Developers responsibillity to Fedora Users

[Mike Wohlgemuth]

On 09/28/2011 08:32 AM, Wade Hampton wrote:
> Additional data points that might add to the flames:
>
> 1)  I have a co-worker new to Linux.  He tried F15 and hated it,
>       then went back to F14.  I believe WinXP/Vista/7 users
>       trying Linux for the first time ARE confused by F15/Gnome3.
>
> 2)  Other friends/co-workers have moved to Ubuntu for their
>       desktop and only use RHEL/CentOS for servers (No Fedora).
>
> 3)  It took me hours to get my F15 laptop sane including
>       finding obscure settings to turn on the minimize in
>       windows, and a working printer configuration application.
>

I have largely stayed out of these conversations, but I would just like 
to interject that I have had exactly the opposite experience.  I love 
Gnome 3 and would be frustrated if I had to go back to anything like 
Gnome 2 or any other environment I have used before.  I will be the 
first to admit that things are not complete yet, but I really feel that 
people who are complaining about any sort of design issues are missing 
the point.  The basic user interactions baked into Gnome 3 tend to be 
much easier for me and a lot of complaints I see come from users 
actively fighting to use the interface in a way that it was not intended.

For instance, there really is no need to minimize a window with Gnome 
3.  I know it sounds condescending to say that, and you can feel free to 
feel insulted by me, the Gnome devs and God herself if you want, but 
once I got the hang of it, never having to manage minimized windows was 
amazingly freeing.  Likewise, you can turn on focus follows mouse, but 
if you do you will likely become frustrated with the experience.  I have 
used focus follows mouse for over 20 years prior to Gnome 3, and it was 
one of the thing that made using X based desktops a joy for me, but I've 
been running for about 1 month with click to focus and I don't miss 
focus follows mouse one bit.

Gnome 3 might really irritate you, or might be specifically bad for your 
particular use cases, and I completely understand if you want to 
continue with the desktop metaphors that have served you well in the 
past, but that does not mean it will be a general failure.  Sure, there 
is a bit of a learning curve, and I installed it on my machines to get 
the hang of it before putting it on anything that anyone else will use, 
but it only takes about 15 minutes to run through the changes with 
someone sitting in front of the computer for them to get the hang of it.

That being said, I share your pain on the printer setup, and I really 
hope that gets easier.

Woogie