__/ [ B Gruff ] on Saturday 08 July 2006 12:53 \__
> On Saturday 08 July 2006 08:51 Rex Ballard wrote:
>
>>
>> Even today, most Windows users only use one application at a time.
>> Each application is run in full screen mode. They have been
>> conditioned NOT to use multiple overlapping windows.
>
> I'll second that - coupled with my 4 desktops!
> It's another of those things that you don't appreciate until you get used
> to
> it, and contemplate doing without it, isn't it? The xgl in the new SLED
> might actually help me to demonstrate this better to people - Windows users
> seem to have difficulty in even imagining what I'm on about....
Exactly. When Windows users witness a transition from one desktop to another
(yay!), they just think that applications vanish (boo!). The pager helps me
illustrate this better, but only to a limited extent. Once you get used to
multiple virtual desktops, you cannot go back. But it's hard to learn and
adapt to something new, so it's not appreciated as much as it should be.
People loathe change.
That said, 2 years ago a friend of mine said that Vista (Longhorn at the
time) would have virtual desktops at the core. I guess that because Vista,
unlike Longhorn, is renowned as XP SP3, that idea was conceded. The same
desktop experience remains as that which people knew in Windows 95, or even
3.1. There is strong resistance to driving computing further. Whether it's
64-bit applications or far more fundamental things, a large number of people
will stick to the same sandwich, even if it contains feces. Will the world
wake up any time soon? PowerToys and third-party applications just don't
settle the deal.
Mini/maximise is not an option if you work with several applications in
tandem (windows side-by-side) or if you wish to quickly jump from one task
to another while one is processing some data. I currently have a desktop
that is 40,000 pixels wide. I rarely use of all of it, but I'm never in lack
of space. Keyboard shortcut do the switch (CTRL+Fx, or CTRL+(Shift)+TAB),
but mouse motion on edges has a similar effect (also mouse wheel in KDE, or
strict binding of applications to desktops).
> Another thing. I shut down my PC at the end of the day, power up in the
> morning. I've noticed some queer looks when all my apps "open themselves"
> where I left them the night before. I can't remember - surely Windows does
> this as well....?
Very true. To quote something I wrote a couple of weeks ago:
,----[ Quote ]
| All windows re-appear in the correct virtual desktop, in the same
| position with the same dimensions as prior to logout. A complete
| system reboot would have had the same impact. Shells are reinstantiated
| and created, possibly positioned at the same directory/path as before.
| While it sounds simple and trivial, it is not. File managers likewise.
| FTP connections are restored with the servers in question, even at the
| right depth and directory level. The only exception are SSH connections
| that were opened without calling the command directly, e.g. SSH within
| a shell. Otherwise, even remote connections as such are restored! Again,
| this should not be taken for granted.
`----
http://schestowitz.com/Weblog/archives/2006/06/10/kde-think-of-everything/
|
|
