Re: [Usability] How does GNOME 3 compare to Windows 8?

[Chris Beiser <ctbeiser gmail com>]

I have in fact used Windows 8, and I've done some informal usability testing with both it and Gnome 3. Comparing Fedora to Windows 8, Windows 8 is definitely far easier to install. But once you pass that, things start to fall away. Gnome 3 takes a minute for people to figure out how to use the activities hot corner, and after they've done that, any user of Windows, Mac OS or a reasonable desktop environment should be pretty much at home, albeit they probably won't figure out how virtual desktops work if they were a windows user. Windows 8 is a bit trickier. While, from what I've seen, it's fantastic on a tablet, and it's possible that they could fix it before launch, as of right now, the model of interaction is broken for desktops. Metro apps hide most all non-essential action buttons (Add a stock in the stocks app, the address bar in the Metro version of IE) so that you have to right click to pull them up, which is completely arbitrary and unintuitive. Nobody I tested this with could figure this out, with any amount of time, (I only know because I watched an hour-long BUILD conference video on Metro) and furthermore, some of the testers didn't even realize that the toggle-switches were toggle-switches, because they were overly minimalist. App switching was also hidden, and in 'legacy mode', most people had trouble finding applications, because the 'start' button took them to Metro. That said, most of legacy mode acted as normal. Essentially, Metro is tacked-on and not at all usable for people who don't have touch screens, and if we do see non-touchscreens start seeming "Broken", it might make sense, but honestly, I don't expect that'll happen. I think we're looking at another Vista here.

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Chris Beiser