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The GNOME project at 15

The GNOME project at 15

Posted Aug 15, 2012 21:55 UTC (Wed) by ovitters (subscriber, #27950)
In reply to: The GNOME project at 15 by cunagcleas
Parent article: The GNOME project at 15

Pretty sure that on LWN people think I am the greatest GNOME 3 supporter (and probably am :P). Actually on a daily basis I dislike various things all the time. Change is annoying. I just accept it more quickly because I either know (because I asked) or I expect things to improve.

e.g. the Nautilus changes broke my workflow (aside from happening pretty suddenly). I personally don't believe the developers have enough time until 3.6.0 to get the new way of doing things fully right (not only due to things like UI freezes.. but I just don't believe you can get a new 'design' right in just go; it is like a bugfree program.. not very realistic).

GNOME shell also went through various designs before hitting 3.0.0. There are still changes being planned (e.g. the 'Applications' tab; people have been complaining about that once since the start!).


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The GNOME project at 15

Posted Aug 16, 2012 21:22 UTC (Thu) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]

Change is annoying, he says. This from the guy who a year or so back was confidently asserting that everybody loves change and that GNOME 3 was sure to be a huge hit and that everyone really loved it but was just not saying anything.

The GNOME project at 15

Posted Aug 23, 2012 10:52 UTC (Thu) by ovitters (subscriber, #27950) [Link]

I never said that people love change.

Initial impressions of GNOME 3.0 from the people testing is was hugely favourable. There was a lot of positive feedback. Only after the release there was a lot of negativity.

With the knowledge you have now, loads of decisions could've been improved. It seems that is what you're suggesting? Which comes across as a bit petty.

Obviously the people testing it were testing it because they don't mind change. But one doesn't rule out another. I believe GNOME 3.0 is great, people will love it and that change is annoying. There is no conflict in these things.

Suggest to read up on how change is usually accepted to better understand what I mean. One example is for instance change due to company restructuring. In any case, the after the fact 'one of my thoughts is right' is pointless.

The GNOME project at 15

Posted Aug 23, 2012 11:35 UTC (Thu) by paulj (subscriber, #341) [Link]

Out of curiosity, how was that testing done? Was it systematic HCI testing, like the Sun stuff in 1.x → 2 days?

The GNOME project at 15

Posted Aug 23, 2012 11:47 UTC (Thu) by paulj (subscriber, #341) [Link]

Sadly, I can't find back any copies of the Sun "GNOME Usability Report". All links seem to lead back to:

http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/ut1_report/report...

Which is gone. Thankfully, the Wayback machine still has a copy:

http://web.archive.org/web/20080212092210/http://develope...

I think Sun had some other HCI work, but I don't remember & can't find anything to back up that feeling.

Point is, it'd be nice to see that level of testing guide the efforts today.

The GNOME project at 15

Posted Aug 23, 2012 8:10 UTC (Thu) by reddit (guest, #86331) [Link]

If it's not fully ready, what the heck is it doing in a branch leading to a stable release?!?

The GNOME project at 15

Posted Aug 23, 2012 10:56 UTC (Thu) by ovitters (subscriber, #27950) [Link]

Some things need be tried out in practice. You can leave things for an additional 6 months in some branch. No progress will be made.

I believe there might be a few small changes could go in by delaying it an additional 6 months, but relatively minor things.

What does improve things is way more people using it.

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