Paradigm shift going from Gnome2 to Gnome3

[Stuart McGraw]

On 06/20/2011 03:00 PM, Alexander Volovics wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 20, 2011 at 12:57:24PM -0600, Stuart McGraw wrote:
> 
>> On 06/20/2011 09:44 AM, Aaron Konstam wrote:
> 
>> > There is a paradigm shift going from Gnome2 to Gnome3 which I have not
>> > seen discussed on this list.
> 
>> I too noted the mouse deprecation in Gnome 3.  Besides
>> alienating a large group of users who simply prefer using
>> the mouse over the keyboard when there is a choice, ....
> 
> Do you people actually work with Gnome 3.

Yes.  Been using it every day for almost two weeks now.

> If you are a versatile mouse user I suspect that you can
> actually work just as fast with the mouse as with the keyboard.
> Jab the pointer in the upper left corner, click on an app in the
> dash or swerve to the right and click on 'applications', click on the
> app you need if you see it immediately in this monstrous platoon
> of icons, or go even further to the right and select a category
> (Acessories, Games, etc) and click on an icon there to open an
> app.

Exactly my complaint.  Up to the top right corner to
get the overview, click the Applications button.  Then,
from the left side of the screen, a wild, nearly full
width traverse over to the right side to select a 
category, then back again to the left side of the 
screen to select the icon if it happens to be on the 
left.

Compare that to Gnome 2 where I go to the left side 
of the screen and click Applications, move the mouse 
an inch or two to select a category in the menu, move 
another inch or two to select the app.

Why at least couldn't the Categories list (and scroll
bar) in Gnome 3 be to the left of the icons so that 
one encounters it "on the way"?

Same with workspaces -- up to the extreme left corner, 
then all the way to the extreme right side of the 
screen to show the WS summary.  Now I'm presented 
with a bunch of mini-images of workspaces.
Which has the window I want?  Can't tell because 
all the windows are overlapping.  Take best guess 
an select one.  Now I can see which windows are 
in the WS.  But damn, they are all white Terminal
windows or similar that look the same.  Squint and
see if I can identify some familiar text.

Eventually, possibly after a couple wrong guesses
I find the window I wanted.

I am not anti-Gnome 3 -- I am really making an effort
to work with it.  But most everything I've read here
recommends avoiding the crazy back and forth mouse 
movements by using keyboard shortcuts and as I said
that is not a preferable option for many people.
And even ignoring that there are issues like finding
windows in WS as described.  (There are also some real
WTF things like why is the "not found" message presented
on the left side of the screen far from the text search
box on the right side?)

> When the app is open you jab the mouse pointer in the upper
> left corner again, select the app with the mouse pointer and drag
> it to a workspace, etc. You have everything you ever had, point
> and click, drag and drop, just in a slightly different desktop
> arragement. 

But one that requires far more mouse motion and clicks 
than Gnome 2 to do the same operation.

>From poking around in the Gnome 3 design docs it is
becoming clear to me that no one has actually done
any real usability testing on Gnome 3 or quantitative
comparisons to Gnome 2.

>[...]
> So on the whole there is no paradigm of keyboard use and Gnome 3 is
> certainly not advertised as such. Read the 'Desktop Help' under the
> ring buoy icon and pay no attention to 'misunderstood marketing jargon
> and hype' and 'biased reporting of opinioted users'.
> Experience it honestly for yourself.

I have.  And that's why I responded in this thread.