The Grumpy Editor's GNOME 3 experience [LWN.net]

The Grumpy Editor's GNOME 3 experience

Posted Mar 16, 2011 8:03 UTC (Wed) by allquixotic (guest, #61671)
Parent article: The Grumpy Editor's GNOME 3 experience

I don't find the bugs, omissions, and new release dust to be a problem at all. In fact, I like that they are cleaning up things and destabilizing the stack with the intention to reduce kludges and support modern desktops and modern features out of the box, without hacky Python extensions hosted on gnome-look.org.

What I can't stand is the way that previously simple operations (such as moving the mouse to the top of the screen to launch an application by clicking its launcher) are gone. And I for one use minimize/maximize all the time, so yes I will miss them.

I am extremely comfortable and happy with the UI patterns and usability of KDE 4.4 or later, Windows XP / Vista / 7, Mac OS X 10.5 or later, and Gnome 2.x. Of them all, I probably prefer vanilla Gnome 2 the most, but I don't feel that any of the above-mentioned DEs interfere with my work significantly, on a purely UI/UX level. I can get stuff done -- quickly -- and without confusion (well, a few aggravations about Windows Vista/7, but it's... Windows).

But despite all my approval for the above, I just can't stomach Gnome 3 or Unity. Both of them are too different for me to swallow. It seems like there's an excess of mouse movement to and fro, where before a single mouse stroke or hotkey would handle it. And the absence of configuration settings, while extremely frustrating at first, I am sure will work itself out within the 2011-2012 releases of Gnome 3.

So I pretty much disagree with the whole design approach behind Gnome 3. And I dislike Canonical's Unity even more.

I think I would like the UI patterns of Gnome 2.x for my DE, but using GTK3 for applications, to take advantage of the enhancements at the toolkit level. That is probably what I will try to hack together for my day to day distro. And no, I don't ordinarily use Windows; I just don't find its UI patterns to be mind-warpingly complicated or confusing. I can't say the same about Gnome 3.

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The Grumpy Editor's GNOME 3 experience

Posted Mar 16, 2011 13:41 UTC (Wed) by coulamac (guest, #21690) [Link] (3 responses)

With regard to Gnome Shell, rather than pushing the mouse pointer to the top left of the screen or clicking the Activities button, try pushing the super/meta/"windows" key on the keyboard and then push the cursor to the left edge of the screen where the Dash will be to click on your launcher of choice. (Pushing the super/meta/"windows" key has the same effect as pushing the Activities button.) If you designate a launcher as a "favorite," it will stay on the Dash even if no instance of the application is running. This way your launcher will be available at the edge of the screen (left, rather than top). Then you can launch the application with one click of the mouse without having the mouse pointer embark on an epic journey. :)

This use pattern should be pretty close to the one you had with Gnome 2 and may help you enjoy the Gnome Shell experience a bit more, as you get used to the new things.

Anyway, I hope this might prove helpful to you. Cheers!

The Grumpy Editor's GNOME 3 experience

Posted Mar 16, 2011 16:33 UTC (Wed) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link] (2 responses)

I hate to point it out, but combining a keypress and a major mouse movement is not very pleasant from a UI perspective (let alone a discoverability perspective). The only way you could make it harder would be to require fine control at the end of the mouse movement or chords on physically distant keys. You're still requiring simultaneous use of two arms and relatively fine coordination in both of them at once.

I can say that for some years I would have been physically incapable of carrying out that action, and that's just RSI, not anything particularly serious. Even now I'd find it tricky. I am not alone. (Sticky keys might make this a bit less appalling.)

The Grumpy Editor's GNOME 3 experience

Posted Mar 16, 2011 17:07 UTC (Wed) by coulamac (guest, #21690) [Link] (1 responses)

I'll try to address some of your points:

* non-discoverable: true, but this feature is certainly highlighted in the documentation. So, for those who want to read up on some short cuts in the shell, you might find some nice features. Also, feel free to look here: http://live.gnome.org/GnomeShell/CheatSheet

* requiring two hands: not necessarily. You don't need to keep the super/meta/"windows" key pressed down when you're using the mouse. Once you've pressed the key (and then unpressed it), you're now in the Overlay mode, which is also what happens when you click the Activities button or throw the mouse pointer to the upper left corner of the screen. So, you could push the key and then move the mouse. On the other hand, it would probably be faster to push the key with your non-mouse hand and then guide the mouse pointer to left side of the screen with your mouse hand.

* fine motor control: this criticism I don't really understand. Once you've pushed the button, you just need to throw the mouse pointer to the left side of the screen and you're at the dash. This is not unlike throwing the mouse pointer to Gnome panel at the top of the screen in Gnome 2. No extra motor control should be required. If pushing the button itself requires too much fine motor control due to RSI or some other reason, then you're right: this is probably not the best way to get to the dash for you.

Again, this is one out of several ways to get to a launcher. It will not necessarily work for everyone. There will undoubetdly be more ways to access launchers through extensions in the very near future. You could also use the dock programs out there to supplement the Shell.

At any rate, I hope this clarifies things. Thanks for your feedback!

The Grumpy Editor's GNOME 3 experience

Posted Mar 16, 2011 17:45 UTC (Wed) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]

Aha! So it already acts like a 'sticky key'. Yeah, that fixes a lot of my concerns about this feature. (The non-discoverability remains concerning, but as an Emacs user I can't really make *too* much noise about that. ;} )

The Grumpy Editor's GNOME 3 experience

Posted Jun 11, 2011 0:48 UTC (Sat) by markthema3 (guest, #75626) [Link] (2 responses)

Just use GNOME 3 for a week. The mouse motion to the top left corner of the screen becomes so ingrained that you will begin to notice yourself trying to do it on Windows... if you are unlucky enough to have to use it regularly.

The Grumpy Editor's GNOME 3 experience

Posted Jun 11, 2011 20:15 UTC (Sat) by spaetz (guest, #32870) [Link]

> Just use GNOME 3 for a week.

That's what I've done (actually, I've given it 3), before moving on to XFCE. I never regretted it so far.

The Grumpy Editor's GNOME 3 experience

Posted Jun 13, 2011 16:20 UTC (Mon) by bronson (subscriber, #4806) [Link]

I can do better: I forced myself to use it for a month on F15 beta. End result: still hate them with a passion.

There's a reason the whole industry fawned over hot corners in the 90s and then everyone abandoned them. They seem really neat at first. Then, after watching normal people struggle with them, you realize they're actually undiscoverable, surprising, and irritating.

My wife, a happy Ubuntu user, tried to figure out read her mail on my F15 desktop for 30 seconds ("Is this some nerdy Linux command line thing?") and giving up. Bitter failure.

I switched my computers to XFCE. Much better. She stays on Lucid of course.