On Sat, Nov 16, 2013 at 11:17 PM, Mark S Bilk mark@cosmicpenguin.com wrote:
If that's the way windows looked in 1995 or 2005, that's fine. I want things to look just fancy enough to be effective and NO MORE.
Back in the ancient days of yore, when graphics cards didn't do their own processing and swap space was critically important to running more than one program at a time, the idea behind the GUI was to improve the user's access to the applications.
It is the applications that are important. Is my purpose to wander through the customization lists and options? Or is it to read my email, to use "The Tao Of Programming", in the way which astonishes least?
In my opinion the KDE team more than a decade ago found a good balance between bling and getting out of the way. In the years that have passed, the system resources required to run more and more bling have become trivial. Yet that balance exists not because of computing resources, but because the more bling there is, the more of my mind is taken up perceiving that bling, rather than doing what I am here to do.
I like KDE3/TDE because it doesn't distract or get in the way of perception and thinking. TDE should cater to people who _think_. That's what Unix/Linux is _for_. And KDE3/TDE may be the only DE left that does it.
Xfce is doing quite well in that regard. Yet there is something clunky about it. Trinity still feels like it "gets out of the way" better for me.
I run Xfce on two laptops for my kids, for disk space reasons. Using the Thunar file manager makes me long for the effectiveness of Konqueror.
I was reminded of this recently when I wanted to access files in a different machine, and simply typed "fish://server/" in Konqueror and it just worked. No games, no tweaks, no fiddles. Simple functionality.
I use all 20 desktops, named Mail, Music, Website, Ruby, etc.
Yet the first thing I do is turn off such "Workspaces". I learned UNIX with olvwm and multiple desktops, and it just doesn't fit how I use it today.
I do have multiple tabs open in Konsole, each with a different purpose, so maybe we're not quite so different after all. :^)
If that's true, then "improving"/"modernizing" its UI could actually result in a loss of users.
As the KDE team did when abandoning KDE3, for example? :^)
I apologize for my bluntness here. I don't mean to tread on anyone's toes. I'm 68 years old and don't have time anymore to sugar-coat things. Linux is a superb adjunct to the human mind. It's vital for that to continue.
Mark
My first Linux was Debian in 1995, I started using KDE in 2000. It does seem that the flash-bang-bling appeals to those who, politely put, have the time to waste on it.
Many thanks to Pearson and the TDE team for keeping alive this excellent balance between bling and simplicity. Time, I guess, to make another donation.
Curt-