No screen shield in login screen in F20

[Marcel Oliver]

Evandro Giovanini writes:
 >     This all is a really minor point, of course, hardly worth
 >     attention, if there was not the persistent issue of user
 >     interface changes implemented seemingly in pursuit of a grand
 >     artistic mission, but with very little thought of how the thing
 >     is actually going to be used by the broader public.
 > 
 > That's not fair or correct, the Gnome developers put a great deal
 > of thought into the hundreds of decisions they make. The evolution
 > of Gnome 3 throughout its 6 releases also shows that they take user
 > feedback quite seriously.

My experience differs from yours in this regard.  First, I resent the
publicly documented mindset that imposes a certain work model to the
exclusion of all others.  I have commented on specific aspects in the
past and will not repeat this here.

Second, there is the simple fact that changes in the UI always cause
friction.  We learn to perform most simple tasks subconsciously, and
any change of the routine will be distracting.  So changes should only
be introduced when the benefit clearly exceeds the cost of
transitioning.  Three very trivial examples where I think this balance
is at least questionable:

1. In F20, the text "Session" on the login screen has changed to a
small cog wheel icon and moved from the left hand button to the right
hand button (maybe these swapped functions as well, I don't remember
because I always press enter after typing the password, so I don't
know where the login button used to be).  Sure, it looks nicer, but it
breaks all documentation which says "you can get a list of available
user sessions by clicking Session".  It's also less self-explanatory,
and moving it to a different place from where it was before also
breaks the spatial memory between the previous and the last version.

2. Some versions ago, Gnome developers apparently decided that
right-aligned pull down menus are better than left-aligned ones.
Evince consequently moved all the pull down menus to the right, but
left other dialog boxes left-aligned, leading to a horrible UI
experience as one would have needed to travel across the entire width
of the window for a simultaneous change of magnification and view mode.
I had filed a bug right after this appeared, which only got fixed with
F20.  (In the mean time, I dropped using evince altogether realizing
how much better an application okular has become.)

3. Starting with F20, certain system applications don't display a
window title bar any longer.  That's probably not a change for the
workflow imposed by default Gnome, but breaks workflow in Gnome
Classic (and cinnamon for that matter), where suddenly one has to use
the panel to minimize applications like System Monitor.  Again, a
change with no obvious gain (except minor aesthetic value which I do
see), but putting up hurdles for well established UI habits.  (With
System Monitor, minimizing is logically different from restarting as
the former keeps the last minute of history, so it's possible to raise
the window if something is funny and look at the most recent activity
record.)

I have intentionally not commented on the bigger picture of Gnome 3,
which I see as a very mixed blessing.  I am talking about trivial
stuff where the change as such is neither clearly good nor bad, not
very important, but does cause irritation and seriously begs the
question WHAT IS THE POINT?

--Marcel