lubuntu-desktop team mailing list archive

[Leszek Lesner <leszek.lesner@xxxxxx>]

Am Samstag, 13. Februar 2010 13:23:01 schrieb Julien Lavergne:
> Hi,
> 
> Le samedi 13 février 2010 à 12:04 +0100, Leszek Lesner a écrit :
> > Hi,
> > 
> > As I now have some time off. I thought about some of the concepts of
> > Lubuntu Lucid.
> > One that keeps bothering me somehow (as a programmer) is that we only
> > included tools that are already avaiable for all the other
> > distributions and aren't very Lubuntu specific.
> > I don't know if its the policy here to create just another LXDE
> > distribution or if we intend to create a fantastic distribution.
> > (hmm... maybe a 'User Needs' page would be nice to have in the wiki,
> > with goals we want to achieve or going to work on)
> > IMHO we need custom optimized Lubuntu tools to make Lubuntu as near as
> > perfect as we can.
> 
> We already included all lxde components (except lxmusic). This
> environnement is not as complete as a GNOME or a KDE environnement, so
> we need to complete it with programs more standard.
> Making optimization for Lubuntu is ok, but it needs time to code them :)
> 
> > Another topic:
> > As I am a student and I had the chance to take a testdrive on a
> > brandnew eyetracking system I tested some (short had only 30 min time
> > to test) visual concepts of the LXDE / Lubuntu Desktop(Alpha 2,
> > Preview 2) and figured out the following.
> > First of all functionality:
> > 1. Test:  "Change your background"
> > Result: The student (obviously had experience with windows) right
> > clicked the desktop and found the desktop settings item and clicked on
> > it. A new preference window appeared telling him something about
> > Interfaces. He was confused and thought he made something wrong and
> > closed the window.
> > Now he started searching in the menu and immediately found the
> > Preferences submenu. He clicked on Appearance.
> > The Appearence Preference Panel opened up. He stared a few seconds on
> > it and searched a tab or way how he can change the wallpaper. After 3
> > minutes he gave up. I gave him the notice to try looking at the first
> > tool he opened up a little bit more. He closed the app -> right click
> > on the desktop -> Desktop Settings.
> > Then after a few seconds of searching (eyetracking showed the
> > 'scanning of the GUI' and focusing on the tab bar) he found the
> > desktop tab and a few seconds later he was able to set a new
> > wallpaper.
> 
> I think this will be solve with pcmanfm2. It includes a separate GUI for
> the desktop, so it will be easy to affect it to a menu item of right
> click on the desktop.
> 
> > 2. Test: "Insert a USB Stick (Pendrive) and open up a mp3 file"
> > Result: The student inserted the usb stick and was waiting and staring
> > on the desktop. After about 40 seconds (noting happened) he looked at
> > the usb stick if the led was on and its running. Then he started to
> > look in the menu under "System Tools". He didn't find what he was
> > searching for. He moved up to the Accessories submenu and didn't find
> > what he was looking for either. Then he started searching in the other
> > submenus(one by one). He closed the menu. I gave him the advice to try
> > opening up the filemanager. He went to the menu and did go to the
> > System Tools submenu. He clicked on the PCManFM Filemanager link.
> > (Took him a few seconds though to realize that PCManFM was the
> > filemanager). The filemanager window opened up.
> > He scanned the filemanager window (as he opened it for the first
> > time). After a few seconds he found the left bookmarkspane and clicked
> > (doubleclicked) the usb stick which had a common label ("USB_STICK").
> > He doubleclicked the mp3 file and smplayer opened up and played back
> > the mp3 file.
> 
> Automounting is still problematic, many piece of software need to play
> nicely together to have this working. I hope that with the pcmanfm2 +
> gvfs, this will be easier.
> 
> > Students-Feedback: (shortened)
> > - confused finding the background changer
> > - right click -> desktop settings should open up the Desktop Tab in
> > the preferences window
> > - the preferences are not clearly structured
> > - usb sticks should be opened automatically or at least the system
> > needs to give me(the user) a feedback if the stick was recognized or
> > not
> > - Its confusing and annoying that you need to go to a submenu and open
> > up the filemanager to access the usb drive. (After I explained him,
> > that its also possible to simply doubleclick the my documents folder
> > icon on the desktop -> ) Its not obvious enough.
> > - The design looks like 1990. The black taskbar is ugly. The menu icon
> > (LXDE Menu) looks ugly.
> > - But the system feels snappy (I am not quite sure either Pentium 4 or
> > Celeron, 2 Ghz, 512 MB RAM)
> > 
> > The main question I asked at the end of the short interview and
> > testing was: "Would you consider using this system on your PC or
> > netbook".
> > The answer: "On the PC rather not. I would perhaps test it on my
> > netbook besides my already preconfigured OS"
> > 
> > So all in all a very interesting testdrive I guess.
> > The student is studying informatics just like me.
> 
> Interesting feedback. Neetbook and old hardware are the target of
> Lubuntu. Remember that LXDE and Lubuntu have very limited ressources, we
> can't fight against GNOME or KDE or XFCE for the features part.
> 
> > IMHO we still have something to do to make the desktop user friendly.
> > First changing the few simple bugs, like right click menu on the
> > desktop and desktop settings are linking to the wrong tab in the
> > pcmanfm preferences.
> 
> Feel free to submit bug, it's easier to follow them on the bugtracker
> than on the mailing list.
> 
> > The harder "to fix" problems are the preferences and the usb stick.
> > I have a few suggestions:
> > First the preferences. I created a tool (originally for ZevenOS) that
> > acts like a control center for preferences. I could change some of the
> > code to fit to the lxde/lubuntu desktop if you want to(If I can, I
> > still don't know if it needs to be uploaded to the ubuntu repo, and if
> > I can make it in the freeze time).
> > Here is a screenshot:
> > http://www.ubuntu-pics.de/bild/42436/magi_SApftg.png
> > I think its good to have a centralised preference app for those people
> > who are searching for a setting.
> 
> Good idea, it's something missing, but I'm sure it can work for LXDE in
> general, not only for Lubuntu.
> Rafael, which work on the artwork, made a mockup about this idea
> (included in the mail).
> Is it coded in python ? Because Sidux have also some python GUI for
> preferences : https://noc.sidux.com/svn/lxde/
> 
Yes its written in python (pygtk using quickly :P). For now its only a GUI for 
starting the different config tools. 
Hmm... didn't find the source code of sidux preferences. 


> > Ok now to the "USB Problem". There are two possible solutions.
> > The hardway rewrite thunar-volman or the gnome-volume-manager to use
> > pcmanfm. (don't know if its possible; wasn't it the reason pcman
> > started libfm ?)
> > The easierway write a udev rule for usb sticks. This one could make a
> > sound (plugin and plugout) and open up pcmanfm and mount the stick.
> > ( I have a udev rule for zevenos that plays back a sound when plugging
> > in and out a usb stick)
> > Plan B IMHO is pcmanfm2. But I highly doubt it that it will be
> > production ready until freeze of Lubuntu.
> 
> Maybe not fully ready and stable, but I can't imagine shipping the old
> pcmanfm for Lubuntu. The state of pcmanfm2 is not so bad, I think is
> already quite good. It's missing some stuff from the old one, but it's
> already usable.
> 
> > I am pretty sure that the theme/look problem of Lubuntu will be fixed
> > as we have very good suggestions in the artwork categorie for lucid.
> 
> I think there will be a little surprise for the next testing Alpha about
> the artwork ;)
> 
> > So thats all (wow a really long mail here).
> > I hope this suggestions are useful.
> 
> Thanks, constructive feedbacks are always welcome :)
> 
> Regards,
> Julien Lavergne