Re: [Usability] GNOME 2.6+ usability: points of critique

[robsta stereolyzer net]

Hello Robert, 

> Hi,
> 
> I am a longtime GNOME user (since 1.2.x), albeit not a GNOME
> developer
> (mainly due to lack of time, sorry). While unfortunately I cannot
> really
> participate in the development of GNOME, I can (and feel I should
> at
> this point) give some feedback on usability. To make a long story
> short:
> I am on the verge of switching. Where to? Anything. Essentially
> just
> away from GNOME. Why? Well that is what this mail is about; just
> silently switching away from the desktop environment I have been
> using
> for many years just does not feel right.

Unlike other desktop environments GNOME has a well defined target
audience. HP put it very nicely once by saying something along the
lines of "There is no point in making another KDE/Xfce/whatever
because they exist already".

> It mainly boils down to two essential points: flexibility and
> arrogance.
> GNOME has been "simplified" more and more for some time now, almost
> always at the expense of flexibility and configurability. And when
> someone complains, the reactions often are along the lines of "we
> know
> better than you, we will not change it back, so get used to it or
> get
> lost". Want examples? Sure.
> 
> 1) I use a focus scheme usually known as "focus on mouse contact",
> and
> am used to being able to trigger mouse events in a window (i.e.,
> 'click') _without_ raising it. While Metacity fortunately still can
> do
> this (so the wm itself is not to blame here), why on earth do I
> have to
> set this in a lousy 'regedit' rip-off (which of all things pops up
> a
> window telling me I am not supposed to use it anyway)?

It's hard for me to see the reason for a complaint when all you have
to do is uncheck some switch at first launch.

> 2) I am used to and can productively work with browse-mode file
> managers
> like Nautilus used to be until GNOME 2.4. In GNOME 2.6 spatial mode
> was
> added. Fair enough. But why does the upgrade simply change the
> default
> behaviour without asking me, seemingly expecting me to re-learn
> before I
> can get any work done? That is quite arrogant. Again: the
> possibility to
> switch off spatial mode was first hidden in the GNOME configuration
> editor and only added into the GUI of 2.8 (AFAIK). And yes, I have
> tried
> spatial mode, albeit not for very long. Desktop environments should
> help
> me improve my productivity, not force me to re-learn all the time.

Again, you are a long time GNOME user. What's the point if you change
the setting once and stay happy forever?

> 3) Somewhere along the way from 2.4 to 2.8 (I am not exactly sure
> when
> since my reference installations are 2.4 and 2.8) the possibility
> to
> dock views into Nautilus was either dropped or hidden so well that
> I
> could not find it again. Up to 2.4, I usually configured Nautilus
> that
> HTML and text documents are shown inside the browser window. In 2.8
> that
> does not seem to be possible anymore.

Re-read your statements. You also configured earlier versions of
GNOME. So why start complaining now?

> 4) Simple details of themes, like the size of icons in applications
> cannot be modified. The icon size and arrangement of most themes is
> almost ridiculous. At least on a 1024x768 laptop screen. Simple
> possibility to reduze size and space between icons? Not that I know
> of.

I find it quite usable if there are just icons and no text below.
Still, work towards "scalable user interfaces" would most likely be
appreciated by the gtk developers.

> 5) Every directory having its own view settings in Nautilus is
> nice, but
> absolute nonsense without a "set this view for all" function. If it
> does
> exist, I did not find it. And manually changing the settings for
> every
> directory I ever visited is quite tedious.
> 
> Those points are mostly minor annoyances, treated separately. 

This might be a nice occasion to get off you ass and write a script
instead of just complaining. You might make some people happy ...

> But they
> are only the most prominent examples, given time I am sure I could
> still
> extend that list quite a bit. Their combination has reached a point
> where using GNOME has become one big annoyance. I will definitely
> retry
> GNOME at some future time, but when I extrapolate the current
> development, I am not very confident.

Sorry for that very rude reply, but the things you bring up have been
discussed over and over again. Please read the mail archives.

Best, 
Rob