Re: A Violent Realisation [Was: Preferences]

[Dick Porter <dick ximian com>]

On Mon, Apr 29, 2002 at 11:11:21AM -0400, Havoc Pennington wrote:
> > By all means make GNOME usable for the newbies, but please dont make it
> > alienate the more experienced Unix users and other hackers.
> 
> (Aside: I'd like to switch to saying "traditional free software users"
> instead of "experienced users" or "hackers" - because I think the
> target audience for improving the UI is mostly sysadmins and software
> developers, technical people. Just not the ones used to fvwm2.)

Fair enough.

> 
> We have to do the basics, like still allowing window manager focus
> mode. But we aren't going to be able to support every option in every
> OS ever deployed, and take every add-a-preference patch. And that's
> what would be required to avoid _any_ complaints. If we don't add
> _everything_ then _someone_ is going to have to change how they work.
> Can you disagree with that?

Most of the complaints seem to be about _removing_ options that exist
already in GNOME 1.4, with the explanation being that it simplifies things
for new users this way.

> So simple preferences that don't break the conceptual model of the
> desktop and really add a lot of appeal to traditional users are fine. 
> e.g. focus mode. But we have to draw a line.

No disagreement there from me.

> So I would ask you to explain where you would draw that line, other
> than saying "I would not leave out the features that I use
> personally." Because we have to leave out something that _someone_
> uses.

I dont think you can legislate for what is or is not a suitable feature or
preference: you have to evaluate each suggestion or patch on its merits.
(Merits including of course how badly it impacts the code, as well as
usability or aesthetic grounds.)

> 
> Ultimately, keep in mind that if you are a huge fvwm2 fan and have
> always used that, you can keep doing so. Why should GNOME slavishly
> follow all these past free software UIs? What's the point of making a
> new desktop that's just like the old ones?

I don't think anyone is arguing that GNOME should just be like fvwm2 or
any other old system (including windows or mac, for that matter.) However
much we're arguing, we're all trying to make GNOME better than anything
else (more usable, more fun, less obstructive, etc.)

> 
> We standardize things on freedesktop.org so that anyone who wants to
> create a drop-in replacement for part of GNOME can do so.

Again, good work that we all benefit from.

- Dick