__/ [ BearItAll ] on Friday 03 November 2006 09:37 \__
> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>
>> Moving Away From WIMP Interfaces One Step at a Time
>>
>> ,----[ Quote ]
>> | While GNU/Linux might be considered an alternative operating system,
>> | its graphical interfaces are not alternative at all. In order to
>> | reach mainstream acceptance, KDE, GNOME (and XFCE) developers have
>> | followed the tried and true approach of imitating the interface of
>> | the dominant operating system(s).
>> `----
>>
>>
>
http://www.osnews.com/story.php/16372/Moving-Away-From-WIMP-Interfaces-One-Step-at-a-Time/
>
> Novell-Suse have broken away from that with their SLES menu system.
>
> The menus we use are in the end just xml files, which means that they could
> be arranged in and number of ways in a browser or control box. So we don't
> really have to have huge menus that disapear off the edge of the screen.
>
> Novell have put them into a browse window. It is very easy to organise sub
> pages of favourites or to use normal browser techniques to add more
> information about menu items.
>
> When I first used it I thought of numerous ways this could be used. One
> being multi-levels of information. So a user totally new to Linux could
> have a pane of very detailed information on what a menu item is. Then more
> experienced users could reduce this to a quick simple list.
>
> Then there is the idea of different types of groupings, which could be
> database lead. For example a tutorial that is to do with setting up a
> typical home server-services could present the menu in the form of a ticked
> list box with relevant setup information in a pane.
>
> I think that abandoning the MS like menu system is a good thing and I am
> sure they are people out there with better ideas for how the xml info could
> be used.
Yes, I agree. They renovated the KDE and GNOME menus and, more importantly,
made this available to other Linux distributions as well. The new menus
demonstrate the departure from imitation for the sake of familiarity
(mimicking other O/Sen). They improve productivity as they also rely on
usability research at Novell.
I personally never use these menus. Keyboard accelerators are quicker and
multiple workspaces permit many applications to be open simultaneously
(whether they reside in RAM or on the swap partition) without adding
clutter. KDE resores sessions very extensively (as in, it pays careful
attention to details like working paths, FTP connections, etc).
Best wishes,
Roy
--
Roy S. Schestowitz | D-I-S-C-O becomes D-I-E S-C-O
http://Schestowitz.com | SuSE Linux | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
10:20am up 15 days 20:34, 7 users, load average: 1.61, 0.61, 0.40
http://iuron.com - Open Source knowledge engine project
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