On 16/03/12 08:44, Alan Bell wrote: > On 16/03/12 08:24, alan c wrote: >> On 15/03/12 22:44, Liam Proven wrote: >>> But I reckon that many of the new users flooding across once 12.04 is >>> the new LTS are going to want actual good old-fashioned menus. :¬/ >> Are you sure about this? I am not. Most of the friends I help with >> Ubuntu are only interested in the apps they use. These are very non >> geeks. They have no interest whatsoever in all the other stuff, and >> this is most obvious when in a support conversation I state an app and >> its (menu) path in the menu structure. The menu path is an issue for >> them, and is treated with great reverence like some ritual. For >> myself, I have fairly good knowledge of the content of the menus even >> though I do not use many of the apps. >> >> I believe that in future, all I need to do is tell them to type the >> app name, and then run it. If they want to be independent, what they >> will do is use the dash and then drill down, as I will. I do expect >> that there will be a way to drill down or display all installed apps >> whatever. >> >> I think that most of the world's population ( =future Ubuntu users) >> will be happy or even, happier, without menus.
> well the problem is that there is zero organisation of the apps, you > can't drag them around onto different pages like you do on a smartphone > to put them in an order that makes sense to you, and they are not > pre-sorted in a way that makes sense to anyone. It just looks like this > http://people.ubuntu.com/~alanbell/dash.jpg which isn't particularly > helpful if you want to see related applications together. Alphabetical > sorting of apps is not really a useful sort order for discovering them. Hi Alan, I do see your point. However, when, a while ago I first used Unity and the dash, I poked around looking for stuff and trying to make sense of (something) ... But I remember that when I came across this alphabet big list, I felt relieved! Logical or not logical, it still felt ok. In retrospect, to me as only a very occasional user of anything esoteric, an alphabetic sort is as good as anything. And if an internet search (or dash search) would reveal an Ubuntu app name of interest, then, again alphbetic would be fine. And beautifully simple even for non geeks. Although, to most of the people I help I *am* a geek, but I don't think so :-) The simplicity wins hands down for me, at a deep level of comfort. With my novice geek hat on, there is hardly any benefit in me knowing that one app can be classed as graphics, or media or whatever. I will almost certainly get to a desired function via a search facility - dash search? Or certainly (google) internet search. When I bought a microwave I used effort (!) to get one only with a simple knob timer on the front. And this was not for myself, but required by my highly tech literate daughter. It is what I would get for myself too. My android TMobile phone has alphabetic in the big list of apps, which is ok. I use the front page area for my several most used apps, which I control by dragging in and out. But the front page could just as well be my 'most used' list and created automatically. Although I think I prefer the manual control method. -- alan cocks -- [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
