Re: Default configuration for the Panel

["David Grega" <webmaster overtech zzn com>]

People keep talking about making Gnome User-friendly.  If
this is true, why do we assume people use anything OTHER
than 640x480 by default?  That's usually the default
configuration and novices are often warned not to go into
the control panel to change these types of things.  So when
a user is forced onto 640x480 and Gnome apps are rarely
visible on such a low resolution (the fact that the taskbar
takes up practically 1/5 of your screen doesn't help) - the
user would say Gnome is far from user-friendly.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Juliano Soares dos Santos" <juliano eps ufsc br>
To: <gnome-gui-list gnome org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2001 2:03 PM
Subject: Re: Default configuration for the Panel


> > > I think the defaults are important, but what should we
look at as the
> > > "default machine"?  Apps should be usable on small
screens, but I
> > > don't think enough people are using 640x480 to design
the defaults
> > > towards them.  (Most X apps historically assume a
default of 1024x768,
> > > it seems.)
> From Miguel's GUADEC II keynote
> (at
http://www.linux.org.uk/~telsa/Trips/Talks/guadecii-miguel.h
tml):
>
> "Some governments are getting into free software in a big
way: Spain is
> using Linux extensively in the government; and Mexico is
following that
> route. The savings in licence fees alone when you have
installations which
> involve millions of machines are staggering. So GNOME
needs to be ready for
> this.
> If we want to encourage this, things to work on are:
> - saving memory
> - working on small configurations, small screens etc
> - good translation support
> - working on 640x480"
>
> We can't assume that people will be using 1024x768. Many
use GNOME on
> notebook at 800x600.
>
> > Agreed, and for these reasons its probably best that
defaults are left
> > to distributors, who have some concept of their
"market". What the GNOME
> > project *can* do however, is provide accessible,
user-friendly docs
> > which inform users of how they can change things which
are
> > unsuitable/annoying for them.
>
> Mike, you made a strong argument. I have to agree with
you.
> My question hadn't the intention to find 'a standard' to
impose to everyone.
> I was trying to do something like a research with ideas
for the interface.
>
> I'm glad that people at least read my e-mail.
>
> Juliano Soares dos Santos
>
>
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