"Timothy R. Butler" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Well, I've been using Mandrake 8.2 for several months now, and I thought I'd > pass along a few thoughts and ideas for the next release...
Great, thanks! [...] > 2.) What about a DVD in the PowerPack edition? Quite frankly, I (and I'm sure > others) have no need for everything included in the heftily priced ProSuite > edition, but I'd like to have the option of buying a boxed set that has a > DVD. This would also be good since PowerPack's nearest competitor - SuSE > Professional - also has a DVD. That's why we have on MandrakeStore.com, the "DVD Only" edition. It's good value. As for Packs, I suppose the DVD is still a way of differentiating PowerPack and ProSuite. It may change in the future when more and more people have DVD drives, probably. > 3.) Rethink the "Importance" ratings included on packages during the > installation. I've noticed sometimes games and multimedia stuff have been > marked "Very Important" while some much more useful (for the business > desktop) stuff has received "Nice" or "Important" ratings instead. Well of course, but that's not as easy as that, and you are not very precise. You are welcome to have a look at the file which decides, and propose patches: http://cvs.mandrakesoft.com/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/gi/perl-install/share/rpmsrate The numbers mean: 5 => __("must have"), 4 => __("important"), 3 => __("very nice"), 2 => __("nice"), 1 => __("maybe"), > 4.) A more neutral color scheme in DrakeX would be nice too. While I think > DrakeX is better then YaST2, YaST2 (especially in SuSE 8.0) has a much more > pleasing look to it. People base a lot of thought on the way things look so > maybe moving to more standard greys, softer blues, and/or some greens might > be good. Perhaps reducing the installer resolution to 800x600 and making the It is currently running in 800x600 by default. > current task fill up all of the right section of the screen might be better > then the "quasi-windows" currently used (i.e. as in Lizard, YaST2, or > RedHat's installer which I can't think of the name of right now). Like I > said, I think DrakeX works better and is really easier to use, but some > cosmetic changes might be nice. Well, that cosmetics stuff are very different from people to people. It's a matter of taste most of the time. > 5.) What about a QT/KDE-based MCC? Since Mandrake has always been very > pro-KDE, and even was founded to bring KDE to RedHat, what about making > Mandrake Control Center QT-ized? It would be nice if it had the same look and > feel as the other apps most Mandrake users use (afterall KDE is used by many > more people then GNOME). I think it's too much work compared to the interest. Being independant from QT/KDE is also good for people opting for Gnome or Icewm environments, since gtk is probably lighter than qt/kde, especially for memory. > 6.) Modified KPackage for optional package manager. KPackage includes the > stuff necessary to make it work with apt-get (i.e. for searching for > available packages, updating packages, etc.). What about modifying it to work > with URPMI too? It's a pretty slick little tool, and it would be nice to have > it work with Mandrake's package management system. It's a lot of -work-! And it doesn't bring anything significant IMO. [...] > 8.) How about some better icons for the Mandrake utilities? I hear it time and > again, people just do not like blue and yellow icons. What about making icons > that fit in with the KDE standard HiColor icons or perhaps iKons? This would > look a lot nicer. We pay two graphists for our graphics stuff. Maybe their work doesn't please everyone, but at least we try. And it's difficult to "switch" a style that easily... [...] > 11.) For now, I have one more suggestion - how about a better box design? The > PowerPack edition looks alright, but the Standard edition looks *really* > plain a' la Microsoft Windows 3.x. Remember: looks sell, so a class box can > make a big difference. If you study Apple and Microsoft's box designs they > are usually very simple, but have an elegence to them based on their > simplicity but not blandness. For instance, imagine this: Same as upper... matter of taste... I can assure you that box design is something which is worked on. Graphics team, but also ur commercial, marketing, product management people work on it. As an individual, I even myself participate in discussions on box design. Each of us can give our thought on it, but then you know how it works. -- Guillaume Cottenceau - http://people.mandrakesoft.com/~gc/
