[Usability] Some things that I dislike about gnome, and some things that I like seeing changed.

[Kenneth Christiansen <kenneth gnu org>]

Hi,

Here is a little list I wrote about some of the things that I dislike
about gnome, and some things that I like seeing changed.

I though sharing my views with you might be productive.

Hope you like it,

Kenneth

P.S.: I am not subscribed to this list

Ideas for Gnome, by Kenneth (contributions by Monty and others)

- fix startup of nautilus with regard to background. 
- fix panel, it is too confusing and the power of the applet is not always good
- add shadow under top macbar
- applet menu is awful, needs a fix
- integrate nautilus and panel.
- make apps add menus to the macbar
- make a gtk-engine that is extremely cool, like for instance apple aqua is, 
  but also make it so it's not one you get tired of immediately. Make it 
  look fresh like fruits/water. add it to doorman as option for fast 
  computers
- replace x-chat with a simple and nice program.
- integrate news into evolution and get rid of pan - it doesnt fit in
- make the java bindings rock, and make it have a nice class library, not 
  entirely reflecting how gtk/gnome works.
- multimedia app, like iTunes with cool graphics, but it has to feel 
  integrated like itunes does with aqua
-  make nautilus work nice with tar.gz files, just like winzip does with windows
- make a getright feature for getting files, let nautilus etc use it
- integrate galeon more with gnome
- decide on how preferences boxes should look, the galeon way, the nautilus 
  way, or what?
- make many simple but nice looking backgrounds. maybe just some colored 
  ones as apple does
- make gdm rock...make the login window look like winXp or macOSx
- make a keybindings central, where you can control keybindings for 
  everything, incl the window manager
- make new and nice looking scoreboard for games, and maybe a program, so 
  you can look at all scores in the differently games
- make new graphics for games - make them rock
- fix gedit - noone really uses it. A program needed instead is a simple 
  editor for text files, small code files, like nedit. We need something 
  like moleskine instead.
- We need a developer site like the apple one...it's just rocks
- the freecell game should be removed - aisleriot also includes that
- glade should look at the new apple interface designer
- dia should maybe try not to use the gimp ui, and look at dia and integrate 
  with gnumeric and abiword instead
- gphoto should look more gnomish
- you should be able to change volume easily.. maybe on the right click 
  nautilus menu, or something - sounds should seem integrated
- mozilla should get a releight theme
- gftp should be removed and ftp support should be improved in nautilus
- maybe gftp can stay if the ui is changed to a more gnome one
- add hex view and code view (maybe with scientilla) to nautilus
- make a console tool called "view", so if I run "view textdoc" then if 
  checks what mime type textdoc is and runs the right graphical viewer
- make the alt-tab gui in sawfish actually look nice, aswell as the 
  tooltips. Make sure that you can view both the last and next window in 
  the cycle
- Make the face-browser in GDM very easy to switch to.
- Make it easier and more integrated to add your own face to the 
  GDM-face-browser.
- Make sure that the browsers run a nice dialup-app if they cannot find an 
  open connection. Also make sure that a hang-up interface appears when 
  closing the last browser-window.
- Integrate Sawfish more thoroughly with GNOME. Sawfish->Appearance should be
  "Window Decorations" or something like that. Regular people should not 
  have to know what Sawfish or a Window Manager is.
- Merge "File Types and Programs" and "Mime Types".
- Make the Macbar have less functionality. It is a special panel, and it 
  is very easy to use it for things that it is not made for (I hope :) 
  maybe there should be some limitations on what applets you can add 
  there. TAskbar for instance looks very weird there. 
- Add task menu to macbar
- Integrate "Floppy"-formatting with Nautilus. "Right click" and format on 
  a floppy-drive should open it.
- Make sure that Nautilus respons to "open" when selecting multiple files 
  like this:
  "application %d %d %d %d..." instead of this: "application %d 
  application %d ...". That is, multiple files should open in the same instance.
- Easier installation of packages. Integrate with Red Carpet so that if a 
  manual installation have unmet dependencies, Red Carpet tries to satisfy 
  them. Make this a very simple and quick Druid-like app.
- A graphical frontend for creating another X-instance. This should function
  so that users can lock their session and start a new login. GDM should 
  show what sessions are locked, and allow people to reactivate their old 
  sessions.
- Make sure that the Nautilus-preferences in the Control Center.
- Make sure that there is a system-option for letting users control their 
  own menus, merge in menu-options that are required by the sysadm.
- less black color. Gnome-terminal is black, x-chat uses black bg - as 
  default this it, but most people doesn't change it. This makes ou feel 
  tired, and personally it makes me feel less happy. White is also not 
  good. So there has to be made experiments with this. Maybe it shouldn't 
  just be a color, but maybe a simple background.
- too many options, we need to simplify
- More and better artwork everywhere
- sawfish indeed has too many options