CRN today published an article destined
to give KDE/Linux naysayers food for thought regarding the viability of KDE
as enterprise desktop software. In this well-researched article by
Frank J. Ohlhorst, the
CRN Test Center built a Linux network consisting of a server and five
workstations, with the goal of creating a reliable network that
could be used in a typical small-business environment. The
Test Center's insightful conclusion: "Linux and associated
Linux applications can accomplish many of the same tasks as the Wintel
standard at a much lower initial cost, in this case, for 93 percent less
than the software cost of a similar Windows-based network, and without
many of the licensing hassles presented by traditional software
platforms".
As to choosing between the two major Linux desktop environments, the article
reports that "Test Center engineers found KDE the friendliest and
were impressed with the array of KDE-compatible software . . . KDE is the most actively developed Linux desktop and has the most
tools. Solution providers seeking KDE desktop open-source development tools
should go to www.apps.kde.com, which has
ratings on each product, including feedback from the user community".
Good to see such a well-researched article, and more importantly that the non-Linux media is starting to realize the capabilities of our very
own KDE <grin>.
CRN.com: Accolades for a KDE Office
Dot Categories:
Comments
Here is an example:
gah, forgot the pic
gah, forgot the pic
Sure, I know that is possible, but this here is something different. What I mean is to only display _certain_ icons' text labels, not the full toolbar. Most of the time if you use both text & icon for the full bars, it always goes off the screen. I made a screenshot in Windows to represent what I mean. IE calls this ability "Selective text labels" as can be seen in the dialog box. What we could do is perhaps have in the toolbar menu a checkbox next to each icon you would like to have the text label displayed for as well.
Have a look.
Eron
i dont get it...
i mean why would we break the UI like that?
i mean if you want a broken UI use windows, consistancy here is the best way for a usable UI. to do what is proposed is so wrong on so many levels it is amazing people consider the idea. i mean this is impossible to translate, breaks the UI, causes the toolbar to not resize correctly... etc..
in short, just because M$ breaks things, dosent mean we need to do so. m$ sets no standards here, years of research have.
in summary, if you want windows use windows, if you want something different use KDE.
cheers
-ian reinhart geiser
I don't know that it would break the UI. I don't want to argue about UI theory, I'm just trying to explain what the original poster mentioned. All this would do is make it a little more FLEXIBLE, so say for instance 3 out of 8 icons on a toolbar are confusing to my mom, I could configure it to show the text labels as well as the icons for _those_three_icons_only_. From what I can tell, it seems like a fairly simple and reasonable feature request. Text wouldn't be part of the graphic, it would just be pulled from the same XML file as it would any other time, keeping translations, etc. However, I cannot code in C++ or Qt so I am not able to make this happen (though one day I might..).
*shrug*
Eron
pssst... Show Mum the trick--"touch" the icon, oooh, tool tips!
Give a man a fish...
-pea
That is not a broken UI, that is a Good Idea(tm). It:
1. Uses the already-translated text, there is no text in images
2. Makes the frequently used buttons bigger while still allowing a decent number of buttons on the toolbar without those retarded menus at the right side
The only problem I see is in configuring which buttons get the text and which don't. There would have to be a special checkbox or something in the Customize Toolbar dialog to enable the text on the buttons you want. The way IE does it, you can't change which buttons have text when you're in this "selective text" mode, it chooses for you (although you can choose to have all text buttons or no text at all).
Hence the broken UI. There is no consistancy, who decides what gets text and what dosent? How do you configure it? Anyone who can actually code or knows about UIs can see that this quickly would turn into a nightmare.
You only use what M$ has trained you to use, so you need to be retrained. To retrain you need consistancy. Look at winders 2000s random hideing of menues.
Ideally in the feild of UI designe you keep these things in mind:
Consistancy
(do not change things arround in the UI randomly)
Simple metaphores
(clean simple icons, with clear documentation as to their meandings with "whats this" tips or html help)
Non Cluttered UI
(humans mentally break down after provided more than 7 options)
If you really want to get crafty you can read up on what the Israilies are doing in UI science, with analyzing button placement and icon size.
This is all old hat though, and anyone by sophmore year in a Software Engineering degree would know this. In short, pretending to be just like M$ is not a good idea. Following what research has stated is.
This notion of the computer (randomly) customizing the UI to fit you has failed multiple times in the past. Both in the market place and in hard science.
Cheers
-ian reinhart geiser
>There is no consistancy, who decides what gets text and what dosent?
There is no logical reason to NEED this particular consistency here. Nothing is being "changed randomly," the buttons that have text never change. It is OK for some buttons to have text but others not to have text. The reason to have consistency is to avoid confusing the user, but this doesn't confuse anybody at all. It simply makes the frequently-used buttons bigger while still allowing space for lesser-used buttons.
Ideally the user would decide which buttons get text through the toolbar config, which MS doesn't do but KDE could. Reasonable defaults would be provided.
> This notion of the computer (randomly) customizing the UI to fit you has failed multiple times in the past.
There's nothing random about it! It is always the same, even between different computers. The computer doesn't do it, the program designers do it.
> Look at winders 2000s random hideing of menues.
A totally different issue. I agree on that. It is random and inconsistent.
And don't get me started on "What's this?" help. In my opinion "What's this?" help is a TOTAL FAILURE! I cannot recall the last time I used it and learned something important. There are a number of reasons:
1. I never remember to use it because to use it you have to click that tiny little "?" next to the window minimize button, of all places! Whoever thought that up should be shot. Help deserves a *large* button *inside* the dialog.
2. Its use is so inconsistent. I would be surprised if 40% of applications/dialogs actually used it. To make matters worse, the "?" button appears some of the time even when there is no help.
3. Using it is clunky. To find out if there is help, you have to follow a slow procedure of clicking the (tiny) "?" button, then clicking on a widget. If no help appears, you have to go back to the "?" button to re-activate the help before you can check another widget for help. (there's probably a button you can press to keep the help active, but I don't remember it and I doubt many others do either).
4. It is often redundant or uninformative. Many times it contains the same information that is in the widget caption or tooltip, only in complete sentences instead of two or three words. What could be more useless?
> Hence the broken UI. There is no consistancy, who decides what gets text and what dosent? How do you configure it? Anyone who can actually code or knows about UIs can see that this quickly would turn into a nightmare.
This decision would be made by the user. As from a general programming standpoint (I don't have actual KDE programming experience) it would require about an additional boolean flag for each button (ie. 'show label').
This feature is not specific to M$ applications at all, and I also don't agree on that it would introduce inconsistency (if we take it strictly, there is some already: the 'location' field has a text label next to it, regardless of the toolbar setting :)
It would rather be another feature that increases flexibility and useability, what we like KDE for :)
imre
exactly, I want to be able to enable text of different toolbar actions; which has already been translated.
In fact, I think the role of icons is not to have text.
I mean, why we use icons is to enable anybody to understand its purpose even if he/she can't read.
Why do you think they use a slashed cigarette to say "no smoking" ? They could just write "no smoking" but the slashed cigarette is better because anyone can understand.
Else, we can suppress icons and just write labels...
or read the documents and find out there is a RMB option to do all of this all ready.
-ian reinhart geiser
Why do you think they use a slashed cigarette to say "no smoking"? They could just write "no smoking" but the slashed cigarette is better because anyone can understand.
Actually we use icons because 1) people want color pictures rather than dull text, and 2) they take up less space than text. Few if any (bar the absurd "no smoking" example) icons are easier to understand for a native speaker on first use. Even the printer icon takes longer to recognize than the word "print". A lot of people would dump an app without even trying it if it came up in grey/black with only text labels.
Do we really care what the press does?
Build an outstanding product and the press will seek out and interview
all those involved and bestow Kudus and monetary rewards.
BUT, we need an outstanding product first. KDE 2.2.2 is getting there,
KOffice is almost there. Konqueror is there but email addresses are cumbersome.
We need device driver support which beat M$. We need a good OCR, an AutoCAD equivalent, Thomas Brother map software support, etc...
Yes, we are involved. We are complaining and writing Nasty Grams to Thomas Bros and Intuit for selling software which will not run without IE. I refuse to buy any software which is dictated by greedy M$ crap or includes the stupid IE in CD-ROMs.
M$ is fighting for it's life by bribing and buying laws to benefit it's power. They don't read history and don't understand that freedom always wins in the long run.
"It's a great time to be alive"
Ed
Actually, I can imagine another way: Make Koffice available for Windows
as soon as it's out of its infancy. That will provide companies with a
free alternative without people having to learn a new desktop. That way
the hurdle to overcome will be lower. Once the office is ours, taking
over the desktop (including the underlying OS) will be much easier.
how about we become a good office package for linux instead of yet another office package for Winders...
reality people, noone can compete with M$ on thier own turf... no way no how... show me one company that has pushed M$ back... AOL is about it, but even they are running scared from the desktop. I think the Viso guys tried but M$ bought them and Quicken is doing everything M$ wants to keep Money from killing them...
Every product we have on Linux M$ cannot touch.
Every company that supports a product on Linux M$ cannot touch.
M$ will never write Linux software, they have tried and failed twice now. So if they want to compete they have to sell you the OS and the application. They all ready do, so really this is where the fight is.
IBM knows this, every system that is based on Linux and Apache M$ cannot compeate with them. The same will hold true for the desktop realm. I think we are ready to start offering real companies a toolkit to start developing Unix Desktop applications.
Fact if you go out and write something inovative for winders M$ will buy you or run you out of town. If you write it for Linux, they cannot touch you. So all you budding software companies out there take note and release your software on Linux.
-ian reinhart geiser
Hi,
There's another company that delivers a kick-ass programming tool: Borland has
released Kylix for a small year and I love that program. Okay it has some minor
bugs, because it is very young, but after a few iterations it will scream!
Borland has also given an 'Open Edition' for the community.
I now have two computers. On the first computer a copy of Kylix 1 Desktop is
installed and on the other Kylix 2 Open. Kylix 1 Desktop is a full-blown version
with full database support and Kylix Open Edition hasn't yet database support,
but this may change sooner or later. Kylix 2 Enterprise is able to create web
application or web servers. So this can be a reason to kick the ass of M$!!!
By the way Kylix is built on top of QT the same library on which KDE is built
and that is very interesting. You can read more information at:
http://www.borland.com/kylix
M$ is a machinery of disrespect, discrimination and selfishness (money's only the theme);
OpenSource is a society of Respect, Love 'n Understanding, working together for
a better world! (a better world is the theme)
Merry Christmas and a happy 2002!
Tom