As already written in a former private mail reply, i will also try to give some follow up on your invaluable feedback here.
On 02/13/2012 12:58 AM, Bill Nance wrote: > 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.' > First of all, the base system itself is a stock Ubuntu 10.04, relying on the standard ISO download from the Ubuntu servers. The amount of included software packages has been slightly reduced, while adding a different default user interface on top. So the main credit for the actual system should probably rather go to Ubuntu, for providing the main bits and pieces to base my efforts on. Also the makers of the UCK toolkit do deserve some very special mention, as without this great remastering tool this WMLive ISO image offering would have been a much more difficult, if not even impossible task to undertake. I would have liked to use a more recent Ubuntu release CD than 10.04 as base for this remastering project. But, unfortunately, the GTK2 based Gnome apps are replaced by GTK3 based ones, for which the GTK2-Step theme has no effect anymore. To my own disgrace, i was unable to find any suitable GTK3-Step theme. As i wanted to make sure to have a mostly uniform look over all applications, a less recent Ubuntu release had to serve as the point of departure for this endeavor, and just stayed with this Ubuntu release. As it is still supported, and also is able to integrate packages from the later release 10.10, this should be no major issue. > 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). > The problem with nm-applet is, that while it can be started via the autostart script, as soon as you view the connection info dialog an application icon will appear at the bottom of the screen. This icon annoyingly will not go away anymore until the end of the session, which i consider rather unfortunate. The solution is therefore to provide a dock icon removed from normal view via the clip, which will catch such events without occupying any visible portion of the screen. > 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. > The main point of the clip, according to my own personal stance, is to move less frequently used dock icons out of view, in order to provide a less cluttered desktop. For applications which are supposed to be continuously running in the background and without any interactive usage throughout the session, if they only occupy scarce screen real estate with a pointless application icon with no further function, it is much better to just move them out of the view. They can easily be hidden by docking them to the clip, in order to prevent them from cluttering up the desktop by placing an application icon at the bottom of the screen. This is why it was configured this way. Certainly, this might not always be desirable by everybody, but this is the way it will stay for now as the default setting. It can be easily changed by the user, if he so desires. > 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. > WPrefs is actually already in the dock! Just double click on the dock's main button handle to bring it up. Normally, one would just be presented with a rather superfluous "About GNUstep" information box. But IMHO this is just pointless, as there is no actual function behind it. I have replaced it by configuring the main dock icon to launch WPrefs instead. I think this should be the default behavior for Window Maker. If it is not desired to simply remove it, then maybe the "About GNUstep" information text should rather be merged with the entry page of the WPrefs application, as this also lacks any real function. So a combination of both probably wouldn't be any worse. ;) > 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 > I fully agree, and this will be different in some future update release of the wmlive ISO. According to the current state of affairs, this is just the default setting as delivered by the debian packages compiled from source, which i didn't look into any further yet. Maybe it would be worthwhile to change this already on the packaging level? > 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. > Again, you are absolutely right in this regard. I will try to find a better solution in the future, but which still integrates with the automagic menu generation features of the distribution. Up until now all this remastering and preconfiguration effort has been a one man show, and unless someone else could help out with these things and contribute in this regard this will take its time to care care of. > 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. > While i already did have scrot installed, i was not even aware about its existence before you mentioned it in this review. Thanks a lot for making me aware about this alternative possibility, which i will try to integrate instead of the current solution. > 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 a lot for this detailed review! It helps a lot to point my attention to new perspectives. And any future Window Maker Live release version will definitely benefit from any such wonderful input! -- To unsubscribe, send mail to [email protected].
