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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Re: Simplified windowing mode
From:       Jaroslaw Staniek <js () iidea ! pl>
Date:       2005-08-06 23:53:49
Message-ID: 42F54D8D.6040902 () iidea ! pl
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David Laban said the following, On 2005-08-06 13:32:

> I think the thing that mac users have as an *advantage* over windows users
> is that most of their apps are NOT usable in fullscreen mode, because their
> apps have those detached windows that contain the toolbars (think
> "photoshop" and "dreamweaver", where the toolbars disappear when the focus
> changes, not GIMP, which is just a half arsed clone of the real masters,
> and a usability disaster area). They get used to having things a sensible
> size, with a tiny bit of their desktop showing behind(of the nine things
> thread, this is the only one I agree on). This makes task switching easy,
> and ensures that there's actually some *point* in  having a graphical
> environment (if you want one thing up at a time, you might as well be on
> the command line)
> 
> I would suggest that rather than simplified mode in that way, it would be 
> better to give everyone 6-8 multiple desktops, and if they have "simplified
>  mode", and they already have a task running in fullscreen on one
> desktop(or even just using more than 2/3rds of the screen), the next thing
> that opens up goes on the next desktop.

Sorry for random thoughts, but:

When "simplified mode" is on, the whole idea of virtual desktops (VD) is not
as bright to me. VD look a bit more justified for traditional "windows soup 
mode". I hope you've not proposed here to make VD's pager to act just like 
taskbar?

More general question here (hope Aaron can provide his opinion): Could we
assume that the whole VD idea is *optional* for users, so without a strong
knowledge about what VDs are, user can simply ignore this functionality
(lacking real-world metaphor) and still be productive?

> If you look in subversion at the kicker there, you will see that the
> usability of the multiple desktops is greatly improved, so now would be a
> good time to teach users about them

Teaching is ok, but what sort of users consider this to be interesting? Right,
converted user is not longer able to be frightened by the idea. Many of old
Unix desktop users dropped their old GUIs and know VD's metaphor quite well.

But... isn't the idea too exotic to the currently-mainstream (lower 80%) users
of MS and Apple products? If so, not forcing to use VD wouldn't hurt. I can
see (say, at my workplace) these users having virtual desktop's pager
configured in KDE <=3.4 (because it's the default) and if it's not used at
all, it seems to be ok - they can learn why VDs were provided for them (btw,
is this really so easy discover or could be easier?).

-- 
regards / pozdrawiam,
   Jaroslaw Staniek / OpenOffice Polska / Kexi Team
   http://www.openoffice.com.pl  |  http://www.kexi-project.org
   KDElibs/Windows: http://wiki.kde.org/tiki-index.php?page=KDElibs+for+win32
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