

Shuttleworth - GNOME usability hackfest  - jwilliams
http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/223

======
rams
Andy Hertzfeld one of the original Mac hackers was once working for a company
called Eazel, that worked on GNOME before it went bust. They folded up in 2001
iirc - I bought their T-shirt to help them out. But after ten years of the
GNOME UI, I don't have high hopes. Check out John Gruber's post titled Ronco
spray-on usability that's very critical of open source attitude towards
designing UIs.

Andy was not very impressed with GNOME: [http://cycle-
gap.blogspot.com/2005/10/andy-hertzfeld-on-gnom...](http://cycle-
gap.blogspot.com/2005/10/andy-hertzfeld-on-gnome.html)

The problem with GNOME is the programmers who think they are UI experts. At
least with a web UI, you can be minimalist (like Google) and not expose your
lack of design skills. But it's very difficult to do that on the desktop.

Mark Shuttleworth spatial Nautilus experiments don't inspire any confidence in
his taste. Even before Ubuntu the Ximian stuff (that ended up in Novell's
distro) was pretty polished.

~~~
rkowalick
My real problem with gnome the fact it is almost impossible to customize. They
sacrifice customizability for usability, when I see no reason that some of the
nicer customization features could be "hidden from plain view."

I recall Linus Torvalds complaining about GNOME for this exact reason. It
seems that GNOME developers are making it less and lesss modifiable as time
goes on.

------
rkowalick
So many of the file location problems are solved by something like GoboLinux.
I would like to see more effort in this very straightforward directory
heirarchy.

~~~
Prrometheus
I would like for my OS to handle my files for me, much as package management
systems handle my executable programs for me. I would like to a "pictures"
section that includes all the pictures on my computer, regardless of where
they are located.

Ubuntu freed me from having dozens of installer files on my desktop. However,
I still get dozens of images, documents, and videos strewn all over it.
Ubuntu: help me manage my life and I will love you more.

