It's good to see GNOME 2.30 running on our thin clients (below). My thanks to those that helped me get this working and squash a few bugs. I have been removing all of the software that is automatically installed on OpenSuse and won't be used by our users. Next up will be connecting our core group of applications (Firefox, Evolution, OpenOffice) so that I can get some beta testers logged in. I also have been pondering some updated MIME bars based on feedback and things we learned from the last upgrade. These bars will launch when you double-click on a file in the file manager and ask you what task you want performed. Everyone has gotten used to them and people really like the desktop to flow in this manner. Sure would be nice to be able to put these into Nautilus as a single click.
One very interesting usability issue that I found when reviewing how we currently have the main-menu grouped is that most of the regular users never figured out that they can type software applications into the Filter....even though the cursor focus is there when it opens and it's blinking waiting for you to type. :| The users also didn't really figure out that you can click on the Groups on the left edge to reduce the number of packages displayed. Instead, most of them are scrolling down the entire list of software and looking for what they want. I really need to ponder this more, but sure sounds like an improvement area in the design.
I'm also excited to see NX 4.0 is coming out soon, and will allow you to log into our desktop servers from an iPad. How cool is that?
9 comments:
What is that main menu thing you have there?
That's the application browser (http://en.opensuse.org/File:GNOME-Main-Menu.png) although it looks a lot like a multi-column version of Cardapio (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jancborchardt/4933331764)
Para serles sinceros, no me gusta mucho ese menú, open SuSE ya incluía algo similar pero nunca me llegó a simpatizar
I am curious on how you have incorporated some of the Windows apps in your infrastructure. Are you using Wine, or a dedicated server?
OMG what happened to the old eye-candy font?! This one is horrible, seems like KDE's font, it makes my eyes bleed.
@anonymous: Regarding running Windows apps, we have some Windows 2003 backend servers. When the user clicks on the icon it sends a signal to the thin client which then initiates a RDP/Rdesktop back over to Windows. RDP runs a .bat file so the users only get the one application they have requested, and not a full desktop (no Start button). This gives the appearance that it blends into the Linux desktop as just another application.
Not sure about the font face in the picture, but it looks like font rendering settings (strong hinting, no subpixel rendering) make it look ugly.
I like light hinting with subpixel rendering much better.
Why 'Filter' instead of 'Search'?
GnoMenu is way better
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