On 05/11/2015 10:00 PM, Michael Catanzaro wrote:
I agree that Tweak Tool doesn't need to be included by default. It's
dead simple to install with the gnome-software search provider, and
it's home to the settings that we *don't* want to be offered to users.
Anything we expect users to change belongs in gnome-control-center.
Wait, what? Why don't you want those settings to be offered? Put in an
Advanced button and throw them in there. That should make everyone
happy. Seriously.
Look, we all know that Apple popularized the "minimalist" idea for user
interfaces. And their UIs are considered by most to be both visually
appealing and elegant, which in turn leads them to be "learnable"
(notice I didn't use the term "usable"[1] since many power users *don't*
consider the Mac to be "usable" - at least not without some heavy
customization, including a hefty assortment of third-party tools). And
the truth is that the Mac's UI is "good enough" for most. Plenty of my
power-user friends don't even notice that Command+Tab is LRU to switch
between apps, but Command+` is cyclical to switch between windows within
an app (and it's maddening that the latter works that way, as well as
the fact that everyone fumbles around not even noticing that it works
that way (of course they may not even bother and use the mouse/trackpad
and/or Expose))
Hypotheses:
* A large proportion traditional Linux-on-the-Desktop users are "power
users"
* Somewhere on the order of 100% of the Fedora-on-the-Desktop users who
will be "spreading the word" about Fedora are "power users" or higher
* Power users appreciate the ability to (often heavily) customize their
computing experience - not just because "they can", but because they
heavily optimize their systems for their usage models so they can
operate most efficiently. We are hackers
* "Learnability" is important, but so is "usability". "Power users" are
willing to put up with *some* inconvenience (like additional
configuration options in a list, a button marked "Advanced", etc...)
which may negatively affect minimalist ideals, in exchange for increased
customizability
I'm not saying that we should have to drop to a shell to get anything
done. But I'm saying that the well-manicured, super-integrated Gnome UIs
could use a few extra tweaks and options to make "power users" happy.
And let's face it, most people on this list would consider themselves a
"power user" in one form or another and we're the ones going out and
advocating for Linux and Fedora.
* Shell extensions: As long as we're going to offer them, we shouldn't
relegate them to Tweak Tool. Perhaps gnome-software would be a better
location than gnome-control-center, but either would be better than
Tweak Tool. (But the gnome-shell browser plugin is very crashy at
worst and unreliable at best, so we should fix that first.)
Indeed. When I first used Gnome 3, I had trouble finding where to
install, uninstall and manage extensions. Then I had trouble believing
that the only built-in way to do it was through a Firefox browser
extension. While "innovative", the current model is counter-intuitive at
best and dangerous at worst (really? are there not enough security holes
in our web browsers and websites that we need to force the primary/only
installation method for system-level software to use that combination?)
[1] https://rickosborne.org/blog/2007/04/usability-vs-discoverability/
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