In comp.os.linux.advocacy, Roy Culley
<mrloy@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote
on Fri, 15 Dec 2006 00:22:36 +0100
<su2954-pi9.ln1@xxxxxxxxxx>:
> begin risky.vbs
> <4580CDED.FED33773@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
> "Paul Hovnanian P.E." <paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
>> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>>>
>>> What is Look XP
>>>
>>> ,----[ Quote ]
>>> | LXP is a project that provides to Linux/Unix users an identical ms
>>> | WindowsXP look&feel desktop
>>> `----
>>
>> Why?
>
> Exactly. Anyone who has ever used a superior 'look&feel' would never
> want to emulate the Windows 'look&feel'. It has always been crap for
> anyone who has used something superior such as Sunview, Openlook,
> Motif, KDE, Gnome, ... even Macs.
>
I'll admit to some curiosity here. What, precisely, is it that makes
KDE, Gnome, Sunview, Openlook, whatever MacOSX uses superior to WinXP?
Be specific. :-)
What I prefer about the Gnome look and feel is:
- I can iconify any window, dead or alive, or simply kill
it using xkill. The process admittedly might still not
die but at least the window is gone or out of the way.
(X)
- I can leverage Bash from anywhere, and Bash is a very
intelligent environment for those used to CLIs. Granted,
I'm a touch typist. (X/pty)
- I can leverage Gnome from anywhere (bandwidth permitting)
by firing up xauth, Xnest, ssh, and gnome-session.
(X and various)
- Gnome is simple and doesn't get in the way. I'll admit
I'm not sure how to make it more specific than that,
and I have had freeze-ups with Eclipse if it decides
to go south while I'm pulling down a menu. However,
that's very rare. (X)
- Multiple workspaces are trivial to set up. In Windows,
one can get multiple workspaces with additional software;
I'd have to look up the details. (Gnome)
- Windows in multiple workspaces are clearly shown on
the workspace switcher, with approximate locations
and sizes. (Gnome/workspace switcher)
- Window icons in the workspace switcher are intuitively dragged
from workspace to workspace if necessary. (Gnome/workspace switcher,
Gnome/metacity, X/<common WM protocol>)
- If the window's big enough, the workspace switcher can display its
icon. (Gnome/workspace switcher, X/<common WM protocol>)
- One can rotate through the workspace using the thumbwheel.
(Gnome/workspace switcher, Gnome/metacity)
- If necessary, any window can be found using the window
selector, and Metacity will jump to the workspace
containing that window. I'll admit I very seldom have had
need to use it, but it's there. (Gnome/metacity)
- The system monitor can show up to six little windows
in the panel, and gives a thumbnail glance of how well
the system's doing from any workspace. (Gnome/system monitor)
- Two pairs of xeyes, one in each panel, allow me to locate
the cursor/pointer, should I lose it visually. (Gnome/xeyes)
- The window manager models "force". Basically, it feels
like one has to push a little extra if one window abuts
against another. This makes it easier to manually set
up window grids and other such. (Metacity)
- The window manager allows "focus follows mouse".
Granted, so does Windows and KDE. (Metacity)
- The panels are straightforward and easy to modify.
(Gnome/gnome-panel)
- The browser is standard. (Gnome/epiphany or Mozilla firefox)
- I find utilities such as the character map and character
palette useful on occasion. (Gnome/character map,
Gnome/character palette)
- The backgrounds include gradients. (Gnome)
- The popup calender from the clock is convenient, and
shows events from Evolution's calendar. (Gnome/clock,
Gnome/evolution)
- Nautilus will attempt to show images, svgs, and stills
from movies with thumbnails. It doesn't put huge borders
around them either, like WinXP. (nautilus)
If one looks at the programming environment, the X.h and
Xlib.h files are much cleaner than windowsx.h. The KDE
environment looks a little klunky to me personally, because
of 'moc', but in a pinch one can modify moc's source code
if necessary, and it does work. For its part Gtk uses
straight, standard C.
There's a few things that could use improvement.
- Starting up nautilus from a terminal works but never pays
attention to the current directory of the parent process.
(nautilus)
- When xterm and gnome-terminal is squeezed then expanded
again it behaves OK as a window, but tends to leave
character crap littering the left side of its display.
I'll admit I'm of two minds about this. (xterm,
gnome-terminal)
- Clearing the screen in gnome-terminal pushes the scroll
bar down. (gnome-terminal)
- The clock could use a bit more flexibility in formatting,
allowing such things as YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS, MM/DD/YY
HH:MM:SS, seconds since midnight 1970, and dual timezone
displays. Granted, it already shows more flexibility
than its XP counterpart, and there's only so much real
estate it can occupy in a panel. (Gnome/clock)
- There probably could be a few more Gnome geyes themes
and/or configuration options, such as background color.
Admittedly, one could be charged with racism here if one
is not very very careful. (geyes)
--
#191, ewill3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Insert random misquote here.
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