"If you use a traditional desktop like GNOME or KDE, a keyboard-controlled desktop with a minimum of utilities may seem like stepping back 10 or 15 years in the history of interface design. Why bother, when traditional desktops are easy to use and RAM and disk space are so cheap nowadays?" On a related note, there is a new release of xmonad, a tiling window manager for X, written in Haskell. It now has full Xinerama and XRandR support, so you can add, remove, or rotate monitors on the fly.
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Member since:2006-10-08
'It seems to be more intuitive and easier than "go to the blue K with the mouse, left click, select this, go with the mouse to ..."'
You're mentioning an aspect that you usually encounter when you need to instruct somebody. Today's manuals are full of pictures (like the books children "read"), but often reality looks a bit different and people find it hard to recognize what to do.
Giving a list of commands is usually easier. Just say: "Enter this in a terminal window and it will do the job", instead of describing the "pictures" on the "TV" leading the individual step by step.
Even older individuals, such as my grandma, who used typewriters (I'm talking about the real ones!) for many years, seem to feel more comfortable with the keys because they know about their never changing location and are able to connect them (in mind) to certain actions, depending on possible shifting modes (Ctrl, Alt, Meta) or combinations (Compose).
As you might know from powerful X systems, the middle mouse button can be used to copy & paste commands from the mail client to the console window.
I had an issue with my uncle yesterday, I needed him to do "pciconf -lv | less", but he could not - under any circumstances - get the "|" sign. He missed the key where this character should be created with. So I was glad to tell him hitting the Scroll Lock key in order to see more of the diagnostic messages.
Keyboards rock! Sun Type 6 USB, IBM 1391403 and 1391865 here. :-)
They're not obsoleted by GUIs, no, they can make them more powerful. WindowMaker and .xmodmaprc are your friends.
Finally, I'd like to add a psychological aspekt: While using the mouse requires more attention (motoric control - very precise, depending on the mouse's quality -, sensomotoric control for the eyes and sensoric processing from the eyes), the use of the keyboard does not require that much (just motoric activation relying on learned motoric programs). You don't even need to look at the screen because you can be sure that the desired action (character occuring, dialog window opened, program closed etc.) has been done.
Edited 2007-06-01 21:49
Member since:
2006-05-09
Keyboard oriented desktop are a must for, by example, my parents... My mother is not happy using the mouse and with a keyboard oriented desktop, she could have a list like:
- Type S to open the shell
- Type konqueror to run the web browser
- Type F to select the address
- Type google to open the navigator
- Press "1" to go to the search zone
etc.
It seems to be more intuitive and easier than "go to the blue K with the mouse, left click, select this, go with the mouse to ..."