[Design-team] Owners and (Co) Maintainers Email Meeting #4 [PUBLIC VERSION]--September 10, 2010

[Chris Jones]

Just some notes and responses I've made to the following replies.


***************************************
@ Nicu Buculei
Gnome-Shell is part of GNOME 3 which was postponed (at least) until the 
next spring, so I expect our Design Suite to default to the classic 
panel in F14.

-1 to having application icons on the desktop, they are in the menu and 
if the users want them on the desktop, it is trivial.


Reply--
I am well aware that is has been postponed and yes, F14 will be Gnome
2.x based.
What I was bringing up is do we want the Design Suite to move to the new
Gnome-Shell.
But due to the responses and feedback that I've seen so far, it seems
users are more than happy to have the Spin move to the new Shell
platform. So for now, we'll consider this matter resolved and satisfied.

Regarding the aforementioned icons on the desktop, I think I will keep
this open for some more discussion and consultation before we make a
final decision on whether we should remove the icons and leave the
current one there and add more.


***************************************
@Sebastian Dziallas

I added this icon in the first place to enable people to access
further resources. I feel that Mo's introduction of Inkscape to
students is a resource we should link to (for those who don't know:
http://opensource.com/education/10/4/introducing-open-source-middle-school).
I'd like to see us expanding that - whether these links should be on
the desktop or in the browser or some other place is certainly
debatable, though. :)


Reply--
As mentioned above, this matter is still open for discussion. ;-)


***************************************
@Pierros Papadeas

Good point Nicu :) Although we definitely need something on the
desktop to differentiate from the Desktop Edition.


Reply--
This could be done by other means of course. ;-)
I have some thoughts on this.


***************************************
@Mairin Duffy

I think as Sebastian mentioned, they are there because I've been using
the spin primarily for teaching students (some quite young) Inkscape and
other free graphics tools. I'm starting a new program next month with
the Girl Scouts in Boston.

The reason is primarily so the students see right away what apps they
are supposed to use, but I think if we can do custom menus maybe that
would be better than desktop icons? Eg. I think some of the tools show
up in accessories, some in office, some in graphics, some in sound &
video. It might be nicer to have a designer-centric menu layout?

There is also a folder on the desktop with desktop icons to link out to
tutorials. I wish there was a better way to present these; would be nice
if they could be linked from within the specific apps.


Reply--
I don't like the idea of linking them within the apps. Not only would
this be very difficult, but also very intrusive and could be seen as
forcing them upon the user. When clearly there are some users out there
who don't want them present in the first place.

I think we do have to get them off the desktop. And in the application
menu sounds probably the best option. Not by creating a whole new menu
layout but perhaps by simply adding it into a new menu with the tab
title "Tutorials" or something similar.


-- 
Chris Jones <chrisjones at comcen.com.au>