[openbeos] Re: Haiku poster
- From: DarkWyrm <darkwyrm@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: openbeos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 25 Aug 2007 22:39:18 -0400
Nicholas Blachford wrote:
The line:
"Best defaults not maximum configurability"
Made me cringe, it makes me think of Gnome which IMO is a horrible
desktop. The problem with Gnome is they have equated "best options"
with "only options". It assumes you are stupid and that makes it
really annoying to use.
Stupid? Nah. Non-technical? Much more likely. GNOME's GUI only shows
what is necessary to get day-to-day tasks done, but there's nothing to
stop a power user from configuring things from the command line. I love
GNOME, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't have its faults. I much
prefer configuring Samba shares from smb.conf, for example.
KDE on the other hand has far too many options, it's lot better than
it used to be though. That said I think the problem isn't so much one
of too many options as more of how to organise them. They're not very
well organised in KDE, it is this makes it seem horribly over
complicated.
It's not just that. I'm not a GNOME developer (nor do I want to be), but
there is a logic in reducing the number of choices available in the GUI.
The number of choices available increases decision time. This can be
quantitatively measured. Reducing the number of options available does
make this shorter, and config files are generally the realm of power
users, but everyone uses the GUI, so it is geared toward more basic
users. I don't think I want to go to the extent that GNOME did when it
comes to Haiku, but there is very rational decisionmaking behind it...
or at least it seems that way, anyway.
I think it's quite possible to have a highly configurable system
which is also easy to use, it will be very difficult to design but I
do believe it can be done, it's really a question of balance.
That is a very difficult line to walk. I really don't like KDE because
of all the options. One thing I've noticed, though, is that developers
and developer-type people seem to like KDE better.
You need only look at OS X to see evidence of it - OS X is a lot more
configurable than many might think. I know some people in the Haiku
community don't like OS X but when it comes to GUI there's really
nothing else out there which comes close.
I've used KDE, OS X, and GNOME, and I'd say that I've listed them in
order of configurability from greatest to least when it comes to the
GUI. OS X is another UNIX, so it can be just as littered with options as
UNIX, too.
I assume Haiku will go along the same path but this cannot be
assumed. Unfortunately the open source community as a whole doesn't
have a great record in UI design. Be had a number of user interface
specialists, I don't know if Haiku has any.
I'm no expert, but I *am* a usability zealot and a student of the craft.
Anyway, this was really a rant about Gnome, not Haiku...
While you might consider their methods extreme, our usability guidelines
received significant influence from theirs and Apple's. It's not all
bad, and, like KDE, xfce, and all the rest, it's not for everyone.
Personally, I like it because it reduces the amount I have to think
about the UI and more about what I'm doing -- I like it because it's
easier for me to be productive, which is all that I care about at the
end of the day. I can tweak to my heart's content (I'm a sysadmin at
school), but that doesn't mean I want to. :)
Anyway, let's not turn this into a desktop environment flamewar,
everyone. Facts can be wrong, but opinions just make us different, and
that's OK. :)
--DarkWyrm
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