GNOME 3.16 released

Posted Mar 26, 2015 18:21 UTC (Thu) by ebassi (subscriber, #54855)
In reply to: GNOME 3.16 released by Cyberax
Parent article: GNOME 3.16 released

Somehow I doubt that, since on all my touch-only devices (either using iOS or using Android) I never, ever use a scroll bar to scroll around a large content area, or for a paginated content. I'd be hard pressed to interact with those scrollbars in the first place, since they are mostly just indicators.

True, though: GNOME is not great on a tablet, right now.

GNOME 3.16 released

Posted Mar 26, 2015 18:51 UTC (Thu) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link]

I don't _have_ a scrollbar on iPad and this _is_ annoying. I had a really nice scroller on Android in Opera and I like it.

So yes, this change is business as usual for GNOME. I.e. they remove useful features just to be 'nicer' while missing the point.

GNOME 3.16 released

Posted Mar 26, 2015 19:12 UTC (Thu) by coulamac (guest, #21690) [Link] (3 responses)

Heh, for a long time the complaints were that GNOME's design was meant for an iPad or other mobile device, rather than the desktop. Now, when a design change was made apparently more with a view to the desktop, the complaint is that GNOME doesn't work well enough on an iPad. It seems as if the GNOME developer can't win, no matter what they do. ;-)

Relatedly, over the past few releases, there tended to be complaints about the notification system. So, the GNOME developers listened, gave the matter some thought, and revamped the notification system to make it better and to resolve some of the complaints. (And they're still working on it.) In the comments here, no one has said, "Hey! That's great! They listened and are improving an area that was identified as being problematic." Silence. Just complaints about scrollbars and how GNOME developers maliciously change things.

Thanks for the great release and all the hard work.

GNOME 3.16 released

Posted Mar 26, 2015 23:46 UTC (Thu) by bojan (subscriber, #14302) [Link] (2 responses)

> Now, when a design change was made apparently more with a view to the desktop, the complaint is that GNOME doesn't work well enough on an iPad. It seems as if the GNOME developer can't win, no matter what they do. ;-)

The can win, all right. They just need to stop copying silly stuff from the Mac.

This one is particularly annoying (as you can read from many replies) to folks that would like to see where in the document they are (because the doc may have similar sections, for instance, and the position identifies what is being viewed/edited etc.), want to scroll very quickly to a particular section of the document (because they've used that doc a million times before and remember roughly where stuff they need is) without the fiddly "slow down around the edge so that scrollbar shows" action.

This one is a bit like that annoying thing in Lollipop when you press the multitasking button. The windows come up, but then it takes several seconds for the crosses to appear in the top right corners. So, you either have to wait for them or swipe instead (which may not be your preferred way of closing apps), but of which are annoying.

GNOME 3.16 released

Posted Mar 27, 2015 16:21 UTC (Fri) by dashesy (guest, #74652) [Link] (1 responses)

I do not know who thought removing the silent mode in Lollipop was a neat idea (yeah put it in Airplane mode when going to movie theaters), removing code is fun but removing features is not.

GNOME 3.16 released

Posted Mar 29, 2015 2:37 UTC (Sun) by mathstuf (subscriber, #69389) [Link]

So that's where that went… Anyways, now you can choose "None" from the tabs when you change the volume for the same effect. A bonus is that you can set a timeout as well so you don't forget it in silent mode so your alarms just blink the screen rather than waking you up. Not that I've ever done such a thing >.> .

GNOME 3.16 released

Posted Mar 26, 2015 20:36 UTC (Thu) by paulj (subscriber, #341) [Link]

"right now" - and there's the risk, you make changes to make GNOME good on tablets and are left with something that's not good on either desktop or tablet.

GNOME 3.16 released

Posted Mar 29, 2015 2:42 UTC (Sun) by mathstuf (subscriber, #69389) [Link]

I use them all the time. My problem is usually the kinetic scrolling. When skimming a large page or list (usually alphabetical), scrubbing with the bar is much easier (especially with popups indicating what letter I'm at) and more accurate then trying to stop the momentum if I see what I want fly by.

GNOME 3.16 released

Posted Mar 31, 2015 20:41 UTC (Tue) by robbe (guest, #16131) [Link]

On the version of iOS I use, there really are only scroll indicators ... and scrolling through a large webpage (or webapp, if you like) I regularly use was so painful (kinetic in this case just equates to frantic), that I implemented a scroll-bar-alike control to the right of the webpage.