New Desktop Face-Off: Gnome 2.20 vs KDE 3.5 (O'ReillyNet)

it's even faster to let the minicli do your sums for you, I find.

You get used to the positive action being on the bottom right pretty quickly.

I doubt there was ever a conscious decision just "to be different".

>Is there any sane explanation of why Gnome reverses the order of OK and Cancel (and other
similar cases) compared to Windows (actually compared to the "CUA" guidelines that came from
IBM back in the 1980's; note that OS/2 and Motif also act similarly)?

A bit of quick googling ("gnome button order rationale") reveals: "The eyes of people who read
left-to-right tend towards the upper-left and lower-right corners of boxes. Therefore the
action the user is most likely to perform should be located in the lower-right corner. With
this button order, the action the user is most likely to perform is always in the same place
and is always the most noticeable."
(http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/proposals/dialog....)

I would hope they have empirical data to back this up, as they have gathered empirical data on
other HIG-related things, but don't actually know either way.  Intuitively, their way does
make more sense to me; it is certainly easiest to find the corner button with one's eyes, so
it's a good place for the most important information.

FWIW, OS X is like Gnome here.  I'm not sure I'd cite Motif as a paragon of UI design.

Well the whole thing is bogus anyways.

Who gives a shit if it's like Windows or not?

Years and years ago I hated Windows with a passion. I hated Microsoft, I hated everything
about it. I'd go around and grumble about this horrible aspect or how Microsoft is a monopoly
and such and such bullshit. Bill Gates had a stupid ugly face or something like that.

Then I stopped using Windows. Now I don't give a care one way or the other. 

Tell me what I am describing Windows or KDE or Gnome:

It has a desktop with icons. 
Those icons can represent files and folder or application shortcuts (aka launchers). 
It has a taskbar. 
That taskbar displays the date, has a notification tray, has a application menu. 
In that application menu there are various wizards and dialogs to help you configure and
manage your hardware and network interfaces and do other common tasks.
You can open windows.
You can multiple windows on your desktop.
They can overlap.
They can also be 'fullscreen' were they fill the screen except for the taskbar.
They can also be minimized were they are hidden. 
there are a list of open windows on the taskbar. 
You can click on the applications in the taskbar to unminize them or bring them to the front.
Sometimes windows can be made to cover the entire desktop. This is often used in games.
Windows can be manipulated to be different sizes.
Windows are rectangular shapes, but they can sometimes be different. Often used for media
players.
Windows are surrounded by borders most of the time. 
The border at the top is thicker and usually has the application title although often it can
be something else.
The title bar contains buttons for manipulating windows and closing applications.
Apperances can be changed through themes.
Backgrounds can be images of kitties, puppies, half-naked women, company logos or sunsets or
many other things.
Inside application windows there is often a menu bar. This menu bar can be accessed through
the mouse or through alt-<keystroke> comboes. The keystroke for accessing windows is indicated
by a underline. 
Not all windows will have menu bars.
Inside the menubars there are actions. Often these actions have associated shortcut keycombos
and that is often indicated by characters next to the action in the menu.
There is often a help menu. 
Often in the help menu you can use this to find the version of the application your using.
etc
etc
etc
etc.


Which am I talking about? Windows or Gnome or KDE?

(hint: eerht lla)