[ubuntu-studio-devel] Anoying/confusing things in our DE

[Shubham Mishra]

On 11/16/2013 11:10 PM, Len Ovens wrote:
> As prep for getting the best experience for 14.04 I would like to know
> what people find anoying about our default desktop. What are the first
> things you change. Not everything you or I find anoying should be
> changed as we are trying not to confuse people new to UbuntuStudio as well.
>
>   -I like focus follows mouse. I have used things this way since I began
> using X with fvwm in the 90s. Probably won't get changed due to all the
> windows raised people around.

I've never done this, but I can see how this can be useful now that I 
think about it.

>   - click and double click on the window title bar defaults to full
> screen or other action. The most common reason I click on the title bar
> is to move the window. I would prefer double click to do nothing. (the
> first thing to wear out of a mouse seems to be the left button resulting
> in unintended double clicks)

I find this useful, and I think this is a very common feature, so people 
might feel confused.

>   - scroll wheel on mouse changes workspace. This is really confusing
> for those who have yet to get btheir minds wrapped around more than one
> workspace. This mildly anoying for the rest of us (well me anyway) as it
> means that as soon as the mouse wanders off of the window I am using the
> scroll wheel for scrolling with, I get a blank screen or some other app
> and have to go and find what I was working on again. I think this should
> default to off.

I found this really annoying as well. I've turned this off.

>   - The bottom pannel....
>     a) the bottom (at least for me) is a bad place for this. Left side.
> Monitors are no longer 3x4, using a side for this instead of bottom
> makes more sense.
>     b) auto hide results in the application sharing the space the pannel
> takes as well as the whole bottom making it appear that the application
> being used no longer responding even though the mouse is not over the
> mouse itself. This may be fixable by making the pannel less than 100%
>     c) I find the icon size too big. this is subjective :)
>     d) Do we need this pannel at all?
>     e) I think we could pick better apps to populate it.
>
  I find this bottom panel useful. I have keyboard shortcuts for things 
like the browser, terminal, file manager and alt-F2 for app finder etc, 
but I do use the panel for quickly going to the settings manager, I use 
the directory menu a lot (and for me it is more useful in the bottom 
panel than the top, only because of the size of the icon), and also the 
show desktop icon (which I can only use because of its bigger size). I 
haven't use USC icon at all for a very long time (partly because I 
hardly ever use USC). I don't use trash icon as well.

Yes initially it was slightly confusing because despite clicking on what 
appeared to be the application currently open, the panel did not 
disappear. I eventually figured out that I was in fact not clicking on 
the app but the panel. Once you know this, its a non-issue. I guess this 
could be solved by not keeping it completely transparent like you said.


>   - clock format, and maybe app. We switched to Orage because the clock
> applet doesn't open a calendar when clicked. However, Orage is more
> difficult to set default time/date format. We should watch what Xubuntu
> does here.... it sounds like they are annoyed too :)
> ss

I actually don't remember if I had to change the clock settings to do 
it, but orage displays time on the panel the way I want it (hh:mm:ss 
AM/PM) at the moment. I setting the format shouldn't be too difficult as 
the settings dialog has an index displaying which code to use to get what.

> Please comment on any of these and feel free to add your pet peaves
> too... even if they seem opposite to mine. I do know how to set my
> desktop the way I want it, but would prefer that the average and new
> person gets the best workflow without having to learn to set things up.
> SO please think in these terms. We really do want productivity first,
> and nice looks right after that.
>

I use desktop icons a lot because that is a very convenient place for me 
to put up custom launchers for apps and launchers for any scripts. I 
don't have any normal app launchers on my desktop, I use the menu for that.