Re: A Violent Realisation [Was: Preferences]

[Dick Porter <dick ximian com>]

On Mon, Apr 29, 2002 at 09:00:40PM +1000, Jeff Waugh wrote:
> 
> So, are we writing a desktop for those who want to pissfart around with
> settings, options and toys, or those who want to get real work done?
> 
> It's a loaded question; and you know which side of the fence I'm on. It's
> very hard to convince someone who wants a computer to "get out of their face
> and do what they mean" that lots of settings and options are a good idea.

It's just as hard to convince someone who "just wants to get work done" and
relies on that setting you just removed.

A good example here would be the workspace/viewport thing: some people work
with different tasks on different workspaces (spread over several viewports),
some people limit themselves windows-style to just one viewport.  If you
want to think of a real world equivalent, think of an electronics engineer
who has a soldering bench, and a layout workstation on another desk.

>   There needs to be a violent realisation that empowerment through usability
>   far exceeds the possibility of empowerment through gimmickry. [1]

Calling someone else's preferred settings "gimmicks" really doesnt help.

Unlike commercial projects where $$$ buy developers, and committees can
decide where to pitch the UI, a free software project such as GNOME relies
on getting the hackers interested otherwise development wont happen.  And
hackers are in general the type of people that like to fiddle with things.

It's not just catering for hackers though; it's recognising that there is
more than one way to "get real work done", and that there is a place for
nifty customisation options.  Simple question: would gtk themes get past
the "bare minimalist" UI design squad today?

By all means make GNOME usable for the newbies, but please dont make it
alienate the more experienced Unix users and other hackers.


- Dick