My OperaGNOME is getting on my nerves
Saturday, October 13, 2007 8:29:43 AM
It all started when I downloaded a new Linux distribution to install in my PC. It was all perfect at the begining. At least it was quite a lot of stuff new to learn, but... to be honest, GNOME, a very popular desktop environment in linux, quite disappointed me.
To everyone else not using linux, a Desktop Environment is the most complicated concept you can fit in your brain when you hear that in linux there are a lot of ways of representing and manage the windows in a graphical way... In other OSes, namely MacOS and Windows, there is only one graphical way to talk to the user, the former a lot better than the latter one. Linux is somewhat in the middle (kind of). As a part of the you-are-free-to-do-with-your-pc-whatever-you-want philosophy, not found in neither the Mac or Win worlds, a lot of people decided that the existing options of graphical outputs in Linux were not acceptable to their needs, and so, the window managers and desktop environments appeared. Both form the perfect complement to the so-called window server and thus, offer the most flexible and customizable OS in the market.
One of those couples (window manager + desktop environment) is GNOME, the one I am throwing flames today. Hehe. Although it shares some of the ideas of the Macintosh User (Usabilitiy) Guidelines, it is not a clone of it, neither it has the power the mac UI has. Yes, as one of the guidelines says, Usability is essential, and yes, it is simple to use and understand. So simple, that is is impossible to do many things with it. Note that I left out the word "advanced". Ordering the windows can become a problem if you don't install some extra software. Yes. I know that customizing the window behaviour is not a DM's work, but the doctor told me not to use the mouse that much! I need keyboard shorcuts to move the windows around, to open applications, to handle devices. If it is about usability, seems that the concept could have multiple definitions, if you consider the experience and capabilities of the user, and not the designer whishes.
Look at this wonderful Web Browser called Opera and make an example from it. It has what every user needs in a quite simple interface. if you want to use the mouse, you have the gestures, but if you want to use the keyboard your have a whole miriad of shorcuts so powerful that would make mac and windows users blush in shame. That's what I am asking for in my GNOME and I find that for every new capability it would need to download more software.
I used GNOME Bittorrent client for a while. And yes, for quite basic stuff is just perfect, but then I found that in one particular torrent I had to do some hash checking (mathematical comparision of data) and... guess what! There is no checking in that software! Propietary and boring OS (hehe mac and win) are out of question here; you must download / buy extra software to do... well.. anything, but why does GNOME have this kind of inconsistencies being an open source project? Could be that taking that usability goal to the extreme is counterproductive?
I do not know. GNOME is nice, visually (OpenOffice looks more than great!) but its simplicity seems to be a drawback, more than an advantage. I think I am heading back to KDE, as it is not my ideal to complicate more my computing life using simplier or smaller Window Managers that are difficult to understand.
To everyone else not using linux, a Desktop Environment is the most complicated concept you can fit in your brain when you hear that in linux there are a lot of ways of representing and manage the windows in a graphical way... In other OSes, namely MacOS and Windows, there is only one graphical way to talk to the user, the former a lot better than the latter one. Linux is somewhat in the middle (kind of). As a part of the you-are-free-to-do-with-your-pc-whatever-you-want philosophy, not found in neither the Mac or Win worlds, a lot of people decided that the existing options of graphical outputs in Linux were not acceptable to their needs, and so, the window managers and desktop environments appeared. Both form the perfect complement to the so-called window server and thus, offer the most flexible and customizable OS in the market.
One of those couples (window manager + desktop environment) is GNOME, the one I am throwing flames today. Hehe. Although it shares some of the ideas of the Macintosh User (Usabilitiy) Guidelines, it is not a clone of it, neither it has the power the mac UI has. Yes, as one of the guidelines says, Usability is essential, and yes, it is simple to use and understand. So simple, that is is impossible to do many things with it. Note that I left out the word "advanced". Ordering the windows can become a problem if you don't install some extra software. Yes. I know that customizing the window behaviour is not a DM's work, but the doctor told me not to use the mouse that much! I need keyboard shorcuts to move the windows around, to open applications, to handle devices. If it is about usability, seems that the concept could have multiple definitions, if you consider the experience and capabilities of the user, and not the designer whishes.Look at this wonderful Web Browser called Opera and make an example from it. It has what every user needs in a quite simple interface. if you want to use the mouse, you have the gestures, but if you want to use the keyboard your have a whole miriad of shorcuts so powerful that would make mac and windows users blush in shame. That's what I am asking for in my GNOME and I find that for every new capability it would need to download more software.
I used GNOME Bittorrent client for a while. And yes, for quite basic stuff is just perfect, but then I found that in one particular torrent I had to do some hash checking (mathematical comparision of data) and... guess what! There is no checking in that software! Propietary and boring OS (hehe mac and win) are out of question here; you must download / buy extra software to do... well.. anything, but why does GNOME have this kind of inconsistencies being an open source project? Could be that taking that usability goal to the extreme is counterproductive?
I do not know. GNOME is nice, visually (OpenOffice looks more than great!) but its simplicity seems to be a drawback, more than an advantage. I think I am heading back to KDE, as it is not my ideal to complicate more my computing life using simplier or smaller Window Managers that are difficult to understand.
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