I will keep this short! Not. I tried but failed! So please pick what you are interested in. And don't take it personal. I can only apologize for my own unfair and unpolite behaviour.
// nautilus - create empty file Every file-browser does manage files, this includes the creation of "empty files", not only "empty directories". This function was removed with "3.6". Nautilus doens't fullfill the basic requirement of a file-browser. This is wrong! Instead users are forced to use the XDG-Directory "Templates" to create a template for an empty file. But that is not possible, because for this you need to create an empty file. This is weird! Bug reports: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=324253 https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=676838 https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=683735 Screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/CkkOlSL.png Example: Create an empty file "main.cpp", which can be double-clicked and edited within Gedit with propper syntax-hightlighting. Proposal: "Create empty file" should just be available, where "New Folder" is available. // nautilus - type-ahead-find Common file-browsers offers the ability to use "type-ahead-find". Just type the file-name you want and it will be selected instantly from the current directory. Not shortcut required. It "finds" files, it doesn't search (no disk i/o, no database). Type-Ahead-Find was even better implemented in Nautilus than in Microsofts Explorer! Because you got a box at right bottom were you see what you have typed. I also wondered over years why this features did't worked reliable in Explorer, but in Nautilus. Until sb. told me, that in Explorer a user have to type the letters without a pause. The current search is stressful for the eyes, file-icons "flicker" and dis(appearing) of icons. Bug reports: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=679900 https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=680118 Screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/Sat0lIL.png Example: Browser your files with "gtk-file-chooser". Type-Ahead-Find wasn't removed from there! Proposal: Bring back type-ahead-find and start the new search with "Ctrl +F". It is, what every user expects. Comment 17 from the first bug report: > True. Should we file a bug to report the fact that this essential feature is > now broken? Sadly this and the example above caused already forks, like Nemo and Ubuntus decision to stay at Nautilus "3.4". Okay, I peculated split-pane. // settings - suspend when lid closed Most laptops go to Suspend-To-RAM (STR) when the LID is closed. But a lot of users doesn't want this. While they want just protect the screen and keyboard from dust, while the computer should still run (e.g. compile something). Or while the want move to the next room with the laptop, but don't want lost the wifi-connection (e.g xmpp, irc, download...). Or while suspend and resume are not reliable. Bug reports (?): http://blogs.gnome.org/hughsie/2011/02/02/is-gnome-3-going-to-melt-your-laptop/ http://afaikblog.wordpress.com/2011/02/03/on-laptop-lids-and-power-settings/ http://worldofgnome.org/running-in-the-office-with-gnome/ # funny, but not a fix Screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/rCzf38y.png Example: Please search for this option in dconf! It's also gone! It followed the typical "GNOME-Lifecycle": Removed from UI, broken in DCONF with subsequent release (here 3.6), removed from GNOME entirely Proposal: A smart and logical grouping of options doesn't confuse but allows for access to the important settings. The current ui already offers a good solution. See the screenshot! Logical grouping of options is the best solution! But I want to note that a "Default-Button", "Advanced-Button" or a "Wrench-Menu" also offers solutions. A novice users knows that "Advanced" is not a place for him/her and "Default" could clean up the mess. The rooted objections by the users doesn't changed the mind of the developers, as can be seen on the links above. The option for deciding what happens on LID-Close is relevant and this is way it caused so much sadness on both sides. The aim to support new types of devices should never be the reason to restrict general usage. GNOME is only used on Desktop and Laptops, it is not delivered on any tablet out-of-the-box and netbooks are already a thing of the past. Moreover GNOME is not identified with a device. A computer is not an applicane, like an iPhone. Users are humans and are able to make decisions, it is their right to make own decisions! There are serveral obvious ways to suspend a computer and it is not necessary to change the configuration every time: * Fn+F1-12 key for Suspend-To-RAM * Command "systemctl suspend" or "pm-suspend" or a shell alias * Item from the user-menu (hidden by default, press "Alt") * After some idle time Smart and important settings will not overwhelm users. If an user obstrains from the decision, the default will match. The "settings kill kittens"-argument is wrong. It is possible that too many settings "frighten" kittens. Not offering the important settings is *killing* users! At least it is very simple to point to others programs and daemons and saying they do it wrong. Maybe GNOME is wrong? And even if GNOME is right, sometimes it's better to be smart than right. // settings - background/wallpaper The old dialog from 3.0 for wallpapers was removed. The new one force the user to click on the current wallpaper and then offers some default wallpapers, the screenshots from the ~ or ~/Pictures and some colors. It removed the and obvious gtk-file-chooser dialog "Open" to add and picture from a random location. It removed the options to Zoom,Tile orStretch the picture, to make it fit. It stores the picture in ~/Pictures even it it the directory doesn't exist, because it was deleted. Bug reports: to lazy Screenshots: http://i.imgur.com/WsXEGnF.png # why the users have to click on this? http://i.imgur.com/2Slx6li.jpg # why the users can't add a picture on their own with file-chooser? why the users can't make the image fit the screen, just think of 4:3, 16:9, 16:10, 21:9... http://i.imgur.com/KE8PwQc.png # why are all the required options only there? this also prevents creation of "~/Pictures"! http://i.imgur.com/TUvhJkJ.png # original design of GNOME 3.0 at bottom-right, by Allan Day (looks nice, works, obvious) Example: Delete the directory "Pictures", if you don't need it. My directory for images is is "~/pictures", because I prefer lowercase letters for directories (convention on UNIX). Open the background-settings and drag(!) an image into it, which doesn't fit perfectly to your screen. The directory "~/Pictures" is created and the image get copied into it. You will be not able to make it fit without dconf. Proposal: Don't created "~/Pictures", store the background-image into an dot-directory. Like it was done before? Modifiying or creating files in user-visible diretories is a bad idea. Add the "Open" or "Add"-Button, it is hard to guess that drag&drop works. Add the option to fit the image to screen. Remove the unnecessary step to "enter the image settings" by clicking on the current background. Basically, made it like it was before. // XDG-Directories GNOME creates a first-login the so-called XDG-Directories. Nice for novice users! They just get in my way, so I delete them. That is really okay. I just prefer other names (lowercase letters only in UNIX-fashion) or doesn't use them at all. The problem is that GNOME 3.4 started to rely on the existance of this directories and re-creates them! Example: "gnome-screenshot" tried to save screenshots "~/Pictures" in release 3.4, if "Pictures" doesn't exist it failed silently, but played the shutter-sound and flashed the screen. This was fixed with 3.6, which falls-back to "~". The background-dialog re-creates "~/Pictures" and store the images there, instead of using a hiddend directory like ".config",".cache" or ".gnome" or what contained stuff like that in the past. And finally GNOME still creates "~/Desktop". And it re-created this also sometimes! GNOME 3.0 removed the concept of a "Desktop" and finally removed everything related with "3.8" but this directory gets created anyway. Proposal: Don't rely *hard* on the XDG-Stuff. Please offer it! But don't enforce it. // eog I always use Geeqie for viewing pictures. Mainly because EOG doesn't display thumbnails in a vertical-sidebar, only horizontal. Also it doesn't show the sidebar if no image is opened. Proposal: God damn! After ten years I found out the the option for vertical thumbnails is hidden in dconf! Argh! Please, offer this kind of options in the application UI. Also an UI should just show the thumbnails if no image is selected, it just present what is in the current working-dir (even if this is nothing). So the user has not to guess whether thumnails are active and the UI is more "silent". Fun fact: I know about one well know designer of GNOME, who doesn't like horizontal scrolling. // the removal of tabs Of the last two years it has become a running-gag of mine, that GNOME will remove tabs. From? Whatever! Tabs are the killer-feature of the last decade and are used by text-editors, terminals, file- and web-browsers! The tabs increased usability everywhere a lot of. Mainly Windows-Explorer can't compete with any file-browser on Linux, because the Explorer doesn't allow to use tabs! But this story is not about Nautilus, it is about Epipany. Epiphany feels much better with the last releases. Yep, the application feels better and has becomse also faster! I think this is the result of WebKit2 and the hard work of the developers of Epiphany! Thank you! But this make me worried: http://blogs.igalia.com/femorandeira/2013/01/29/a-few-more-ideas-for-web-navigation-and-a-talk-at-fosdem/ Kidding. You want remove tabs for this? Again, spell it loud: "I will not remove important fetures. If I think I have a better approach, I will *add* it but not *remove* something important!" Tabs allow for instant switching with keyboard and mouse, while the user can see what content is open in the other tabs. The approch from the link above doesn't allow for both of this, is just makes much clicking and searching necessary for the right thumbnail. Moreover it will not fix the problem with "many open websites". A user will just have to search for the thumbnail and maybe even scroll vertical for it. Honestly I don't see the problem with many open websites. Many are many. I prefer opening a second browser-window (or another browser) in case of to many open tabs and colleting the releated tabs in the windows, e.g. one for coding, one for entertainment and so on. And bookmarks also help. Proposal: Add this new approch if desired! Really! As option in addition to tabs! Moreover take a look at the sidebar of Midori, it allows for opening bookmarks, tabs, cookies and so on. Also the sidebar-approch allows for displaying thumbnails in the sidebar of open tabs, much like a image-viewer does! I've think I have seen this on already within Firefox for Android (not sure). // gnome-shell (new application launcher) The keyboard-usage is awesome! But the mouse-usage has become worse with "3.8". In former release we can use two button for "Overview" and "Applications" at top-left corner, just missing "Zeitgeist" which was not implemented. So an "Android-Style" icon was added to the dash. It is not moveable and sits at the bottom. Also "Applications" offers by default "Recent" not "All". But the icon indicates "All" and this is what user expects anyway. The more recent applications will be placed (in most cases) in the dash or executed with the keyboard. Also "recent" could be empty - and it is on a fresh install. Moreover the design seems to hide by default some important applications in "sub-entries". This remembers on the bad behaviour of Windows-XP which hides applications or menu-entries, which are less used. Why is "gnome-terminal" less important than "sudoku". Why is "EOG" less important than "Photos"? Screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/2bmzAZQ.jpg I marked the typicall mouse-way, it is a wide journey. Proposal: Make the "Applications" icon moveable, like all icons on the dash. Open "All" by default, not "Recent". Place the buttons for both at top-left of the screen. Don't hidde some applications for no obvious reason. // fonts GNOME 3.2 offers an fancy new fonts-chooser. But we can't change the fonts from the user-settings. Why users are not allowed to change the fonts? The new default-font looks nice, but maybe the user want something other. A nice "Default"-Button would also help to reset the fonts. The design of GNOME3 is great. The new font and theme rocks! It really rocks! Taste is a subjectiv-value, but "GTK3" looks always nice and Qt4 looks by default ugly. Sorry KDE! But taste is subjective. // support and stability The problem is that GNOME only offers two support releases 3.x.1 and 3.x.2 on every major-release. The bug report below shows a bug caused by GNOME or X11 in GNOME "3.4.2". It was fixed upstream but the developers decide not to support the current release anymore. At that time GNOME 3.6 wasn't used by any distribution. So the fix was "waiting for the next major-release". Bug reports: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=686102 # note: archlinux build on stable-upstream and avoids custom patches Proposal: Supporting older code doesn't make fun, but it is necessary. Who doesn't hate it? Is it better to "overlap" support between major-releases? Think of distributions, commercial users and public services. Also why stick on two bugfix-releases only? A lot of GNOME-Projects already doesn't care about this "limit". If their are no dependencies, the project-developers would be free to release bugfixes when necessary. Why not untie certain projects from the release-cycle, e.g. Epiphany and Evolution? This will give the developers the time to "getting things done". Obviously this doesn't match for the core applications, like Nautilus, gnome-system-monitor or gnome-disks. But unnecessary tieing seem like a drawback to me, not a benefit. GNOME is tightly fit to a six-month cycle, especially with Ubuntu. At least the later one will not matter anymore. If it ever did? I won't jugdge this, but it seem to be very short and merely caused by "the sync" with Ubuntu. Maybe a longer cycle would be better? This will allow for collecting user-feedback (time lag between GNOME and distributions) after the release, make proposals and drafts, talk with user about the proposal and finally writing code. Will avoid "flying blind". // launch several applications at once from the dash with Ctrl+Left Mouse Button https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=686984#c49 # big thanks! Well. I just want say thank you! I'm also eager to see this added in future (waiting since 3.0 for this): https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=644306 // clocks, wheater, documents, photos, contacts clocks # great! just great! wheater # great, but like always it lacks the simple options: switch from "Grad Fahrenheit" to "Grad Celcius" documents # i' dont get the purpuse, it is not generic (nautilus) nor application specific (evince, abiword, libreoffice) photos # i'dont get the purpuse, it is not generic (nautilus) nor application specific like (geeqie, eog, shotwell) contacs # good idea, evolution is to much for non-business! but why i can import/export contacts? the application is in this state a /dev/null or literally a dead-end for data. on the other side, i can see the contacts from "contacts" in evolution but not the contacts i've added in evolution in "contacts"? Well. No I'm weird. To much contacts :D Thank you for your patience. You must be crazy if you have read all of this! Brave soul! Peter _______________________________________________ gnome-devel-list mailing list [email protected] https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-devel-list
