I will do at home some mockups of some little changes that might help Kubuntu look and fell even more cool than OSX :)
2013/1/23 AG Alex <[email protected]> > Hi everyone, I'm a new member with few years of experience using > Kubuntu..., please be patient with my English, I'm still working on it.... > I'm writing to talk about *Users First Experience improvement in Kubuntu*, > which is not the best we can do at moment especially for First Time Users, > in my opinion of course. > > The current default configuration of Kubuntu (until 12.10) seems to be > targeting just experienced users, which once installed a new system doesn't > have any problem to build its own environment around its needs, but they > wouldn't have any problem to do it even with a much more full functionality > default configuration, while for a new user of Kubuntu it will be > impossible even to simply imagine the powerful of the KDE environment with > current default settings. > > So why don't we change the target of the default settings to aim the > Newbbie needs instead of experienced users, they can anyway customize and > set up everything they need in few steps. I mean, a bit of "sacrifice" for > experienced user could become something really helpful for New Users. > Even much better of course would be to gives, if possible, a choice during > the installation process to set the Environment in few different ways, one > could be"Minimal Basic Functionality" (for experienced Users), other could > be "Fully Functionality Mode" (to show the real power of KDE) , other again > could be a kind of "Learning Mode" where in my opinion Activities can > become very helpful, and so on..... > But I'm not a developer and maybe it's impossible to do it, or maybe it > will be possible just having a much more centralized configuration system, > where would be really nice to have a set of tools to export and share any > aspect of any single part of of the DE configuration (but maybe in other > post we can talk about it). > > > Talking about *New Default Settings optimized for first time Users*, > involves of course few different aspects like default packages installed, > default desktop environment include plasma and plasmoids, and than default > activities where to show many different aspect of KDE functionality > combined with the best applications of Kubuntu repositories. > > *Default Packages:* > In my opinion there are few change to do on default installed packages, > simply because some application are not ready yet to be used, or in some > other case, very useful tool are not installed by default. > > *Applications:* > > *Rekonq*, is not ready yet and I cannot see any good reason to use a "not > ready yet software" as a default application, especially because we are > talking about the *Default Tool to Access the Web*, which is a 90% daily > use of computer for most of the people out there. > I know, there is an installer launcher of Firefox and it's really simple > to use, but in my opinion after hours of installation in some case, is > really disarming do another installation and write password , simply to > surfing the web in a reasonable way, isn't ? I mean, there are few great > software out there, are open source, stable, powerful, already on > repository, every day more used......, why don't use one of it by default. > Are we sure the best solution is to propose a not ready yet software to do > the job ?, even because in my case it means to have any link clicked in > Thunderbird opened in Rekonq , even if I change the default browser on > system settings to use chromium (it seems to works just if is already > opened). > > *Dragon Player*, is a good player but maybe there are some other great > software like vlc already in repositories, which can gives to the users a > much more complete and powerful solution to play with multimedia contents, > and I'm pretty sure vlc is one of the first installation "extra" once > complete the Kubuntu one, for many users. > > Talking about *Utility*, there are few nice utility right on the > repository that could be installed by default, and for utility like > Ksnapshot already installed would be much better to use a launcher on some > panel, where would be nice as well to have some software to screencast the > desktop, or even nice tools and some time essentials (depending on your job > type), like Kruler, KcolorChooser, KCharSelect and so on..... I mean they > are really small and so essential tools in some cases that really makes the > difference. > > We want talk about* Yakuake* ?, I think there isn't better way to always > have as much konsole instances as you need in a practice and nice way, and > for new people, would be the easiest way possible to access the konsole > when asking support on IRC and someone of us will say "..ok just pass those > commands on the konsole.." just pressing F12 in the default Yakuake > installation. > > *Plasmoids:* > > There are many good and useful plasmoids on repository, which can be very > handy to gives a much more complete idea of what actually can be done in > Plasma. Just to mention few of them *Quick Access* should be much more > used on default desktop in my opinion, pointing for example on Document, > Images, Videos, Music and Download folders, using few instances of it. > Another interesting plasmoid to show could be *translatoid* , which is a > really useful tool when multilanguage contents is your daily works. A > calcuator, a converter, and everything can gives a better ideas about what > can be done in plasma in a quick and easy way. > > *Activities:* > > Actitivities presets should be based only on application already installed > by default, and to have some basic example of content in some cases can be > much more comfortable to immediately understand the purpose of an activity. > Activities presets with example contents, can be used as well for a kind > of teaching purpose, well I guess some basic note or even few html pages to > explain something visualized in plasmoids like Web Browser, next to the > applications you want to teach opened with example already loaded, would be > easier for anyone willing to learn any kind of knowledge. * > * > > * Functionality: > * > > I fill really comfortable with some "extra functionality" enabled like > rolling up and down a window just within the mouse wheel, can be very > useful if you used to work with a lot of opened tasks. Talking about > buttons on the window decorations I use a lot the button to "keep Above > Others", and I'm quite sure most of the new user not even knows it can be > done, instead once is there it's really easy to understand how and when to > use it. > Another fancy and some time useful features that can be enabled by default > is the ability to change the transparency of a window just pressing ALT and > rolling the mouse wheel. > > I guess a second panel on the top of the screen can do most of the job I'm > talking about if well equipped with plasmoid and applications launcher, and > would be very easy to remove for the people don't like or don't need it, > you don't think so ?. > And if using *Activities* even the* top panel* (with plasmoids and > launcher) *could be combined* with opened applications and desktop > plasmoids for any Activities , would even be funny to create Activities to > do tasks complete of documentation, example and so on....., nicely managed > with plasmoids in a kind of "tematic top panel". > > To gives you an idea about how I'm used to work in Kubuntu, here an > example of my current > desktop<http://www.alexgrafic.it/images/examples/myDesk.jpg>, which maybe is > to much customized respect the default > one <http://www.alexgrafic.it/images/examples/defaultDesk.jpg>, but maybe > something in between could be the right solution for the default > configuration of Kubuntu. > > Well, I think to be my first post on this mailing list I already wrote too > much, but hopefully I could make you understand why I consider so important > the first impact arriving on a completely new Operating System, especially > if the system we are talking about has a lot of great and useful features > to be showed. > I hope so because the current default settings of Kubuntu does not express > so much of the KDE + Ubuntu combination potentiality, like instead should > be in my opinion. > > I hope I haven't bored you, and that do you agree with some of my idea to > improve the first Kubuntu experience, and if so , we can talk about it as > deeply as we needs. > > Thanks for reading me, and much more for the amazing work you always did > keeping Kubuntu alive.... > > Alex > > > -- > kubuntu-devel mailing list > [email protected] > Modify settings or unsubscribe at: > https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/kubuntu-devel > > -- Pozdrawiam, T. Dudzik
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