Looking for alternative GNOME desktop configuration

["Larry W. Virden" <lvirden cas org>]

Currently I am learning the Solaris GNOME and Linux Red Hat 9 GNOME
environments with the goal to transition a group of users from OpenWindows
to GNOME.  Metacity in the Solaris and Linux environments is currently not
meeting some user requirements, and so I am seeking what alternative GNOME
applications might be added or used in replacement to achieve these
requirements.

Issue 1: the user has a wide variety of tools, both graphical and text based.
None of these applications are GTk+ based, and there are not resources
available to modify the applications to make them GTk+ based.  The users
also have 2 monitors attached to their workstations.

1. When the user places a variety of applications in a variety of
virtual desktops across their two monitor/headed systems, then indicates
at logout they wish to save their sessions, the next login on SPARC Solaris
does not place the applications in the correct virtual desktops.  In fact,
all applications are opened in one desktop.  While some of these can be
moved, other applications have to be shut down and restarted on the
second monitor.

2. A significant portion of the applications are not recognized by the
session saving mechanism in GNOME.  The gconf preference for handling
such sessions appears to provide no support for specifying workspace
or monitor location for the manually started applications.  


Issue 2: the user has various applications with more data
than will fit on one window, and scrolling the graphical
application windows takes too long.  The users are currently using
OpenWindows and the open windows virtual window manager, which
provides them these two abilities, which they have felt is acceptable.

1. Ability to create GUI windows that can be placed across virtual
desktops.  That is to say, a user might have one large application that
sits across 4 different virtual desktops and then switch desktops
to see relevant portions.

2. Ability to switch virtual desktops as close to instantly as possible.
Metacity does not provide a fast transition - one sits and watches each
window drawn and contents refilled.  Even after specifying minimal
themes, turning off animations, etc., the time taken to switch
virtual desktops is longer than the users require.

Issue 3: assisting staff with problem resolution is difficult.

1. It is not clear where one can find error logging to identify GNOME
application problems.  On Solaris, there are a couple of files in $HOME/.dt/
which appear to contain error information during login - it's not yet clear
whether these will contain all errors.

Issue 4: differences in environment that frustrate users.

1. Under OpenWindows, the users had the ability to move applications
from the desktop into the workspace switcher, reposition items within
the workspace switcher, etc.  They would prefer to find a window manager
or switcher which continued to provide them this ability.

2. Replacing xterm with gnome-terminal might fix some of the positioning
issues, but we have been unable to identify how to modify the gnome-terminal
behavior so that function keys generate the sequences we need generated.
Also, gnome-terminal doesn't support all of xterm's functionality - such
as the ability to resize the window via escape sequences, etc.

3. Users have reported that they see, occasionally and without being able
to duplicate, cases where desktop menu panels disappear.

4. Users see on a regular basis applications start up which are so large
that the top (and sometimes bottom) are off the top and bottom of the
virtual desktop.  They are unable to find a way to cause the applications
to resize to fit the virtual desktop.


As you can see, there's quite a daunting task ahead.  Telling users to
just forget about previous functionality doesn't work very well when their
work environment needs the functionality.  So I'd like to find some
methods of meeting as many of the needs as possible.
-- 
Tcl - The glue of a new generation.  <URL: http://wiki.tcl.tk/ >
Larry W. Virden <mailto:lvirden cas org> <URL: http://www.purl.org/NET/lvirden/>
Even if explicitly stated to the contrary, nothing in this posting should 
be construed as representing my employer's opinions.
-><-