I'm too tired to list all changes i was thinking about but here's a few ideas 
to throw into the pot - maybe a bit old hat or MS centric -  Could all the 
main sections in the left column be Tabs?

>
> We identified a number of problems with that old control center:
>
> (1) There are too many icons in there - way more that can easily be
> navigated.

Yep, merge a couple of sections and only show icons for items installed. e.g.

Miscellaneous section - rename to System Logs: 
Move "Release Notes" into the Software section
Move "Vendor Driver CD" to Hardware/Drivers section


Software Section:
Group the "Online Update" "Automatic Online Update" and Online Update Config"  
programs together


Hardware Section - rename to Hardware/Drivers:
Move Network Devices into Hardware section
Don't show icons for hardware that is not in the system, create an "Add 
hardware" icon that lauches a module that lists all the possibities

System section - rename to System Services:
Move "Network Services" into this section
Don't show icons for services which are not in the system, create an "Add 
Service" icon that lauches a moule that lists all the possibities
Group related icons together

Security and Users Section - Split into 2 sections a) Security and Remote 
mangement  b) User management:
Move "Novell AppArmor" into the Security section 
Move "VNC" into the Security section 
Move "Kerberos" into the Security section 


User Section:
User Management
Group Management
Sudo (?)
>
> (2) The groups don't always match users' expectations.
>     (E.g., is firewall more related to security or to network?)
>
> (3) It's hard for newbies to figure out what does what.
>
> (3a) Sometimes it's hard to figure out the difference between modules.
>
> (4) It's often enough hard for expert to find things.
>
> (5) It's not exactly pretty.
>
>
> Back when we designed that control center, we figured it would do its job
> fairly well. But that was when we only had a small number of modules. And
> eye candy was less readily available from the underlying toolkits. Time has
> changed since then. I counted no less than 119 YaST-related .desktop files
> on my machine (not counting the groups files). That corresponds to 119
> icons that have to be presented somehow. That just doesn't scale any more
> with the old control center approach.
>
> So in the ideal case we would like to have a completely new approach.
> This is what that "radical change" was all about.
>
> Maybe there is a different way than just placing a lot of icons in a window
> (with or without groups) and let the user figure out how to deal with it.
> Carefully taking care, of course, of all kinds of users, newbies as well as
> experts.
>
> Failing that, maybe somebody has a good idea how to present the modules
> traditionally in an icon view, but in a way that does not overwhelm
> everybody when the window opens (the "show all at once" approach) or that
> leaves the user searching for the right module at most times (the icon
> groups or even icon tree approach).
>
> This is what that was all about. This is what we ask your opinions for.
>
>
> CU
> --
> Stefan Hundhammer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>                Penguin by conviction.
> YaST2 Development
> SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, GF: Markus Rex, HRB 16746 (AG Nürnberg)
> Nürnberg, Germany


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