Re: [Ayatana] [Usability] The Future of Window Borders, Menu Bars, and More

[Thorsten Wilms <t_w_@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 2010-07-29 at 18:28 +0800, Allan Caeg wrote:

> Conventions in Windows and OS X are evolving (see the ribbon interface
> and app buttons on Office, Paint, etc.) while the Linux desktop is
> limited (probably) because we can't make new things work everywhere
> (different window managers, desktop environments, etc.).
> 
> 
> What do we do about this? People involved in the Windicators project
> (I'm not) may know something that could help.

Short to mid term: define and evaluate desired changes and make it
happen for those applications and environments that really matter.
Likely huge problem with finding consensus across GNOME, KDE and leading
distros.

Side note: while getting rid of menu bars might be cool for a browser or
file manager, it's hard to imagine for something like Inkscape, GIMP or
Ardour.

Ideal long term solution: Have applications (or modules) define their
commands and options in a more abstract way. With enough weighting and
relational information that a framework can build menus or ribbons or
whatever else might come up.


-- 
Thorsten Wilms

thorwil's design for free software:
http://thorwil.wordpress.com/