Re: [Usability] Quick Introduction, and a request

[Milan Bouchet-Valat <nalimilan club fr>]

Le mardi 31 mai 2011 à 19:06 -0700, Scott Doty a écrit :
> Hello,
> 
> I've been using the X Window System since 1993, when I was dragged 
> "kicking and screaming" into the world of X from my DOS/Window 3.11 desktop.
> 
> And I'm in debt to my coworkers for doing so, because I've been much 
> more productive with Linux and X than with systems that I do not care for.
> 
> Here's a screenshot of me using olvwm:
> 
>     http://ponzo.net/Linux/screensh.gif
> 
> ( Other screenshots are here:  http://ponzo.net/Linux/ )
> 
> I use Fedora on all my desktops, save the two Mac minis I keep around -- 
> but though the Macs have a nice interface, I much prefer that of Gnome 
> 2.  I recently upgraded my laptop to Fedora 15, and was surprised to 
> find that gnome-panel had changed so much.  After some discussion on the 
> fedora tester's list, I asked where I could post constructive criticism 
> of Gnome 3, in hopes of making it better.  Someone posted a pointer to 
> this mailing list and the irc channel -- and there I am, and here I am.
You'd probably get more feedback on IRC or on the gnome-shell list, but
I'll try to answer.

> There's a lot I like about the Gnome 3 desktop, including the use of 
> Javascript.  But I'm missing my old gnome-panels, plural.
> 
> Unix -- including Linux -- has, to me, always been about having more 
> choices.  At the moment, I'm using the Gnome 3 standard interface, and I 
> continue to miss my (highly-customized) gnome panels.  I would like to 
> advocate for an addition, or replacement, to "fallback mode" -- one that 
> gives users the choice of using legacy Gnome 2 panels.
> 
> Has there been any discussion of this possibility?
Yes, many times on the Shell list (have a look at the archives if you
want more details). Basically, the answer is no, we don't want it (we
being designers, not I). ;-)

But the reason is, GNOME2 is already available in the interesting parts
in fallback mode. It's not a new broken panel, it's just gnome-panel
adapted to match the new look. It was simply made harder to mess with,
because most people move applets by accident. But if you want to
customize it like in GNOME2, you can just right-click by holding Alt,
and (almost) everything is there, plus a few new features. OK, it's hard
to discover, but the advantage is that your dad won't remove its clock
without knowing how!

For the full story, you can read
http://www.vuntz.net/journal/post/2011/04/13/gnome-panel-is-dead,-long-live-gnome-panel!

Hope this helps