Questions for deployments of GNOME [LWN.net]

Questions for deployments of GNOME

Posted Jun 11, 2006 12:34 UTC (Sun) by sbergman27 (guest, #10767)
In reply to: Questions for deployments of GNOME by nix
Parent article: Questions for deployments of GNOME

I can tell you exactly why customizability can be a bad thing in desktop rollouts. One of the first things most of my users do after I set them up a desktop is delete the task bar, and I get a long, rambling support request explaining in about 500 words and in 10 differenct ways, that there used to be this thing at the bottom where they could get back and forth between their windows and that now it's gone. Sometimes it's not the taskbar they delete. Sometimes it's the main menu. Sometimes it's the whole panel. Or sometimes they just have a HHHUUUGGGEEE vertical panel taking up the left 20% of their screen. One thing is consistent, though. They have absolutely no idea how it happened or how to fix it.

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Questions for deployments of GNOME

Posted Jun 11, 2006 17:30 UTC (Sun) by gnb (subscriber, #5132) [Link] (3 responses)

The assumes a poor customizability system. There's no reason why the
sysadmin shouldn't be able to lock specific features down so, for example,
the task bar can't be removed. Leaving the decision to those managing the
deployments seems more constructive to me than having the developers
saying that something can't be done, ever.

Questions for deployments of GNOME

Posted Jun 11, 2006 18:36 UTC (Sun) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link] (2 responses)

... and you can do exactly that with KDE, for instance. (IIRC you can do it with GNOME, too.)

Questions for deployments of GNOME

Posted Jun 11, 2006 18:53 UTC (Sun) by gnb (subscriber, #5132) [Link] (1 responses)

I knew that to be true of KDE. I didn't know whether GNOME had this
feature, but one example is enough to make the point that it's quite
possible to provide both customizability and enough control over that
so end-users can't just break their system.

Questions for deployments of GNOME

Posted Jun 11, 2006 20:33 UTC (Sun) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]

I was expanding on your point, not disagreeing :)

Customizability

Posted Jun 11, 2006 17:33 UTC (Sun) by dskoll (subscriber, #1630) [Link]

That is a clear example of why GNOME is heading in the WRONG direction.

I refuse to use any system that prevents me from customizing it. However, customization should be done by editing text configuration files. That way, power users can happily customize their desktops, while novices aren't even aware that it can be customized and therefore don't shoot themselves in the foot. Furthermore, power users can carry their config files around with them so they can easily duplicate their customizations on a new system.

I've set up a Linux box for my parents, and given them a locked-down version of XFCE. But they still run into trouble with Mozilla and Thunderbird when they end up deleting the folder list or making some customization without knowing how to back out of it. I think the old UNIX tradition of customization-via-text-editor has a lot going for it.

Questions for deployments of GNOME

Posted Jun 12, 2006 11:19 UTC (Mon) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link] (1 responses)

Yes, I've heard this sort of tale before (I'm glad I've never had to support this sort of thing).

I wonder *why* some users go into a panic of delete-delete-delete upon the least confusion?

(Emacs at least provides keyboard-escape-quit on ESC ESC ESC so that if you get panicky you can get back into a sane state; the equivalent of some of these task-bar-deletion things would have keyboard-escape-quit delete the contents of your home directory. ;) )

Questions for deployments of GNOME

Posted Jun 12, 2006 16:52 UTC (Mon) by sbergman27 (guest, #10767) [Link]

Well, it's not quite so bad as I described. I try to make a bit of a game of it and take the 500 word support requests with a bit of humor.

Ironically, the less "computer savvy" users tend to have shorter, and more to the point, support requests. I can get their problems taken care of more quickly.

It's the users that fancy themselves as power users that send the 500 word ones stating the same thing over and over in different ways. They want to make it perfectly clear to me that they know what they are doing. When I call to actually support them, it takes somewhat longer, depending upon how long it actually takes me to get a word in edgewise after they start trying to "help" me.

-Steve