Hans Petter Jansson wrote:
On Fri, 2009-05-15 at 12:50 +0200, Vincent Untz wrote:
What do people think about setting /desktop/gnome/interface/menus_have_icons to FALSE by default?
I'm trying this, and while a few things needs some changes (panel menus, mainly), I believe it makes the interface feel more stream-lined. So this might be something we could consider for 11.2...
I'm pretty sure it'll make the menus harder to scan, and it'll take longer to visually locate standard items like the "Print", "Save" and "Quit" items.
Aesthetically I don't have a strong preference.
If you believe that form should follow function, then loss of some functionality equates to less aesthetically pleasing. And I would think that this aesthetic ideal is fairly strong among the type of user who would be attracted to Linux in general, and *SUSE linux in particular. For both this issue and the icons off the desktop by default issue, I do not believe that less is more...it is always easier to know that an option to remove might exist, if something is visible, than to even be aware of the existence of an option to add, if that option begins as hidden. The average newcomer to linux and/or our distro is probably smart enough to look for, and find a way to turn things off. But it is technical arrogance to think that a so-called "streamlined" design is so good that either users should be discouraged from going down a different path, or that they should have to study to learn about (initially) invisible features if they still want them. My $0.02 US, for what it's worth... I say it is better to make features closer to where our new users are likely to be coming from, as a default. If one feels that a different paradigm is much better, then make it an easy switch (both ways!), but don't throw the new way in front of them and hope that they won't get frustrated (and quit) if the leap forward is too great to be a comfortable transition. I am moving away from very many icons on the desktop, but I want to see the familiar ones there, and recognizable, at least at the outset. And I want visual and textual pointers to menu options, with the option for either or both. I even like being able to override this (persistently) for subsets, where possible. In case you can't tell, I HATE when I want to experiment with something new, and find out that it has assumed that I must want it active and persistent, just because I download it to explore. Similarly, I feel that way about install defaults for an entire WM or distro. Let's start out with sound engineering -- the principle of least disruption plus maximum flexibility -- rather than starting with pushing new paradigms, and hiding the more "traditional", read familiar, ways of doing things. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-gnome+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-gnome+help@opensuse.org