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.
Thread beginning with comment 286876
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Member since:2005-06-29
In a nutshell, you will like CDE if and only if you have no aesthetic criteria at all & are colorblind. Otherwise, stay away.
Like I clearly said in the article, if all you care about is looks, then CDE simply isn't for you.
I see CDE as the skeletal structure of what a desktop environment should be: they got the behaviour right, the consistency, the usability ideas. All it needs is a massive make-over - which ain't gonna happen as long as it remains proprietary.
Member since:2005-11-02
I see CDE as the skeletal structure of what a desktop environment should be: they got the behaviour right, the consistency, the usability ideas. All it needs is a massive make-over - which ain't gonna happen as long as it remains proprietary.
A GTK2 fork of XFce 3 would go a long way.
Back about four years ago I had XFce 3 as my primary desktop I loved it. XFce 4 lost that CDE feel and behaved differently. So I went back to GNOME. Initially I kept using XFWM and the XFCE session manager together with the GNOME panel and Rox as my file manager and to manage the desktop. With a faster system I simply went back to a default GNOME.
Member since:2005-08-09
Please, Thom. The looks are neither ALL nor the most important thing I care about. All I am saying that what you call "looks" in the case of CDE is a major obstacle in the way of usability - both ergonomics- and productivity-wise. I spent two years of my working life at that thing, for God's sake - how much have you spent? You obviously find it fun to philosophize about conceptual matters in usability, because it seems that you do not have to do much real work on a daily basis. Many common tasks that are easy in KDE or GNOME (and were already easy back then) are either a pain or downright impossible in CDE. Consistency? Hello? How many third party applications have you tried to run? (Yeah, sure , it is their fault.) So, yeah, go on and extol its conceptual correctness and purity. People with work to do, as I said, stay away.
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 14:44 UTC
"Sources have described iOS 7 as 'black, white, and flat all over'. This refers to the dropping of heavy textures and the addition of several new black and white user interface elements." I couldn't be happier.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 23:22 UTC
"Ilja van Sprundel, a security researcher with IOActive, has discovered a large number of issues in the way various X client libraries handle the responses they receive from servers, and has worked with X.Org's security team to analyze, confirm, and fix these issues."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 22:04 UTC
"Google is facing a new antitrust probe by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission into whether the company is using its leadership in the online display-advertising market to illegally curb competition, people familiar with the matter said." Sucks to be Google today, apparently.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 22:01 UTC
"In the midst of the major press blitz surrounding its annual I/O Conference, Google dropped some unfortunate news about its instant messaging plans. In several places around the web, the company is replacing the existing 'Talk' platform with a new one called 'Hangouts' that sharply diminishes support for the open messaging protocol known as XMPP (or sometimes informally Jabber), and also removes the option to disable the archiving of all chat communications. These changes represent a switch from open protocols to proprietary ones, and a clear step backward for many users." That's why I always say: only suckers trust companies.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 17:52 UTC
"The wave of departures is a sign of internal struggle, but amidst all the bad news, there is a glimmer of hope. According to an anonymous HTC executive cited by WSJ, the crucial HTC One is selling 'pretty good so far'. The executive revealed that HTC sold about five million One units since launch, a performance that is deemed encouraging. However, sales have been limited by the persisting supply issues that still plague the production of the HTC One." Finally some good news for HTC. Five million units amidst supply constraints is very impressive.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/22/13 22:23 UTC
"Sony gave the PS4 50% more raw shader performance, plain and simple (768 SPs @ 800MHz vs. 1152 SPs & 800MHz). Unlike last generation, you don't need to be some sort of Jedi to extract the PS4's potential here. The Xbox One and PS4 architectures are quite similar, Sony just has more hardware under the hood. Weâll have to wait and see how this hardware delta gets exposed in games over time, but the gap is definitely there. The funny thing about game consoles is that itâs usually the lowest common denominator that determines the bulk of the experience across all platforms. On the plus side, the Xbox One should enjoy better power/thermal characteristics compared to the PlayStation 4. Even compared to the Xbox 360 we should see improvement in many use cases thanks to modern power management techniques." AnandTech does its usual in-depth thing.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/22/13 13:38 UTC
"The Verge has learned that HTC's Chief Product Officer, Kouji Kodera, left the company last week. Kodera was responsible for HTC's overall product strategy, which makes the departure especially notable on the heels of the global launch of the make-or-break One. It's not just Kodera. In the past three-odd months, HTC has lost a number of employees in rapid succession." I really hope HTC pulls it together.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/22/13 13:30 UTC, submitted by JRepin
"It is with huge pleasure that the Debian GNU/Hurd team announces the release of Debian GNU/Hurd 2013. This is a snapshot of Debian 'sid' at the time of the Debian 'wheezy' release (May 2013), so it is mostly based on the same sources. It is not an official Debian release, but it is an official Debian GNU/Hurd port release." Important note: 75% of Debian packages are supported bu Debian GNU/Hurd. Impressive.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 22:06 UTC
"The first killer app was VisiCalc. This early spreadsheet turned the Apple II from a hobbyist toy to a business computer. VisiCalc came with room for improvement, though. In addition, a new architecture and operating system, the Intel-based IBM PC and MS-DOS, also needed a spreadsheet to be taken seriously. That spreadsheet, released in early 1983, would be Lotus 1-2-3, and it would change the world. It became the PC's killer app, and the world would never be the same. On May 14, IBM quietly announced the end of the road for 1-2-3, along with Lotus Organizer and the Lotus SmartSuite office suite. Lotus 1-2-3's day is done." Impressive 30 year run.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 21:45 UTC
"There's a disconnect between how Apple CEO Tim Cook sees his company's tax strategies and how some members of the US Senate view it. That became clearer than ever today after Cook and two other Apple executives testified before Congress, explaining why they're holding most of their international income in Irish subsidiaries like Apple Operations International, which declare no tax residency anywhere in the world. AOI hasn't filed a tax return anywhere in the world for the last five years, yet it earned $30 billion in income from 2009 to 2012, according to a Senate report released yesterday." Just because something is legal, doesn't mean it's just. Apple, Google, Microsoft, and many more - these companies might not be breaking any laws, but it's obvious to anyone that what they are doing is scummy.More News »
Sponsored Links
Member since:
2005-08-09
CDE was the default and only desktop environment on the workstation I worked on from 2000-2001 (Compaq Alpha running Tru64 UNIX). It was by far the ugliest and clunkiest desktop environment I have ever seen - even some 8-bit DEs looked more polished. It was a pain to configure properly - especially the color scheme for the desktop - and all offered preset combinations looked washed-out and repulsive. The fonts were absolutely horrible (and I am NOT talking about the lack of antialiasing, just plain letter shapes). GUI tools were slow and clunky. It was such a repulsive environment that I preferred to do most of my work on a cheapo laptop running RedHat 6.* and KDE. Towards the end of 2001 KDE2.0 binaries for Tru64 became available, and I immediately installed it on the workstation - a HUGE improvement in usability and aesthetics, although still uglier than the same version of KDE onn Linux.
In a nutshell, you will like CDE if and only if you have no aesthetic criteria at all & are colorblind. Otherwise, stay away.