Menu button

[jmak]

On 1/9/07, Jani Monoses <jani.monoses at gmail.com> wrote:
> jmak wrote:
> > The idea is to develop a distinct personality for xubuntu. I am just
> > coming up with ideas that I think would improve xubuntu's usability
> > and look and feel. By the way, everybody is invited to join in.
>
> and good work so far, it's just that your ideas are a bit further ahead
> sometimes than what we can do technically now, being limited by
> available resources and time.
>
> > Anyway, if we don't customize the desktop just take whatever others
> > think the default should be then we justify the critics according to
> > which xubuntu is just a poor gnome clone in an xfce clothing. Look at
> > Dreamlinux, it is everywhere nowadays, but I don't think just because
>
> I think it is the first time I hear about Dreamlinux so it is definitely
> not everywhere ;)
>
> As for critics saying it's a gnome clone: why is that bad? While I agree
> that looks are very important, they are not what most distinguishes
> ubuntu/xubuntu from other distros. The 'gnome ripoff' argument is mostly
> heard from users who hop from one distro to another or just judge them
> by their screenshots, then inflict their opinions on others via comments
> on osnews and other glamour news-sites :)


We live in a visual culture (unfortunately), so everything is up to
the eye (rather than the mind). Because of this, visual matters should
be among the top considerations on the priority list, in my view. Mark
said it this way: "look and feel is a feature"

>
> IMHO Gnome is a very decent-looking and usable desktop especially for
> new users. Xfce is not there yet, so any comparison wrt looks and
> usability I find favorable. GNOME falls short wrt resource usage and
> often wrt stability, and this is where Xfce is somewhat better.

I too like gnome. What I was saying simply is that despite all this we
should start developing a distinct character for xubuntu within the
parameters of the gnomish look. Otherwise, we will be
indistinguishable. Not a good sign if we want to stick out from the
crowd.

>
> So I am all for good looks if they are technically doable (and not
> require modifications to xfdesktop or other components just for this) in
> a short time, but as long as our resources are limited we'll probably
> spend them on fixing bugs :( In particular the button instead of text is
> not readily doable AFAIK in the current menu, and it also poses l10n
> issues as raised in this thread already
>

What is doable and what is not I cannot judge, because I am not a
developer but a graphic designer. So if the button is not doable that
is fine.

Jmak
-- 
2007 Calendar
http://www.lulu.com/content/512622
http://jozmak.googlepages.com/