[Usability] myself

[Thilo Pfennig <tp alternativ net>]

as others did before me, and  as I am also new to this list (some days).
I also want to write something about me.

I come from Germany.I am using Linux since 1989, before that I was an
Amiga- and a Mac-User. I switched to Linux, because I was heavily using
things like Usenet und UUCP with the Mac, which in fact was a big mess
on the mac back then.

At first i used Windowmaker on a 300 Mhz PC. I tried KDE, but I hated it
right from the beginning, as I did not like Windows.

I was switching to GNOME with GNOME 2.4 and kept to use it since. I have
used SuSE since 5.2 release, than switched to Debian Woody at some
point, tried Redhat 8 and Gentoo and am using Fedora FC 3 right now.

I was always very much interested in usability and software ergonomy on
my systems. I switched from Amiga to Apple, because on Amiga many things
just did not work, unless you configured it yourself or installed extra
packages (mostly shareware). I did not want this now and I still don't
like it. I often changed my working habits. I mainly worked with
Hypertext, SGML, XML , web pages and with internet server administration
(web, mail). Right now I administer a small network in the appartment
house where I am living where we share a DSL connection and use a Samba
server for sharing files.

Samba and GNOME was a very frustrating thing for many years. It is now
much better, but I am still having troubles finding tjhe right
configuration, while Windows clients do not.

I am also interested in the new GNOME applications that are developed
with Mono, as they are quite popular and useful, from what one can see
at gnomefiles.org.

What I like about GNOME:
* GNOME does have the users in its focus. much more than other Desktops
or some developers of some applications. 
* GNOME is beautiful. I like most of the looks and feel comfortable
* GNOME always tries to get better in usability.
* applications like Evolution or GIMP are just cool.

What I do not like about GNOME:

* At the website there is still too much focus on developers. The
"users" page has as titles "GNOME foundation", "GNOME 2.10" and the
"developers guide". I think people would need to have start page.
Distributions or better Epiphany should have this as the start page or a
link to it. The desktop is the System for many users. Some things are
the same on distributions, some are not. On a "user"-page there surely
should never be a link to a developers guide. Often developers are
users, but they should not think that a standrd user ist interested in
development!

A good Linux using GNOME could have the following:
1. after the start epiphany is starting with a local page about the
distribution and GNOME. Like in GIMP maybe there should be some starter
tips. There should be made a difference between
a) Users that already have GNOME.
b) People interested in getting GNOME.

The a) Users need to know things like:

How do I
1) burn a CD
2) isten to Music /watch movies
3) browse windows network
4) use the web
5) use email
6) organize my data
7) configure GNOME
etc.

A "Start-here"-icon on the desktop is senseless if it does not contain
an explanation what to do next. organizing information with urls might
be a good idea, but I don't think that one needs to confront users with
this at the beginning.

Links to GNOME and GOOD wikis are also a good idea. There could be a
link to know bugs for the specific release. I think there should only be
one application for updating GNOME and the whole system. I have see
Yast1/2,yum/gyum, rpm ,apt/deselect/dpkg, up2date,... I think it is Ok
to have differen update mechanisms and package formats. But why doed the
user have to learn those mechanisms? I think there needs to be one
update application for GNOME wich does understands everything may be
except for compiling options.  I think this should not be too
complicated, at least there could be one interface that handleds:
updating, installing, deinstalling. I know, distros see this as their
territory, but I think this is one blocker as GNOME never can tell users
how to update their applications. The user also needs to know his or her
distro as much as to complete this (simple) tasks. I think applications
like Synaptic go in the right direction but do not suffice.


So, thats it for the beginning. 

Thilo


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