Underlying DE for the Workstation product

Christian Schaller cschalle at redhat.com
Mon Feb 3 09:43:13 UTC 2014


I see the claim of GNOME 3 being targeted at mobile or touchscreen devices again and again, yet doesn't become more true.
What GNOME 3 did try to do was to look at various mobile and touchscreen devices and try to think if there where innovations
in that space that should get translated back to the desktop. In terms of input devices the primary usecase for the GNOME 3 
desktop was to make it easier to use the desktop with minimal need of the mouse, letting you keep your hands on the keyboard.
Which I think it has succeeded with, the combination of the 'windows' key and just typing the first few letters of the app you are 
looking for in the activities overview works like a charm for example.

Improving touch screen support is a goal for both GNOME and Fedora, simply because laptops are heading that way and if we offer something
that doesn't even try to use the touchscreen where it makes sense, users will go elsewhere. Currently if there is a conflict with something
being touchscreen optimal or desktop optimal, desktop has won. Parts of the GNOME 3 UI can for sure be nice with
a touchscreen, but for instance the top bar (i.e. activities menu) of the desktop is to small to be optimal for touchscreens (as one example of where the focus was on 
preserving real estate for desktop applications as opposed to making it easier for people to 'click' using potentially quite chubby fingers on the screen.

Christian

----- Original Message -----
> From: "Alex GS" <alxgrtnstrngl at gmail.com>
> To: desktop at lists.fedoraproject.org
> Sent: Sunday, February 2, 2014 8:38:02 PM
> Subject: Re: Underlying DE for the Workstation product
> 
> If you look at desktop market share numbers the vast majority of desktop
> users are using traditional desktops. Just look a the Valve Hardware &
> Software survey. This is a useful tool for gauging the #1 Student/Gamer
> user-base.
> 
> If we add up the numbers:
> 
> Windows 7 + Windows XP/Vista + Mac OS = 78% --- traditional desktops
> Windows 8 = 20% --- "mobile oriented" desktops
> Linuix = 2% --- mixed
> 
> link: http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey
> 
> The same is true if we look at Wikipedia's "Usage share of operating systems"
> page using Net Application's statistics:
> 
> Windows 7 + Windows XP/Vista + Mac OS = 87.7% --- traditional desktops
> Windows 8 = 10.58% --- "mobile oriented" desktops
> Linux = 1.6% --- mixed desktops
> 
> link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems
> 
> Abandoning Gnome 2 was a fatal error on the part of several high profile
> distributions such as Ubuntu and Fedora. They abandoned Gnome 2 to chase
> mobile oriented ambitions when in reality the vast majority of Windows and
> Mac users were still using traditional desktops. This limited the growth of
> the Linux desktop as a platform and caused unnecessary confusion and chaos
> in the Linux community. Current Linux desktops that are achieving success
> such as Google's Chrome OS are still using traditional desktop design
> patterns.
> 
> So that leads to certain questions for the Fedora Workstation WG as to what
> the scope of their project is. Does the Fedora Workstation WG intend on
> expanding their user-base beyond:
> 
> 1. Fedora/Gnome developers and current Fedora users?
> 2. Linux developers and/or users?
> 3. Mac and Windows developers and mainstream users?
> 
> If the answer is:
> 
> #1 "We only intend on targeting Gnome and Fedora developers" then make the
> default Gnome Shell and ignore Fedora.next and continue the methods and
> policies of Fedora Desktop and the spins as if nothing has changed.
> 
> #2 "We would like to consolidate the Linux desktop space" make the default
> MATE with Gnome Shell and KDE as optional extras at the installation screen.
> 
> #3 "We would like to market Fedora Workstation outside of the Linux community
> to Mac and Windows developers" make the default MATE with Gnome Shell and
> KDE as optional extras at the installation screen.
> 
> What would it take to get MATE up to current standards to be acceptable as a
> default for Fedora Workstation?
> 
> + Have the Gnome project developers provide support resources to the MATE
> developers to accelerate their transition to GTK3 as well as act as
> consultants.
> 
> + Perhaps even offer to make MATE part of the Gnome foundation as a legacy
> Gnome 2 fork and provide additional support resources?
> 
> + Configure a MATE desktop that is Fedora branded that uses default Gnome
> applications currently used in Gnome Shell such as Files and make sure it
> integrates with MATE.
> 
> + Bundle MATE with a lightweight compositor such as Compton or integrate
> Mutter as a MATE compositing window manager.
> 
> + Replace the default menu in MATE with 'mintmenu' a plugin that replicates
> the Windows 7 start menu functionality and add additional plugins where
> necessary.
> 
> You see it's not that much work at all and well within the scope of something
> achievable by a distribution with sufficient resources like Fedora and/or
> provided by Red Hat. It all depends on whether the WG is serious about
> consolidating the Linux desktop, expanding to Mac/Windows developers and
> achieving the goals set out in the PRD.
> 
> I'm beginning to take a cynical view of the whole Fedora Workstation WG
> process, I don't anything will change and Fedora Desktop will continue to
> decline in relevance, but please prove me wrong.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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