manual path entry specification. Hell, even a 'bookmarks' tab/menu item
or side tab, etc would be awesome (to save time getting to common
places). You get the idea. These have all got to be optional because not
everyone will want them, and very few beginners will want them. But most
people will want some of them, at least. I even agree with the idea that
a beginner should not be presented with all of those options the first
time that they look at configuration options, but I really feel like I
need to have access to those kinds of advanced features. When I look at
the file selection dialogues that are being thrown around in
discussions, I feel like they're not going to make me more productive.

Each application's configuration should support such a user competency
level selection feature, and this option should be facilitated by GNOME
through libraries, etc. Perhaps an XML format for defining config
options and tagging them as beginner, intermediate, advanced would be
useful? GNOME would have it's own competency level selector (controlling
its own config options, file selector, etc), and a specification for
'default' competency on unconfigured apps (so that perhaps on first
startup, apps can ask questions tailored to the general competency of
the user). This could probably be made to tie into the GCONF XML formats
too (excuse me if that makes no sense, I'm not really familiar with
GCONF but heard that it uses XML for each app).

Are these ideas valid? I just want to have a powerful desktop
environment that I can wield with my advanced user power :) I understand
the need for a nice simple clean UI for beginners, but as advanced users
yourselves, please understand my desire for extra flexability. 

And hey, if someone else already suggested this, let me know, and I'll
go spend some time searching the archives (I didn't do that first,
because in my experience, its usually faster just to post than it is to
hunt, and if its been covered, someone will say so rather quickly :)

Thanks again,
Mathew Johnston