Well, I've tried GNOME 3 now...

[Chris Adams]

Once upon a time, Adam Williamson <awilliam at redhat.com> said:
> It's only people who are coming from an existing desktop - like GNOME 2
> - for which they already know all the shortcuts who are getting
> frustrated, because they've changed, and now some of that knowledge you
> built up doesn't apply any more, and you know you 'should' be able to do
> certain things faster (because you could before) but you don't know how
> to (because the shortcuts have changed).

I think the problem is that people think GNOME 2 -> GNOME 3 is an
upgrade of the interface, not a radical change.  GNOME 3 is not GNOME 2
improved, it is something different (it might have been less confusing
if it wasn't called GNOME 3, but since the shell isn't the whole
project, that obviously wouldn't work).  People don't like radical
change when they're expecting an upgrade (look at MS Office going to the
"ribbon" interface).

MS Windows hasn't really changed the basic user interface since Windows
95.  I haven't used a Mac in a while, but it is my understanding that
their interface hasn't really changed that much over time either.  Both
have certainly evolved, adding new features and such, but they haven't
had a radical departure in basic functionality from one release to the
next.

If the GNOME 3 shell had been a new development (especially under a
different name), with the existing interface continuing as well, I don't
think there would have been anything like as many complaints, and the
new interface could "sink or swim" on its own merits.  However, in the
Open Source world, that requires people to step up to continue
maintaining the old interface, and that's a lot of work (I'm a system
admin, not a GUI developer; my personal web pages tend to be plain black
text on a plain white background).

While some interesting things have come out of the big changes in both
GNOME and KDE over the years, when the big changes land, they tend to
frustrate existing users.  IMHO this is a big thing that has killed the
perpetual "year of the Linux desktop" hopes.

But what do I know; when I do have to use Windows, I still set it up in
the "Windows Classic" theme so I get a plain interface that still looks
largely like Win95.

-- 
Chris Adams <cmadams at hiwaay.net>
Systems and Network Administrator - HiWAAY Internet Services
I don't speak for anybody but myself - that's enough trouble.