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Mandrakelinux Default Desktop Discussion


mousematt
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Galaxies for Mandrake Galaxy : exactly! :-) That was the idea, this isn't a final suggestion... I am trying to find a lower key example.

 

We, individuals, have licensing issues for that wallpaper. However, in a reasonable world, Mandrakesoft could license something similar or develop something in-house. I get the feeling many an artist would be very happy for some free publicity from a major distro like Mandrakelinux.

 

I doubt Greg Martin would appreciate it though: he works for Microsoft :-)

 

I also think its a good idea to make the desktop icon labels larger and bold. My own informal studies of desktop computers and senior citizens suggest bolder is better...

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It's very nice Mousematt.

 

The bold labels under the desktop icons are nice, it is really clear this way.

 

The wallpaper is beautiful, but I wonder if it is not a little too 'playful'... well perhaps that's just me. And personally, I really liked artics suggestions for the icon in the taskbar with bookmarks to all of the folders in the users home folder.

 

I too, would prefer digital clock, but I guess that is just a matter of taste.

 

And, what does the multimedia icon in Kicker do?

 

Looking good, Imho.

 

Darkelve

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Guest Adriano
the tmp folder will be recreated if hidden. thus you would have a /.tmp and a /tmp folder in /home.  :huh:

 

I think this can be modified from the KDE control center (not mcc) in the same section where you can choose which folder is your desktop, which has the Documents, etc. Alas, I have to use windows ME to connect to the net, so I can't tell you right now.

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I think this can be modified from the KDE control center (not mcc) in the same section where you can choose which folder is your desktop, which has the Documents, etc. Alas, I have to use windows ME to connect to the net, so I can't tell you right now.

 

The big question is: should this folder be here by default? Is an obvious "tmp" directory an example of good interface design and user friendliness? Or is it an ugly reminder of what's under the hood?

 

In a better default desktop - is this folder here?

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I liked the default desktop a lot. Everytime I re-installed mandrake I just felt "at home" and kept it like that (especially the wallpaper) for a while.

The one exception, the things I always changed were the size of the panel (to normal) and the removal of that BUTT UGLY purple background, behind the star. Very bad idea that was.

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Guest Adriano
The big question is: should this folder be here by default? Is an obvious "tmp" directory an example of good interface design and user friendliness? Or is it an ugly reminder of what's under the hood?

 

In a better default desktop - is this folder here?

 

And the answer is "Of course not". I mean, you can perfectly have a "/.tmp" folder, just as nice to work with from the shell but less fugly on the newbie's desktop.

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A radical idea.... the default desktop should be horrid...

That way people will be encouraged to customise it to their needs and :devil: try different DM's :D

 

OK well maybe not but for me the best desktops are ones 'without' distro specific hacks.

 

The 'start icon' thing in MDK or the MDK menu's etc I find annoying but everyone will have different ideas.

 

For a professional (work) desktop, clean and simple is most likely best. Suse are pretty good for this ... but in the end default desktops are a good comprimise and 'in a good comprimise noone is happy'

 

For professional desktops this is perhaps a necassary evil... but for home users its impossible (IMHO) .. just looking at show off your desktop I see loads of really cool desktops... yet Im happy with mine mostly...well not really but ill probably tweak a bit here and a bit there and ... ooh try anna's superkaramba and bvc's stuff looks v. cool too. and ....

 

well thats it.. its the shere choice that I love.

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Great point Gowator: choice is wonderful. Although, in a lot of cases choice is ignored. I'd love to do a blind test: take 20 people and show them 20 out of the box desktops excluding XP and OS X. Which one do you think they'd pick?

 

Does Mandrake compete well with Lycoris, Xandros, Linspire, Red Hat or SUSE? What do you think SUSE does thats better than Mandrake? What's different?

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- the ion desktop has some good ideas, although some stuff is unnecessary imo. why does the average user need a "my network" button (they didn't need it in windows although it is there)? the "my linux" folder is way too crowded. colors are nice and the idea of an open-office folder in the kicker is very good, reducing amount of icons for office in kicker and freeing space for e.g. multimedia or other stuff.

 

- the tmp-folder should be hidden by default imo.

 

- choice is great but sometimes confusing. but: in kde3.3 there is a theme-select otion in kcontrol. how about a link to it on the desktop, called "change desktop theme", suggesting some alternative mandrake-setups? ;)

 

- we still need a different splash... and how about different sounds? they are not really nice, but trying to be cool and thus getting on peoples nerves. :lol:

 

edit:

concerning the stuff of mandrake vs. suse or fedora or...

 

suse dektop is clean but just like linspire looks too much like a windows-xp clone to me with that kind of wallpaper. too bright colored, too many colors. fisher-price is back. :lol: well, it does look "good" for a private(home) desktop, but for an institution i would expect something less "childish". this is where fedora looks much better. very good overall coloring, but after some time, you get the feeling that it is too dark for a home-desktop. so, something between these extremes (suse/fedora) would be nice. imho.

Edited by arctic
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hard questions becuase its so personal....

Personally I hate the suse desktop ... but mainly becuase its not MINE....

I dont have a good reason just I want my own desktop.... and my own choice!

 

Unfortunately people are prejudiced... Show 20 users the desktops and 15+ will choose XP becuase its what they know!

 

Linspire have the chance to dload the deviant art wallpapers.... some are very cool!

 

I think the most important thing is making it easy to choose desktop and to some extent forcing the user to make a choice to show them how easy it is to change!

 

As you point out home/work are different.... but the icon set has to match the backround in terms of colour and contrast...

 

So contradicting myself! A default desktop might be a good idea for users who have set white font and pale icons on a while background.,...

 

For home desktops the most important thing is to (as you well know) respect the placement of directories etc. where gnome/kde say...

It pi%%%^ me off no end to always have to search out a Suse special RPM if I wanna use a theme in suse! Not because its a big dload but just becuase I might wanna have the same as my Mandrake of debian boxen....

 

If users elect to use KDE (my gnome knowledge is way outa date) then the plastic or keramik or whatever is fine... it just annoys me to have to always have to hack the menu's back to the way they should be before MDK/Suse started fscking them up! Not to mention all the work getting rid of the * in the MDK menu etc....

 

Im sure gnome has some perfectly acceptable themes too.

 

My point is that make them easy to change so if you have KDE you can use all the KDElook.org stuff simply ...

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I think the most important thing is making it easy to choose desktop and to some extent forcing the user to make a choice to show them how easy it is to change!

for a home-desktop, sure, this would be an acceptable way, but for a business, you usually want to make sure that every user has the same desktop to work with, because not every business has a desktop for every single user but sometimes shared users/desktops. so, think of e.g. a enlightnment dektop, set by one user as default and then the next user is used to e.g. gnome. what a mess! :lol:

furthermore: in business, bosses surely don't want their workers to waste some time, playing on the desktop (although the custom desktop can increase productivity...but try to convince them... uh...) but stick with the same working environment. so, while the "custom desktop" idea is tempting, there should only be some (three or four?) alternative desktop layouts available in ONE desktop environment imho.

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Agreed Arctic and that is basically what suse achieve ... as a work desktop...

 

However the whole homeuser thing is..opposite.

My work actually allow us to change the background in XP ... its about the only thing I can change :D I cant even change the keyboard!

 

However the defaults are something they worked on...personally I think they suck but hey... what do I care its winSh$t ...

 

The KDE defaults are IMHO already good... I honestly find the kantotix desktop to be productive... its simple, has OO on the toolbar and starts off reasonably organised.

kappfinder works well if its allowed to but suse/Mandrake break it.... at least partially by their own menu support.

 

Of course we hit the same work/home barrier again....

Then we end up with the Gnome vs KDe thing...

 

However they are at least closing this gap... so perhaps whats needed are desktops by function ?

 

that is a whole setup according to the situation....

For instance .... work is obvious ?? (office?)

Home Entertainment could have superkaramba/gdesklets built in with XMMS/Xine et al...

Home Office ... similar to work ??

Home gaming ... perhaps no DM just a simple WM ??

Laptop 800x600 ..???

 

I find the Linspire a bit Fisher-Price too but it works well on my 800x600 laptop for instance...

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