First Boot Fedora 19 (Rawhide) Testing and opinions.
I chose to install Gnome, along with all optional software.
1) The first screen presented is a selection screen for language. At first I thought it was just a welcome screen, and the language was selected at Anaconda time. Some text to say, or other graphic to indicate select your language to continue.
2) After going though the new presentation, for a new user, (I could not find how to turn it off), I was presented with a panel to enroll a user. Usually, as in the past I would select the administrator. It is only by trying unsucessfully to create an already selected user (in Anaconda) that I realized the system wanted another user, other than the administrator. This change or new procedure has to be publicized.
3) I chose as a new user "Guest". The passwords test for difficulty to hack would not accept my choices, eventually I got "#Chocolate#####" to work. Afterwards I went to the command prompt and using root logon, changed the "Guest" password to what I needed it to be. The password acceptance rule is too restrictive. I have grandkids that want to use an easy password.
4) Clicking on Help resulted in nothing. Favourites bar disappeared, and eventually returned. No output presented.
5) What is the difference between having the favourits bar on the left and the Frequent button? Either eliminate the Frequent button or the Favourites bar.
6) Comparison with F18. Filtering. With Fedora 18, after selecting the 9 sided die, (Bottom symbol on favourites bar), allowed me to select games, or programming or system, and immediately have a subset of applications to start. This selection in Fedora 18 required 4 mouse clicks to start any program that is not on the favourites bar. Fedora 19 it will take much much longer to find an application, because there is not categorizing of applications as was done in F18. The applications appear in alphabetical sequence.
7) Fedora 19 (Gnome) requires a minimum of 5 mouse clicks to start an infrequently used program. Typically it requires around 7.
8) Why is the 9 sided die currently on the favourites bar not placed next to the Activities button at the top left? With the "9 sided die" at this location it would be more useful, reducing the search effort to start any application. It is more userful than having the help donut ring there.
9) Icon Spacing Problem
Text of the first row is bleeding into the second row, when the icons are scrolled by one row. Some other rows also generate the same problem. The spacing between icon rows is insufficient or some icons have to be reduced in height.
10) "Frequent menu button" and favourites bar are essentially doing the same function, except that Frequent is based on counts. Why then have the favourites bar?
11) Searching for adduser, did not produce results. I tried with useradd. If Gnome is going to remove functionality, at least include the results of info (command line info).
12) Originally tried to write this tc3 experience with libreoffice 4.0.2.2 (Build ID:4.0.2.2-1.fc19). The restart and restore of the work in process document failed. I went back to gedit to write this information.
13) Heavy Gnome use (by me), resulted in major pains to my forefinger tendons because of excessive requirement to use the mouse to click, or to drag and drop).
14) Fedora19 requires many additional mouse clicks to start an infrequently used application than does F18.
My impressions of Gnome4 are that it is a work in process and not too far from being a good product. The designers did not look at the number of mouse clicks or physical pain associated with his forefinger that an intense user of the system would get, mainly due to requirement to start an infrequently used application. My view is that the designers took the approach that "This is cute, lets do it this way", without considering the number of keystrokes to achieve results, or better ergonomic design.
RECOMMENDATION. 9 SIDED DIE should be next to Activities button or even replace Activities.
The best three alternatives to reducing carpal tendon pains (Gnome gave me severe problems), is Cinnamon, KDE, Gnome2 (Mate).
I chose to install Gnome, along with all optional software.
1) The first screen presented is a selection screen for language. At first I thought it was just a welcome screen, and the language was selected at Anaconda time. Some text to say, or other graphic to indicate select your language to continue.
2) After going though the new presentation, for a new user, (I could not find how to turn it off), I was presented with a panel to enroll a user. Usually, as in the past I would select the administrator. It is only by trying unsucessfully to create an already selected user (in Anaconda) that I realized the system wanted another user, other than the administrator. This change or new procedure has to be publicized.
3) I chose as a new user "Guest". The passwords test for difficulty to hack would not accept my choices, eventually I got "#Chocolate#####" to work. Afterwards I went to the command prompt and using root logon, changed the "Guest" password to what I needed it to be. The password acceptance rule is too restrictive. I have grandkids that want to use an easy password.
4) Clicking on Help resulted in nothing. Favourites bar disappeared, and eventually returned. No output presented.
5) What is the difference between having the favourits bar on the left and the Frequent button? Either eliminate the Frequent button or the Favourites bar.
6) Comparison with F18. Filtering. With Fedora 18, after selecting the 9 sided die, (Bottom symbol on favourites bar), allowed me to select games, or programming or system, and immediately have a subset of applications to start. This selection in Fedora 18 required 4 mouse clicks to start any program that is not on the favourites bar. Fedora 19 it will take much much longer to find an application, because there is not categorizing of applications as was done in F18. The applications appear in alphabetical sequence.
7) Fedora 19 (Gnome) requires a minimum of 5 mouse clicks to start an infrequently used program. Typically it requires around 7.
8) Why is the 9 sided die currently on the favourites bar not placed next to the Activities button at the top left? With the "9 sided die" at this location it would be more useful, reducing the search effort to start any application. It is more userful than having the help donut ring there.
9) Icon Spacing Problem
Text of the first row is bleeding into the second row, when the icons are scrolled by one row. Some other rows also generate the same problem. The spacing between icon rows is insufficient or some icons have to be reduced in height.
10) "Frequent menu button" and favourites bar are essentially doing the same function, except that Frequent is based on counts. Why then have the favourites bar?
11) Searching for adduser, did not produce results. I tried with useradd. If Gnome is going to remove functionality, at least include the results of info (command line info).
12) Originally tried to write this tc3 experience with libreoffice 4.0.2.2 (Build ID:4.0.2.2-1.fc19). The restart and restore of the work in process document failed. I went back to gedit to write this information.
13) Heavy Gnome use (by me), resulted in major pains to my forefinger tendons because of excessive requirement to use the mouse to click, or to drag and drop).
14) Fedora19 requires many additional mouse clicks to start an infrequently used application than does F18.
My impressions of Gnome4 are that it is a work in process and not too far from being a good product. The designers did not look at the number of mouse clicks or physical pain associated with his forefinger that an intense user of the system would get, mainly due to requirement to start an infrequently used application. My view is that the designers took the approach that "This is cute, lets do it this way", without considering the number of keystrokes to achieve results, or better ergonomic design.
RECOMMENDATION. 9 SIDED DIE should be next to Activities button or even replace Activities.
The best three alternatives to reducing carpal tendon pains (Gnome gave me severe problems), is Cinnamon, KDE, Gnome2 (Mate).