Salane, Regarding simpler file managers, I suggest you check out Nautilus in spatial mode. It could be what you're looking for. (In Nautilus go to Preferences -> Behaviour and uncheck "Always open in browser windows", or set gconf key /apps/nautilus/preferences/always_use_browser to 0). By the way, it's an acquired taste. Turn on single click to open for particularly startling change ;)
I think the reason people are saying this mockup suggests a dangerous dependency on compositing + real transparency is because that (and a fancy file manager) is all it really shows at present. Regarding Vista similarity... next time you have a chance, using Win Vista place the task bar at the top of the screen. You will notice it (with the Start icon) looks nearly identical to what is here. Regarding the menu in general: The three menus is a Good Idea for usability. People see Applications on the screen, and they immediately know that clicking it will give them applications. Same idea with Places or System. Places is particularly important; there is an amazing prevalence of people who do not understand the simple concept that files are placed in locations on drives, who become confused when told to open drives or go to their documents folders. The Places menu makes that all much easier, and quicker to boot. (Although on that thought, I think a nice and conveniently blingy enhancement would be for the menu headers to glow when their contents change --- particularly for Places). Yes, it means we can't have a Start menu. Is it really that much of a loss? That menu has been in flux since Windows 95 and is frequently ridiculed for its appalling lack of user friendliness. Furthermore (slightly sorry to keep hammering on this), that menu you have reminds me of mystery meat navigation. The annoyance level of helping people with Windows problems has increased lately, because the menu no longer says "Start"; it is now just "the blue marble thing". Therefore, "the Start menu" means nothing to people and I often have to say "bottom left corner of the screen" for them to get it. (Then stepping them through the menu is similarly horrifying. Turns out people are blind to the grey area on the right side of the applications list. A lesson to learn probably exists there). It makes more sense for a user to be opening Applications than to be opening "the Ubuntu logo". I imagine you have a vision for how the rest of the widgets should look, so it would really be worthwhile getting more detailed mockups of those. The one big image of a desktop does not cut it when it comes to inspiring imaginations, but I am really interested in where you are going at the level of that GTK theme. Bye, -Dylan
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