GNOME: on the path to implosion

The GNOME designing team should learn about user needs, instead of trying to impose their view of how users should work.

Users have different computers, with different screen resolutions, and different needs. What works great maximized on one PC, will be a disaster on another. Users resize the windows to fit their needs, remember what those needs were, and open the windows the size their were closed last time. Is that so hard?

Right now, GNOME3 is an unproductive piece of crap, as it only serves basic users. G3 might be gaining basic users attention, but will lose them as soon as they start becoming power users.

Don't keep pushing in that direction. Listen. GNOME2 was forked. Even GNOME3 was forked. People moved to XFCE. Get a grip on reality. You did it wrong. You should know it by now. Just admit it, an turn back. Trying to prove others wrong, when you know they're right, won't take you nowhere.

I'm on XFCE. And I'll keep myself there. GNOME already lost me. And it will lose many others. FEDORA is losing users. UBUNTU is losing users. MINT is gaining. Ask yourselves why. Think CINNAMON. Think MATE.

A final note:
Touch screens won't work for desktops. Won't work for content production. For production you'll always need a good keyboard. And a desktop screen will be to painful to touch. Try to keep your arms in mid air for a minute or two, and you'll know. Mouse and keyboard are here to stay for a long time. They seat at a desk top, where you REST your arms.

References:
http://arstechnica.com/business/2012/04/hands-on-gnome-34-arrives-introducing-significant-design-changes/
http://afaikblog.wordpress.com/2012/02/10/a-new-approach-to-gnome-application-design/

Fedora 11 update created Login problem

This week (10/9/2009), a F11 update introduced GDM and KDM login problems on users with active options on Desktop Effects.

The symptoms were:

• Password entered.
• Screen changed, as if logon was successful.
• Screen blacked out.
• Logon screen presented again.

Disabling Desktop Effects appears to solve this problem.

See more details and solutions:

Login fails (Fedora 11 configurations)

Fedora 11 Linux experience

I started using Fedora 11 shortly after the final release was launched. Yet, I've been using other Linux distribuitions and releases for many years.

From this experience, I concluded that it's important to have a record of all the tweaks made to Linux installations. I started those records on paper, a small booklet/notepad that I keep with my own annotations on several subjects.

After a while, I realized that:

• It's not practical.
• Won't be helpful to anyone else.

Therefore I decided that I should place all this information online, thus helping myself and others (hopefully).

The result is this blog, that tracks random events on my F11 experience, and a site that aggregates information, and can be found at http://sites.google.com/site/fedora11config/.