Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Introduction to Gnome 3

gnome3.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 79 posts

Re: Introduction to Gnome 3

#31

Post by bouncingsoul »

rsl7 wrote: post #24
bouncingsoul wrote: post #15

I'm amazed by how dumb and severe the icon label truncation is. That screams to me that it was designed without testing it with real content. How can anyone see Network C…, Network P…, Network P… in the preference panel and not wonder if the truncation is too agressive?

Truncation like that also happens on the Mac when the Finder's grid spacing is set too tight. They may have overlooked it for the screenshot.

I'm not criticizing truncation. You need to do it on long names. I'm saying it looks like the designers of the GNOME UI are using truncation as a quick fix for a flawed design.

Besides, truncation in OS X is much much smarter:

http://i.imgur.com/MN3Q2.png

Notice how the tracking (spacing between letters) in the first item gets tightened to make it fit? It looks a little squished, but it's much preferable to reading dots.

The last item had to be truncated, but it happens in the middle and keeps the useful end information visible.

I was being honest when I said I was amazed at the GNOME truncation. I think an operating system UI that can't handle the names of its killer apps (e.g., OpenOffic…) lost its way somewhere.

Re: Introduction to Gnome 3

#33

Post by fingerprinter »

As far as open source desktops go, I'm rather excited about both Unity and Gnome3, but for very different reasons.

I think Unity, which is my preferred desktop right now, is shaping up to be the nicest, prettiest and easiest to use desktop open source has ever had. I might even consider it to be the first open source desktop I could point my mother to and she could use it straight away. I'm fully expecting Unity to be just plain awesome in several cycles.

Gnome3 with the JS core is open for extension like we've never seen before in open source. I say that b/c of the ease with which someone could extend now...like it or not, JS has a lower barrier to entry than traditional tech used in linux desktops. I can't wait to see what people create for Gnome3 via this extension scheme.

I know I'll have both installed for sure...fun times ahead!

Re: Introduction to Gnome 3

#34

Post by endgame »

bouncingsoul wrote: post #15

I'm amazed by how dumb and severe the icon label truncation is. That screams to me that it was designed without testing it with real content. How can anyone see Network C…, Network P…, Network P… in the preference panel and not wonder if the truncation is too agressive?

I used to use dillo as my browser of choice. It truncated tabs by dropping vowels, which I thought was really clever. I have no idea how well that would work in other languages, though.

Re: Introduction to Gnome 3

#35

Post by jamesaguilar »

Gnome 3 "Made of Ugly." How is it possible that the aliasing on those fonts in the example image is allowed on the front page of their marketing. Every third line is a different size and has a blurry appearance.

Re: Introduction to Gnome 3

#36

Post by ra »

mikedouglas wrote: post #13

Not that I want to beat up on a open source project, but for a desktop environment focused on ease of use, there are some very odd things overlooked. 1. How am I supposed to know what these icons do? Why even title them? https://img.skitch.com/20110118-biweei4eyuey217fisi7ks2d9f.p... 2. Eight of the eleven icons in the dock have significant title clipping. Did no one notice this? https://img.skitch.com/20110118-e1ykw…

It does say "alpha version".

The concepts look good, lets hope they sort out these details.

Re: Introduction to Gnome 3

#37

Post by rbanffy »

acabal wrote: post #20
mikedouglas wrote: post #13

Not that I want to beat up on a open source project, but for a desktop environment focused on ease of use, there are some very odd things overlooked. 1. How am I supposed to know what these icons do? Why even title them? https://img.skitch.com/20110118-biweei4eyuey217fisi7ks2d9f.p... 2. Eight of the eleven icons in the dock have significant title clipping. Did no one notice this? https://img.skitch.com/20110118-e1ykw…

People like to beat up on MS a lot, but the differences between the Windows 7 GUI (or iOS GUI) and Gnome 3 really highlight the disadvantage that a bunch of spare-time developers who say to themselves, "well, I think our users will like text truncation, let's throw it in tomorrow!" are at versus a big company with millions to spend on thoughtful UI design, graphics, research, and focus groups. Windows 7 has its probl…

> Gnome 3 really highlight the disadvantage that a bunch of spare-time developers

You do realize you are criticizing the topmost user interface details of a theme of an extensively themable early release. I think those "spare-time developers" have been focusing their attention on the API changes that the Gnome 2 to 3 transition impose and the new concepts introduced by the shell. The core seems very good. What you complain about is usually addressed in the configuration files for the theme and the names of the shortcuts. Multi-lingual support will bring some additional problems that should be addressed in the coming weeks. There are many dozen different themes that are compatible with Gnome. All those will have to be tweaked to look right.

Have a little more faith, for just about every computer that is responsible for your internet access runs on top of software written by people you would call "part-time programmers".

I'd trust their work over the one from Microsoft's full-time employees anytime.

Re: Introduction to Gnome 3

#38

Post by rbanffy »

bouncingsoul wrote: post #31
rsl7 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Truncation like that also happens on the Mac when the Finder's grid spacing is set too tight. They may have overlooked it for the screenshot.

I'm not criticizing truncation. You need to do it on long names. I'm saying it looks like the designers of the GNOME UI are using truncation as a quick fix for a flawed design. Besides, truncation in OS X is much much smarter: http://i.imgur.com/MN3Q2.png Notice how the tracking (spacing between letters) in the first item gets tightened to make it fit? It looks a little squished, but it's much preferable to reading d…

> Besides, truncation in OS X is much much smarter:

Don't forget Apple (among others) has tons of silly patents regarding text rendering that Gnome developers have to program around while everybody else can just cross-license with their own silly little patents. It may be possible they simply cannot afford the risk of doing the obvious thing.

Re: Introduction to Gnome 3

#39

Post by rbanffy »

snprbob86 wrote: post #26
vilya wrote: post #18

A lot of effort has gone into this; it's a shame to see so many disparaging posts here. I think the developers should be applauded for their work. Between this and Ubuntu's plans to adopt Wayland in place of X, there are some interesting times ahead for Linux on the desktop. I, for one, am looking forward to seeing how it all plays out.

The developers absolutely deserve to be applauded for their work, but declaring it as "simply beautiful" is almost laughable. I think that it's actually quite ugly. And even if you disagree, I don't think it's fair to call your own work beautiful unless you've proven that the overwhelming majority consistently enjoys your aesthetic.

For a lot of people, Justin Bieber is a great musician. Popularity is not a trustworthy indicator of artistic merit.

Re: Introduction to Gnome 3

#40

Post by rbanffy »

puls wrote: post #11

They're trying to sell "simply beautiful" but all of the images on the front page have serious antialiasing problems. Huh.

Stable software or a beautiful website... Tough choice when you have limited resources... I'm glad their priorities are right.
Post reply on HN