GNOME Shell 2.91.90 released

Posted Feb 23, 2011 20:25 UTC (Wed) by arjan (subscriber, #36785)
Parent article: GNOME Shell 2.91.90 released

So MeeGo first removed the maximize button.

As one of the few developers that try to use MeeGo on a daily basis, I can say that it is absolutely horrible and the worst decision made in the MeeGo UI design.

I sure hope GNOME isn't going down the same rathole, and that the GNOME UI team considers "open source contributor" as one of their primary target users (in addition to the traditional "grandma" kind of user)...

open source projects thrive by (potential) contributors using their software and wanting to improve some aspects of it.. either as a one of contribution or by then getting roped into making the whole thing better in other areas too....

GNOME Shell 2.91.90 released

Posted Feb 23, 2011 20:34 UTC (Wed) by halla (subscriber, #14185) [Link] (1 responses)

I can live without the maximize button, as long as the app is maximized on default :-). What really makes me hate MeeGo netbook UX (and I have used it daily since the week before the MeeGo conference in Dublin) is the alt-tab animation. That and the big window title bar. Though that sort of helped make the Ideapad usable: with the touchpad broken, the big titlebar at least meant I could hit the close button using the touch screen.

GNOME Shell 2.91.90 released

Posted Feb 23, 2011 21:42 UTC (Wed) by nedrichards (subscriber, #23295) [Link]

It's certainly funny how many people who criticised the design decisions of meego netbook then say things like 'but at least it helped make (insert horrible failing of netbook hardware) matter less'. Almost like it was designed around those horrible hardware failings.

And yes, I know that the touchpad on the S10-3t actively doesn't work (as opposed to just not work very well) but it's indicative, in our measurement and experience the target areas that a user can hit with a typical netbook touchpad are roughly equivalent to those you can hit with your finger.

GNOME Shell 2.91.90 released

Posted Feb 23, 2011 21:19 UTC (Wed) by walters (subscriber, #7396) [Link] (1 responses)

Removed it? Did MeeGo Netbook ever have a maximize button in the first place? I thought it was designed to avoid the need for "window management" in that sense.

As far as appealing to contributors - definitely. Can you elaborate on "absolutely horrible"?

GNOME Shell 2.91.90 released

Posted Feb 23, 2011 21:51 UTC (Wed) by nedrichards (subscriber, #23295) [Link]

Correct. MeeGo was designed around a one app per zone paradigm. The only required action on app toolbars was close. In 'legacy' (not designed for netbooks) apps we removed the minimise and maximise buttons from the window title.

There were a number of reasons for that relating to consistency, design direction and implementation details of the window switcher. Reasons very much like the GNOME shell team in fact.

I wish we'd been able to explore some tiled window strategies as well, to try and meet the 'side by side' usage scenarios that we know exist and that Owen mentions but sadly, we never really prioritised it high enough as the side by side experience was just fundamentally unsatisfactory on 1024x600 at <10".

GNOME Shell 2.91.90 released

Posted Feb 23, 2011 21:33 UTC (Wed) by alexl (subscriber, #19068) [Link] (2 responses)

Its only the maximize *button* thats removed. You can still maximize by double-clicking anywhere on the title bar or dragging the window against the top of the screen.

GNOME Shell 2.91.90 released

Posted Feb 23, 2011 21:38 UTC (Wed) by xav (guest, #18536) [Link] (1 responses)

The problem is it doesn't look discoverable.

GNOME Shell 2.91.90 released

Posted Feb 23, 2011 21:59 UTC (Wed) by AlexHudson (guest, #41828) [Link]

If you don't have a window bar at the bottom, you can discover the minimization button but getting the app back would be a problem.

It makes much more sense not to have a minimization button in that scenario, but then you have to make sure you're not taking workflow away from the user. If you are, then maybe you think about some other system.

Having a window bar at the bottom just to support minimization is a bit of a waste of screen real estate.

GNOME Shell 2.91.90 released

Posted Feb 24, 2011 6:41 UTC (Thu) by eduperez (guest, #11232) [Link]

AMEN! If I wanted somebody else to tell me how to use my own computer, I would install Windows.