Bruno Girin wrote: > <sarcasm> > <disclaimer>this tag may include content you can't see the funny side > of</disclaimer> > <workaround>please read the whole post and go have a walk before replying in > anger</workaround> > > Oh dear! A pre-release version of the next Ubuntu includes a massive > change to an essential element of user interface: the close button is > now on the left! The world is going to end! > > OK, so what? If I look at all the window managers I've used in the past > apart from Gnome, I count: Amiga OS (1.3), Motif, CDE, Ye Olde Mac > Classic, Mac OS-X, whatever the WM was on SunOS 4.x and the old HP-PA, > Windows 3.1 to Vista. The only thing I can say is that the positions of > the Close, Minimise and Maximise buttons has been quite varied. In fact, > the only OS in here that ever had the Close button in the top right > corner was... Windows 95/NT4 and above. Every other one had it in the > top left corner. > > The current argument reminds me of the time when we upgraded customers > from Windows NT 3.51 to NT 4. Microsoft did something terrible with NT > 4: they replaced the application launcher window with this weird bar at > the bottom that had a "Start" button and they moved the Close button > from top left to top right! How dare they? My customers were up in arms. > Granted, considering said customers were FX and equity traders, some of > them had an IQ inversely proportional to their earnings and found it > difficult to adapt to the change, but still. Every time I visited them, > I was told: "We'll call your boss, you'll lose your job over this! We'll > go to the competition! Microsoft will crash down in flames for doing > this!" Did I lose my job? No. Did they go to the competition? No. Did > Microsoft crash down in flames? Hell no, otherwise we wouldn't have bug > #1! > > </sarcasm> > > Having said this, is this a major change? Yes. Should it be pulled back? > No, not now and here's why: > > 1. Despite the fact that this thread seems to indicate that the whole > Ubuntu community is up in arms, this is not the case because the sample > of users in this thread is a self-selecting one. The users who see no > problem with the change will never find this thread because they won't > go looking for it. On the other hand, every single user who disagrees > with the change will go to Launchpad, find the thread and add his own > negative comment. So whatever data this thread contributes to the > problem is by definition biased and should therefore not be used in the > decision. On the other hand, that same data provides an interesting set > of test cases as it shows a varied range of opinions and experience, > which is useful for my second point. > > 2. Such a usability change can only be validated or invalidated by > widespread user testing. No amount of polls, reviews or limited > usability studies will tell you whether the change is a good one or not. > And, guess what? A beta release is exactly the right way to do such > testing: it's stable enough that you can give it to non-technical users > but you still have the option to correct bugs before the final release. > I suspect this is exactly why Mark Shuttleworth said that the current > button layout would stay *for the duration of beta 1 at least*. And I > believe that, if beta testing were to show that the change has a > definite negative impact on usability, it would be reverted before full > release. > > So, how, as a community, can we perform user testing on this change? > Install the beta, use it, try it out as it comes out of the box. And for > those who say that they support non-technical users, get them to play > with it. But don't tell them anything, let them find out what's new. I'm > sure you'll be surprised by who adapts well to the change and who > doesn't. > > Now can we please all calm down and help make Lucid the best Ubuntu yet? > > What would happen if you went to london with a car made for us. How long > would it take to get used to driving there? Same thing applies here.
-- [light-theme] please revert the order of the window controls back to "menu:minimize,maximize,close" https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/532633 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs