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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    opinions on gnome2
From:       wvl <yatsu () wanadoo ! nl>
Date:       2002-07-19 14:50:02
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Take your finger off that del button ;) Hear me out.

I'd like to share my opinions on gnome2; you won't read any gnome
bashing here, not because gnome2 has no fault but because I don't think
it will benefit KDE3 in any way.

Recently there was an article about KDE3 written by Eustania (not sure
that was how her name was spelt, please correct me if I'm wrong :). In
this article she discussed several faults in KDE3's UI. On one account,
she mentioned the importance of good defaults. As most of us realize,
the average user does not or cannot change the default settings. This
post is about gnome2's defaults.

The first time gnome2 is started you are dropped into a very simple,
clean desktop. At the bottom of the screen you have the taskbar with in
it's right corner the virtual desktop switcher. At the top of the screen
there is another panel. At the top left there is the gnome icon,
followed by the word "Applications", to it's "Actions". At the righthand
side of this panel there is a speaker icon, a clock and an icon which
changes to the icon of the focussed application. Clicking on this icon
will present you with a list of open applications divided into the
applications on your current virtual desktop, and all others.

Now, compare this with KDE3 where everything is cropped on one, large
panel. Just about everything that gnome2 has is placed in on this panel,
_including_ a set of large 'quick launch' icons. Once the user is able
to find the KDE application menulist, he/she is presented with a list of
applications, applets and actions. 

It's obvious which approach is more userfriendly. KDE3's panel lacks
order (no seperators, the KDE application list icon is lost in the quick
launch icons), as does the KDE menu.

So, how should KDE3/4 go about this? My opinion is that it should follow
gnome2 in respect to it's default desktop. I'm interested in hearing
your opinions.

- wvl

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