[ale] gnome3. I give up.

[Pat Regan]

On Mon, 6 Jun 2011 09:31:04 -0400
Jim Kinney <jim.kinney at gmail.com> wrote:

> I give up.

According to my revision control history, I have been using the same
window manager since June 13, 2004.  I'm sure I've been using Sawfish
longer than that, but that's the only proof I have.  :)

I'm way too entrenched to give up all my little custom scripts and hot
keys.

I did recently switch from using a Gnome panel to an XFCE panel, though
(not that I can actually notice the difference from my perspective).
It figured I should do it before the old style Gnome stuff became
deprecated.

> The single most frustrating aspect is the default behavior when I
> click to open a second terminal. Um. No. I already have one open it
> kindly shows me by whisking me away from where I am to where I don't
> want to be. But I wanted a terminal where I was. So I have to right
> click and select another option of yes I really want another terminal
> on this screen thanks for asking.

I actually really like this behavior, but only in very specific
circumstances.  I use Sawfish's equivalent of this on my hotkeys for my
browser, email client, and emacs.

I'd never dream of using it for a terminal.

> Granted, it is possible to adjust the widths of the window
> decorations to make a larger mouse grab area to facilitate resizing
> but why was it made a whopping 1 pixel wide to begin with? Why does
> the systems control panel always project off the bottom of the
> visible screen area with no way to adjust it to fit? Why do I have to
> change the screen orientation to portrait so I can adjust other
> control panels that have the "OK" button off the bottom of the
> screen? Granted my laptop is another example of entertainment trumps
> effectiveness in that it has the w i d e s c r e e n because I must
> be like the rest of the sheeple and plan to watch movies on my laptop
> as my main use and any real WORK is secondary. And yes, now I print
> everything in landscape just because it fits my screen better and I
> like being obnoxious that way ( I really don't but I am).

My window borders are only one pixel, you insensitive clod! :)

I would hope that alt+right-mouse and drag still lets you resize
windows in gnome :)

> Javascript to control the actions of my desktop. Yeah. OK. I did just
> see a javascript machine emulator that had a Linux kernel running in
> it. That has potential for all kinds of recursive fun on the desktop.
> But now the desktop is controlled by a similar process as the browser
> so cross-system scripting issues are next on the radar of security
> vulnerabilities.

I hate that Sawfish and Emacs use Lisp because I hate writing Lisp,
almost as much as I hate reading it.

I don't think using the same scripting languages as web browsers
suggests that there will be security issues.  There's nobody exploting
js in one browsers to execute js in another browser.  It'd probably be
easier to exploit the shell from the browser than the window manager.

> Frustrated. Irritated. But most of all, deeply, deeply disappointed.
> Linux is turning 20. Gnome is more than 10 years old now and still
> the principle designers appear to lack a solid understanding of
> workflow. I can't support rolling this desktop out to other people
> who are expected to actually get things done.

Don't be disappointed yet!  I don't think Gnome 3.0 and/or Unity are
aimed at many of us on this list.  I'm pretty sure that my mother will
love them, though.

I'd like to say that we should give them one or two more major release
cycles before we pass judgment on Gnome 3 and Unity.  Unfortunately,
Gnome hasn't been terribly friendly towards people who want to actually
tweak the way things work in the past.

Pat