Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sun 25th Nov 2007 23:05 UTC
This is the seventh article in a series on common usability and graphical user interface related terms [part I | part II | part III | part IV | part V | part VI]. On the internet, and especially in forum discussions like we all have here on OSNews, it is almost certain that in any given discussion, someone will most likely bring up usability and GUI related terms - things like spatial memory, widgets, consistency, Fitts' Law, and more. The aim of this series is to explain these terms, learn something about their origins, and finally rate their importance in the field of usability and (graphical) user interface design. In part VII, as promised in part VI, we focus completely on CDE, the Common Desktop Environment.
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Member since:
2006-10-08
"The front panel is my biggest gripe. You can move it and minimize it but not resize it. Aggravating."
Because there is no imaginable need to resize it, there is no way to resize it. The panel resizes automatically if you place more icons into it or remove icons.
"Plus being able to use jpegs or pngs as backdrops instead of xpms would go a long way to (yes you can get around this, but it would be better built in)."
XFCE 3 is what you're describing. I've installed it on some slower boxes (300 MHz Intel) for users who were familiar and comfortable with CDE, and they liked it. XFCE 3 looks much like CDE and can be combined with CDE color schemes and focus behaviour. Plus, it lets you use JPG and PNG images as backdrops.