Hello Paul I want to provide a little bit of feedback to you and also to those on the lists who might be interested in your release. First, let me say 'thanks' for this effort. I think any release like this that makes it easier for people to try Window Maker for the first time - or to keep using Window Maker without the need to recreate the proverbial wheel - is very worthwhile.
Second, I want to say that I fully realize that your release is a personal project based on your personal preferences. Nothing I say below should be considered criticism - just some observations and suggestions. Having said that, here are my thoughts: 1. This is a very well done effort. I have only used the release as a live CD so far, but the live version booted without a hitch (I'm using the 32bit version BTW) and I had no trouble finding or using any of the tools and applications you included (with the exception of the screenshot utility - more on that below). As promised, the look and feel is very 'NeXT-ish.' 2. My main suggestion is regarding the placement of the clip. You have the clip sitting on top of the dock with 8 applications clipped. Only 1 of these clipped apps is actually visible to the user (the installer app). Two of the clipped apps (gnome-power-manager and nm-applet) could be removed and simply started through the autostart script in background mode - they will show up in wmsystemtray anyway (which you have by default). If I had not known to move the clip, I probably would not have seen the other 6 applications. So -- my suggestions is to move the clip to the top left corner of the screen (I believe this is customary anyway) and show the user all of the apps (thunar, some other applications) that you have clipped. 3. Please consider putting WPrefs.app in the dock. You have it in the menu, but I think the default is to have this in the dock. I think a new user, especially, would not have any idea from the menu entry what WPrefs.app does - the tile with the icon gives at least a clue that this is a configuration application. 4. A little suggestion regarding the Style and Theme menu items - I would rather not see the file extensions, and this can easily be disabled by default. Showing the extensions (.style and .themed) doesn't really add anything for the user and it is distracting to me (probably because I have used Window Maker for a good while). 5. Another little menu suggestion - you have a WMLive Menu entry in the main menu that provides a sub-menu entitled "Applications." This at first glance would seem to duplicate the main menu "Applications" item. Would you consider editing the wmlive-menu.hook file and change the name to something other than Applications? Maybe "Programs" or "Ubuntu" - something less confusing. 6. I could not get the screenshot application to work - maybe it won't in a live session due to the lack of ability to write to a file? Anyway - would you consider including scrot? I think more people are accustomed to scrot than to the utility you have included, and screenshots come in handy if there is a problem you need to communicate to others or if you just want to show off. Anyway - sorry for the long message - but I think your effort deserves some attention and effort on my part. Congratulations on this - I am enjoying it very much. I plan to do a full installation tomorrow if time permits - I'll add my observations on that process and what follows sometime soon. Thanks and Best Regards, Bill -- To unsubscribe, send mail to [email protected].
