[gnome-love] Re: [Nautilus-list] GNOME user environment brainstorming

[Havoc Pennington <hp redhat com>]

eem12 cornell edu writes: 
> IMO, the complexity of the Panel should be controlled by user levels as 
> well.  Will novice user understand the idea of multiple desktops? Will 
> they ever even have enough windows open to need it? 

Some people have said the user level should affect only which prefs
are available, rather than rearrange the UI. But I don't know what the
official line on this is. 

Should probably do some user testing on desktops - it doesn't seem
like an inherently complex concept to me, but maybe it is.
 
> Along the same lines, in Beginner mode the Foot icon should probably have 
> a tooltip or some other means of drawing attention to it (perhaps pulsing 
> for a few seconds after login?), if that's going to continue being the 
> suggested way to launch apps.  IIRC the original Win95 Explorer had an 
> animated arrow that highlighted the Start Button.

The idea is that Start Here is where you're supposed to start, and
you can launch apps from the Programs folder in there also. 

We tossed around removing Programs from the foot menu entirely and
having it have only favorites and the Run Program... menu item. Then
Run Program... comes up with the list of all programs and the Add to
Favorites check button to get it in your menu.

Then when searching for a program you'd use Run Program, and for
common programs you put it in the menu. But maybe it wouldn't work out
so well. Another thing that requires user testing.
 
> If so, there should be an easy way to hide/show all open windows, a la 
> MacOS and KDE.

Good point.
 
> A Good Idea(tm) might be organizing by action rather than by
> application:

I think the new plans for replacing .desktop files might make this
possible fairly easily.
 
> > - foot menu rationalization:
> >     - probably remove Applets, KDE menus, and Panel submenus here at least
> >     - s/Run.../Run Program.../
>
> IMO, "Start" or "Launch" is a more accurate (and action-oriented :) 
> adjective than "Run."

Quite possibly.

> >     - add Start Here menu item to open Start Here
>
> Might this be on the Panel instead of hidden in a menu?  After all, it 
> _is_ called "Start Here" ...

Right, well it's on the desktop too, so again it's an issue of what
shortcuts are panel icons and which are desktop icons.
 
> Is Galeon going to be a core part of GNOME?

No clue on that.

Havoc