How do we change fonts now

["Jóhann B. Guðmundsson"]

On 02/28/2011 01:06 AM, Jason D. Clinton wrote:
> We think that we are making the right decisions and that, hopefully, 
> you'll finally be able to put a GNOME computer in front of a normal 
> person and not have them run away kicking and screaming. Maybe 3.0 
> won't quite be there yet but we're on the right path, anyway.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by that Gnome has not been 
presentable/usable to/by normal people?

If you are wondering why Desktop on Linux regardless of what that is and 
what's it called has not reached it potential yet the answer to that is 
very simple it is not available in stores for that novice end user aka 
normal user as an option on the hardware to purchase and the necessary 
funds for successful marketing campaign.

Normal users aren't capable of installing their own operating system 
they buy hardware with them preinstalled :-)

For several release cycles I've successfully "migrated" many novice end 
users from other OS to Fedora and the Gnome desktop environment and I'm 
not only talking about the regular novice end user but the toughest 
crowd of them all old people.

Once they got over the mental block and the learning curve which comes 
strictly with the switch to a new environment and happens regardless of 
other OS and or if they are switching between other *DE that exist on 
GNU/Linux which by the way they will experience with the move from Gnome 
2 to Gnome 3 they have effectively become happy Gnome users and up to 
this point in time none of them have wanted to switch back to their 
previous OS and in my books that's what I call a good usability experience.

There are 4 things I have noticed "normal" users all have common issue 
they complain about.

1. The "Other" in GDM.

This confuses them and to be honest does not belong on a home desktop 
installation which will have max 4 account given the highly unlikely 
scenario that family with 2 children are sharing the same computer and 
each of the family members have separated accounts on that computer. ( 
It should be hidden for the end user, admins can always enable it for 
large instalments which are authenticating against ldap or some other 
central account system ).

2. The constant rearrangement/change in usability.

This presented it self when end users had just learned the menu layout 
in Application, Places and System and then the Gnome Desktop team 
decided to tidy/clean the menu layout which resulted in the end users to 
re-familiarize themselves with that structure.

That particular problem already has been eliminated in Gnome 3 with the 
removal of menus and the introduction of "Application"  the "Favourite 
bar" which I believe will become huge success amongst novice end users 
that use limited set of application ( web browser,email application. 
photo application along
with office application ).

3. Adding/removing applications

This end users experience is currently being worked on by Gnome Developers.
( I'm talking about here add/remove applications )

It has been a huge success with end users double clicking a file which 
they did not have an application to open it with that the package 
manager offers to install an application that does open those files for 
them.

4. Workspaces

They never used it and have accidental switched to the second workspace 
and thought they have lost what they were currently working on.

I propose that you default to Workspaces  "Off" and add the ability to 
enable them in "My account" or "System settings" for those that actually 
use it like myself.

After doing fresh RC2 alpha install this morning and updating, the usage 
experience went from good to worse I now have huge application icons in 
"Applications" and weird scroll down bar probably as a result of that. 
(Resolution Bug? )

I propose a change into that behaviour into a more modern one remove the 
"Favourites bar ( users can still add application to it by right 
clicking and choose add to favourites ) " and implement swipe left/right 
or arrow left righ or move mouse to the left and right edge of the 
screen to switch between categories and or set of applications as 
opposed to some scroll down experience at least should look into how 
they are resolving that in smartphone/tablet PC and adapt a similar 
behaviour.

I also propose that when a user logs in he logs directly into 
"Activites" since he cant do anything in the current logged in scenario 
( eliminates the step having to click activites to start working ).

You might want to at least default adding "Files" to the favourites bar 
unless there is something else suppose to replace "Computer" and "Users 
Home"

It would be good to know if and how you are going to replace that usage?

I also propose that you expose various Gnome tweaking settings in the 
"Administrator" accounts to keep the experienced/advanced users happy 
that should work as a fairly good compromise between novice users and 
experienced/advanced users.

You do realize that the experienced/advanced users are the only one 
capable of installing Gnome on their computer and start using it right :-)

JBG