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Mandrakelinux Default Desktop Discussion


mousematt
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:lol: :lol: :lol:

 

darkelve, if you desperately "want" that windeco, then find someone to code it for you. i am too stupid for such things. :D

Edited by arctic
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:lol:  :lol:  :lol:

 

darkelve, if you desperately "want" that windeco, then find someone to code it for you. i am too stupid for such things. :D

 

bah... first getting my hopes up and then crawling back like this... :P

 

I'll find someone as soon as mousematt has conjured up my princess ;)

Edited by Darkelve
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One more remark: seems we have covered quite a lot of ground in this thread, but what I am still missing is a discussion of how useful the 'contextual' (right-click) menus of the Mdk KDE desktop and of Konqueror are.

 

Can anyone perhaps post a screenshot of those 2, because I don't have access to a Mdk desktop currently.

Edited by Darkelve
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If you have subscribed to MandrakeMag in the past ten days could you please re-subscribe. I have just corrupted teh ldif file that stores my subscriber list *never edit UTF files on machines without UTF - it can only lead to bad things*

 

I am incredibly sorry about this... *cries*

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not exactly, because the "glow-theme" buttons are hard to read/identify. and i f my proposal is somehow similar to the already existing crux-theme, then be it. i only tried to make a design that is functional. i did not think particularly a lot about which theme would be useful, similar, to my taste,.. i only thought with e.g. my father in mind, who is now 60 years old and NEEDS a clearly structured desktop with easily recognizable buttons/windeco.

 

and if it is like a mixture of crux and glow. why not? maybe that is the answer we are constantly looking for... mixing the best of all themes we know in order to make a theme corresponding to adriano's suggestion of what a "galaxy-feel/galaxy theme" should be. :)

 

edit: i am off for some days, have a journey to make (journalists life... :P). maybe i will be able to check in once in a while, but i won't be able to add a lot till thursday. so long, folks.

Edited by arctic
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not exactly, because the "glow-theme" buttons are hard to read/identify. and i f my proposal is somehow similar to the already existing crux-theme, then be it. i only tried to make a design that is functional. i did not think particularly a lot about which theme would be useful, similar, to my taste,.. i only thought with e.g. my father in mind, who is now 60 years old and NEEDS a clearly structured desktop with easily recognizable buttons/windeco.

 

and if it is like a mixture of crux and glow. why not? maybe that is the answer we are constantly looking for... mixing the best of all themes we know in order to make a theme corresponding to adriano's suggestion of what a "galaxy-feel/galaxy theme" should be. :)

 

edit: i am off for some days, have a journey to make (journalists life... :P). maybe i will be able to check in once in a while, but i won't be able to add a lot till thursday. so long, folks.

 

Enjoy your trip arctic. I have enjoyed reading your contributions to this forum. I will be rapping this forum up in a few days and preparing my submission for Mandrakesoft. I will wait for you to come back. You have provided some incredibly good ideas and some exciting new designs for a Mandrakegalaxy desktop. :thanks:

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It's 1h20 and I've had a long day. Thankyou for collecting my spelling... I'll get my revenge later :-)

 

Would anyone like to help try and summarise this thread for me?

 

I'm on it!

 

Edit: okay, here is my summary from this thread. Feel free to collect me! :D

Because it probably won't be very complete yet (but then again, it IS a summary, if you want to know everything, go and read the whole thread ;) )

 

Introduction

------------

The purpose of this discussion was to discuss the default, out-of the box- Mandrake 10.O/KDE desktop and make suggestions to further improve it.

 

This decision by mousematt, who runs the MandrakeMag magazine, was inspired by Mandrake's ergonomics and usability review.

 

I believe there was a consensus on that the default 'look' of the desktop would have different requirements depending on if it was being used as a business desktop or a home desktop.

 

mousematt has collected these ideas to come up with a 'mock-up' for a default look.

 

Default Look

------------

- Most people agreed the default desktop, especially the wallpaper, contained too much darkblue.

 

- There was a lot of criticism on the default window Decoration, especially about the default colors. We put out a poll to vote on which Window Decoration is the most used. Unfortunately, only a couple of votes have been recorded this far. However, Plastik seems to be probable, also because a lot of distrubutions use it as their default WinDeco. We all agreed, however, that Mandrake should somehow retain their identity and not look like another <put your distro here>.

 

Also, the close/minimize/maximize buttons should be big enough to easily identify and acess and have good contrast with the background.

 

- The Mandrake bookmarks take to much space and could be discracting to some users. Two users suggested grouping them together in a folder.

 

- There are some questions about the validity of a Konsole icon on the taskbar, especially for a business desktop.

 

- A couple of users (3 or 4 I think) suggest making the defauly icons bigger, while two users suggest keeping them small

 

- A few users propose to limit the number of virtual desktops to two, since it saves space and a lot of users won't need more than 2.

 

- There is no real consensus about the iconset used, except that they could definitely be improved. Whatever iconset is used, it is important that it is as complete as possible. One user also suggests using more or less the same proportions for the different icons. All users agree it should be intuitive what they (could) mean. Also, the distance between the different icons in the taskbar should be a set value (e.g. like 'autoalign' for icons on the desktop). Also

"Make sure that the icons on the default desktop... freshly opened.  Never used before, actually Line up." 

 

Everyone agrees however, that a couple of icons do not fit in with the rest of the icons or are plain unclear. E.g. the 'launch new session' icon.

 

Judging from a few replies, users seem to agree that icons on the desktop should be 'grouped' together according to type/function (e.g. folder and application icons)

 

- the naming scheme of applications should be human-readable, e.g. describe the function of the application, rather than the 'brand' name.

 

- A 'show' desktop icon should be present by default. Ideally, it should be close to the virtual desktops. One user wonders if it would be possible to put the two together (e.g. extend the Virtual Desktop menu with a 'show desktop' buton).

 

- is it necessary to have to show the /tmp/ and the /desktop/ folder in Konqueror's /home/ dir? Could/should they be hidden in some way?

 

- A few users suggest adding a few folders for file/media storage in the /home/ folder and have folders on the desktop (and possibly in the taskbar's 'quickbar') that point to those. See screenshots.

 

- One user proposes to put a 'help' button on the taskbar.

 

- It is considered a good idea to use the 'Galaxy' idea for the default wallpaper

 

- Put an mini-menu (folder) for OpenOffice in the taskbar, with quick access to all the OpenOffice components

 

- One user proposes a 'productivity' menu in the taskbar. The general consensus is that this is a good idea

 

- One user asks for a better splash screen; several times :P

 

Applications

------------

OpenOffice

Acrobat Reader

Kate

Kontact/Evolution

Kopete

<... incomplete ...>

 

Features

--------

- One user found a feature to put the desktop 'back to the default state' was missing

- One user proposed adding a 'make new link/shortcut to app/folder/ ...' feature in the KDE desktop contextual (right-click) menu like Xandros does.

- A few users suggest picking the type of WM (and other options) depending on the type of function the desktop is going to serve

 

- Varia

-------

One user suggests talking about Gnome instead :P

 

Oh yes, and before I forget: a couple of users have posted their own mock-up about how they see a standard business/home desktop and our member arctic has worked on a mock-up of a default window decoration. :)

 

These are all available or accessible through this thread

Edited by Darkelve
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I will be rapping this forum up in a few days and preparing my submission for Mandrakesoft.

hey, mousematt, will the results be in the next issue of your magazine? would be a nice story, eh? please keep us informed (maybe publish) about mandrakes reaction.

 

now, as the discussion seems to be finished, i want to say some final words.

 

this topic was the most interesting topic that i have seen in a forum for a long time. it was full of creativity, a good spirit, and a lot of fun. i really did enjoy the discussions with all of you and i hope that there will be lots of great discussions like this ahead of us.

 

:thanks:

 

p.s.: we still need another splash-screen :P

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