Re: [Usability] Using Control-Esc and Windows keys to access the start menu



Hi Lennart,

Lennart Borgman wrote:
I have seen such argumentation but I do not believe that could be 
applied to simple cases like this. Beeing able to use Ctrl-Esc or the 
windows keys to access the start menu is nearly as basic as beeing able 
to use the mouse to do it. I have not seen anyone argueing that very 
basic mouse operations should be different.

  

Using a keyboard shortcut for opening the Start Menu is not a basic operation.  Perhaps it may seem rudimentary to some people, but many people out there rarely use the Start menu at all, opting instead for shortcuts on their desktop.

The idea behind Gnome, as Alan H. has said, is to provide sane and consistent defaults.  The target audience for this is primarily people who are not familiar with Gnome.  The consistency is also aimed at mid/advanced users as frankly it presents an easier to use interface at any level.  Consistency is good.  An adjunct goal of Gnome (as I see it) is to provide users with the facilities to customize and modify things to expose further functionality, shortcuts, different workflows, etc. Yes I am aware many people don't see this happening in Gnome, but it really is.  Gnome does not expose these things by default as they tend not to be used that commonly.  KDE on the other hand sees options as empowering the user and includes them as much as possible.  Gnome makes things simpler by asking if something really is useful or if it is just as easy to make a good default that works for 90% of the people.

But I digress.


What you're talking about seems to be a fairly easy thing to create using keyboard shortcuts.  It does not, however, sound like a general computer user's shortcut.  I use Meta(Win)-E all the time in Windows to launch an Explorer shell, and I don't know how people open explorer otherwise.  They must use desktop icons or some Start menu thing.  But to me it seems so much easier to use the keyboard shortcut.  However when I try to teach novice computer users about the shortcut it simply does not stick.  They have no background to understand that E is for explorer.  They don't know the different between CRTL, ALT, and Meta (Windows).  There are so many assumptions on my part getting to using Win-E that it really isn't a basic thing to do.

Ctrl-Esc is the same thing, it's on par with Ctrl-Alt-Del to view taskmanager in Windows.  It makes a lot of sense once you're familiar with using keyboard shortcuts and what exactly the keyboard shortcut is doing.  But prior to that, it really is quite arcane.

So in this case I think Gnome should stick to the powerful mantra of consistency rather than mimicry.  The default should adhere to the desktop environment standards as those are something the user will encounter throughout their experience with Gnome.  Simply making it like Windows so transitioning is easier does not trump Gnome's current settings.


I hope this explains why I would be against this as a default setting?


Kirk




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