[Discuss] Gnome Shell

[omegahalo at gmail.com (Chris O'Connell)]

I suspect the people who developed Gnome3 didn't understand their audience.
 I think they may have been trying to attract new, and less technical
users.  By doing so the developers have alienated their existing user base.

The reality is that most users will not be technical enough to use Linux in
general, regardless of what changes are made to Gnome.  Gnome3 has been
horrible, plagued with video problems and is just an exercise in
frustration,  but the Linux desktop experience in general has its
frustrations.  I know, some people will cite examples of  their wives or
parents using Linux.  However, without help installing, setting up and
maintaining a Linux system the chances of a user adopting the OS are slim
to none.  I myself have tried to install Linux for my less technical family
member's computers only to revert back to Windows after slow video/flash
performance and issues with printers/peripherals.

Further, why would the average end user/computer buyer even want Linux at
all?  Most of the uneducated computer people in the world assume Windows
comes for free with their desktop systems.  Why replace the "free" version
of Windows with a free version of Linux?  For many people Windows works
just fine.  Of course, there are virus and malware issues, but that's just
the way life is.

I'm a big Linux proponent, but I don't see Linux as a desktop OS, certainly
not for the majority of computer users.

The Gnome developers should have kept this in mind and designed an
interface that catered to us, the power users.  They've wasted their time
developing a "user friendly" shell for an operating system that isn't very
user friendly, targeting an audience that doesn't even know Linux exists.


Chrisso

On Thu, Jun 28, 2012 at 10:25 AM, John Abreau <abreauj at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Jun 28, 2012 at 10:15 AM, Bill Cattey <wdc at mit.edu> wrote:
> >
> > I tried to keep an open mind.  I've used different desktop interfaces
> > for more than 20 years, and have discovered several that seemed
> > problematic initially, but showed value over time.  The more I used
> > Gnome 3, the more I've come to believe, "They've got it completely
> > wrong and I need to get it off my computer."
>
>
> Indeed. Gnome 3 has been a spectacular failure.
>
>
> --
> John Abreau / Executive Director, Boston Linux & Unix
> PGP KeyID: 32A492D8 / Email: abreauj at gmail.com
> PGP FP: 7834 AEC2 EFA3 565C A4B6  9BA4 0ACB AD85 32A4 92D8
> _______________________________________________
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss at blu.org
> http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>



-- 
Chris O'Connell
http://outlookoutbox.blogspot.com