Re: A Violent Realisation [Was: Preferences]

[Kjartan Maraas <kmaraas online no>]

man, 2002-04-29 kl. 17:20 skrev Miguel de Icaza:
> >   There needs to be a violent realisation that empowerment through usability
> >   far exceeds the possibility of empowerment through gimmickry. [1]
> 
> This is a nice thesis Jeff, and it would work fine in a vacuum.  
> 
> Today people are trained in using existing systems, and when they look
> at a Linux desktop, they are looking at a viable solution to replace
> their desktops with.
>

What people do you have in mind here? Everyone? Windows converts?
 
> And unless you can come up with a user interface that is not ten percent
> better, but two or three times better, you are not being competitive
> with other existing solutions (KDE for example).

I'm going to spend some time comparing us with KDE 3.0 the next days
just to see how we stand. I'm not sure we're looking too bad in
comparison.

> 
> Research belongs into research-land.  And when good research exists, it
> can be incorporated into products.   But forcing a production desktop
> like GNOME (and even at this late stage of GNOME 2) to follow some
> mantra and some HIG that have not been tested on a grand scale seems
> like a bad idea, and that is why you see people like Dick opposing the
> plan.
> 
No matter how you look at it there's mantra on both sides here. I think
the fear of having a desktop with two tweakable buttons is unfounded.

It's perfectly good to have a lot of options, but you don't necessarily
want to inflict them on all users of the desktop. I think there's a
reason why Windows has shipped the PowerToys collection for all their
desktops since Windows 95. Maybe we just need a good PowerToys
collection that users can install if they need it?

> I want to get work done just as much as you do, but reading this thread
> is scaring me.  It scares me because I am thinking `I am being
> marginalized, and my feature I depend on will not be there, and I will
> end up running some other desktop that does do what I need'.
> 

Which feature is this? I'd say it will have to be a major feature to
make you switch desktops after many years, no matter if you've developed
it or just used it.

> So do not go around scaring old people like me, we have no longer the
> hearth condition to assimilate it like you young guys.
> 

Come on Miguel, turning 30 isn't that bad. ;)

Cheers
Kjartan