Re: [tlug] Holy smokes, Unity and Gnome 3 suck worse than I ever could have imagined.

[Attila Kinali <attila@example.com>]

On Tue, 18 Oct 2011 23:06:56 +0900
Nigel Barker <tech@example.com> wrote:

> I'm disappointed with the number of times people appreciate MacOSX on
> this thread.

I appreaciate MacOS, yes, but for entirely different reasons than you
think. MacOS is IMHO the best thought through GUI design i've seen sofar.
Everything fits together, and follows one and only one philosophy.
And Apple tries to ensure that even third party applications follow this
philosophy. 

This enables people to build one mental model on how things should work
which in turn simplifies usage a lot. 

And this is actually the point where Windows and Gnome lack a lot,
they are not one philosophy. Ok, Windows grew up in an enviroment,
where Microsoft wasn't in the position to enforce one philosophy
(but they are trying now), and now it's too late. Gnome was never
in the position to do so (how can you force someone who develops an
application in their freetime to follow your stringent design guidelines?).

But the point where Gnome really lacks is that they do not define a category
of users they want to support nor do they try to understand what their
users want. They just build stuf, release it and think it's the best in
the world, because they couldnt come up with anything better (mostly
due to NIH but also because they work in quite closed groups until
they have something to release, which is too late to do any design changes).

Somehow they want to serve the same users as MacOS (hence trying to do
mirro the same design), but on the other hand they want to serve the Linux
users, which are a bunch of highly technical and sophisticated people,
who have a strong opinion on how their computer should behave. Not to mention
that they actually understand what their computer is doing under the hood
and also want to change that very behavriour to fit their needs.


				Attila Kinali
-- 
It is upon moral qualities that a society is ultimately founded. All 
the prosperity and technological sophistication in the world is of no 
use without that foundation.
                 -- Miss Matheson, The Diamond Age, Neil Stephenson