Dear GNOME Developers, I am an end-user wishing to supply some feedback/suggestions on improving our Desktop Environment. I have been using GNOME for quite a long time (first played with it in the 1.4 days and became a serious user with release 2.0/Red Hat 8). I am however, just a user and have no development experience. I am also new to this list, so if any of my comments or suggestions are ignorant or have already been discussed, please forgive me in advance.
I was prompted to write this after reading the article in the latest GNOME Journal about end users: http://www.gnomejournal.org/article/46/the-gnome-community-end-users Hopefully, the following will provide some constructive and positive feedback on areas where the system can be improved. As noted, this is from a high-end user's perspective, (not someone particularly interested in keybindings on Metacity or the like! :-)) Here is my wishlist: 1. Evolution's spam filter is slow and not as efficient as that of Thunderbird. Optimisation work in this area would be greatly appreciated. 2. When importing a single mail file into Evolution, displaying a list of files to select from shows the file name and the date but not the file size. Displaying the file size would make it easier to determine which file is which, if there are a large number to choose from. 3. I believe it has been discussed before but it would be more logical for deleted emails to be treated as higher level objects and go to system trash rather than a deleted mail folder. This would make system trash a universal repository for deleted data. 4. A mail preview so that incoming messages could be seen without switching from other applications to Evolution all of the time would be appreciated. Outlook 2003 has a function whereby a message momentarily pops-up on screen, allowing the user to see the name of the sender and the subject line. Such a pop-up may be annoying to some users; however, Google Desktop has an even better solution whereby, in "Sidebar" mode, it displays a list of recent mails on screen. Clicking on one allows it to be opened out and previewed. >From there, clicking on it again opens the actual message in Outlook. A similar mail preview system for GNOME would therefore result in people being able to see new messages without constantly switching between applications and also enable them to determine if a message was particularly important. 5. One feature I greatly miss from GEdit is a "block select" function to cut and past "blocks" of mono-spaced text. KATE and gVIM have this functionality and, even for non-programmers, it is extremely handy. 6. A spell checker would be much appreciated in Epiphany for when the user is entering data into online forms. Konqueror is the only browser I know of with this functionality (not sure if Safari also has it.) 7. One problem with all browsers, is that, to save individual images, the user must right-click on them and save. This is tiresome if a user wants to download multiple images from a page, without saving the whole thing. IT also seems, from the usability studies I have read online that new and inexperienced users have a reticence towards right-clicking. The various usability studies I have read by Sun and Novell seem to indicate that people often do not think to right-click to configure the clock or activate applets. Therefore, functions that are present in right-click menus only, such as that to save images in the browser, may not be such a good idea. Perhaps an entry to "Save All Images On Page" under the file menu, would be appropriate. 8. My biggest grief with GNOME relates to my dial-up USB modem. I know that it is supported under my current system (Fedora Core 5) because I can run it successfully under kppp. However, attempting to configure it under GNOME results in failure as it cannot be detected. This is annoying as, for one reason, it limits me from using a GNOME-only distribution such as Ubuntu. kppp is a more than adequate workaround but it would be great for GNOME to also support these. I realise that dial-up is slowing giving way to broadband but in my (first-world) country there are still many home users with dial-up only. We are also cutting ourselves off from the third world. 9. Also related to this, it is difficult to locate hardware configuration data under GNOME, such as ports and interrupts. KDE have a centralised hardware browser that provides detailed system information for those seeking it. This seems to be another major hoe we need to plug sooner rather than later. 10. A font management system. I did some research and found a short discussion here: http://mail.gnome.org/archives/usability/2006-March/msg00203.html Indeed, lacking something even the equivalent of the Mac Suitcase is an impediment. 11. As that same message notes, DTP is a hole on Linux at the moment. Whilst there are a few good applications, such as Scribus and KreetingKard, to appeal to two levels of developer, there are no GTK-based equivalents to promote healthy competition. Such applications are rarely included on distributions. Even Inkscape and Bluefish are often relegated to "extras" repositories. It would be great if more work on consumer level DTP applications could be undertaken. This does not necessarily mean tools equivalent to the likes of Quark and Adobe but smaller programs such as those produced by Serif and Printshop. I realise this would take much time and many resources though. Also, promotion of the likes of Inkscape so that they are more visible to users and included in the "Core" disks of distributions like Fedora would raise the profile of such projects. Perhaps you could lobby the Fedora people? 12. Whilst Nautilus is a fine file BROWSER(and I greatly like the spatial mode) I tend to agree with a few people who have cited the need for a file MANIPULATION TOOL as well, for such tasks as renaming, printing lists of directory structures and so on. Obviously such is readily done from within the Shell but it would be great if a GNOME tool could do the same. 13. For those managing small networks, it would be great to have the /etc/MOTD file (Message of the Day) appear each time users log in. For example, if I had a small school network, there may be a message I would like the users to see. A small dialogue box displaying this file on login would be handy. Obviously, an ability to disable it would be needed and it should not be activated by default or it would be intrusive to those people with single-user systems. 14. Without any empirical evidence of improved usability, I do like the concept of circular menus mentioned here: http://www.daimi.au.dk/~kamstrup/articles/G3-ideas.html It seems likely that, by reducing mouse movements, they would improve system ergonomics. Another advantage would be that, in their uniqueness, they would help to differentiate GNOME from the alternative desktops. Such uniqueness is always positive marketing, which is why I rankle when I read of certain parties wanting to make GNOME more similar to Windows. Whilst it may help users make a transition from WIndows, it does not help give them an incentive to move. GNOME needs to be unique and the care to detail and usability is part of what has already attracted many people (myself included.) By combining thoughtful ergonomics with eye-catching (but non-distracting) visual ideas, this should help gain an even greater user base. 15. My final request is a purely personal indulgence. It would be great to have a GNOME chess game. With the Gnuchess engine available, I am surprised no one has included a GTK-based GNOME game due to this pasttime's enduring popularity, so I would like to lobby for this! That is the sum of my input. I hope that at least some of my ideas are helpful or generate constructive discussion. I look forward to your feedback. I am a newbie here, so do not be too cruel! I realise that soe of these proposals would be huge work but they are simply ideas of things I would like to see. Maybe next year, maybe in Topaz, maybe even beyond that. There is a lot of work but the GNOME community has already come a long way. Best wishes to everyone, Danni _______________________________________________ desktop-devel-list mailing list [email protected] http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/desktop-devel-list
