[Trac #1053] OLPC needs a usable GUI (i.e. not Sugar)

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#1053: OLPC needs a usable GUI (i.e. not Sugar)
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 Reporter:  gnu     |        Owner:  jg       
     Type:  defect  |       Status:  new      
 Priority:  normal  |    Milestone:  Untriaged
Component:  distro  |   Resolution:           
 Keywords:          |  
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Comment (by marco):

 It's really unfair to make such a judgment without even try to make a
 distinction between implementation limitations and design issues. I'm
 going to try to extrapolate the few concrete points in your rant...

 > It's so simple that only a one-year-old can enjoy it

 What's the deal here? Does adults need or appreciate complex interfaces?
 If you are actually complaining about missing features, please be more
 concrete.

 > Build 303 requires the user to do a complicated undocumented dance
 before it will let them log in

 Don't blame the design people for it. Dan had to go ahead and implement
 "something" because he needed some features for the network infrastructure
 work. Even so, I think the solution on the short would be to just not
 *require* a picture. But at some point we need to figure out the real
 design for the intro screen and implement it.

 > But the deeper problem is that the Sugar team continues to invent such
 obstacles to intuitive use -- and considers them progress

 Now, you are really confusing me. First there is no closed Sugar team,
 everyone is welcome to join and contribute. Second, as far as I can tell
 everyone of the people currently involved has been aknowledging the issues
 when someone raised them. Can you point to a concrete case where this did
 not happen?

 > because the UI designers don't seem to know the difference between easy
 and hard, between intuitive and inscrutable

 You are assuming there is a closed group of designers working on Sugar.
 That's *not* the case, There are design meetings instead, run by a bunch
 of eterogenous people. Developers, visual designers, project managers.
 External ideas are always welcome.

 > Why does everybody just keep shrugging and apologizing for how rotten
 the UI is, without doing anything about it?

 I'm personally spending 16 hour per day, weekends included to do something
 about it. Unfortunately a lot of people prefer to shrug and rant rather
 than try to do something about it.

 > But once Sugar was implemented and we could use it

 Now you are confusing me again. What makes you think that sugar is
 implemented?. I suppose you took a look the HIG before going on with the
 rant... If not please do and notice how far Sugar is from being
 implemented.

 > Let's move to a window system where the objects on screen are responsive
 to the user.

 Please point out concrete cases where the objects are not responsive, post
 tickets, contribute patches etc.

 > Where you can run more than the twelve apostles that are lined up along
 the bottom of the screen.

 You are confusing implementation and design. The activities list on the
 frame is comparable to the launcher icons on the gnome panel for example.
 It will be still possible to launch every activity you install from the
 journal.

 > Where programs are programs, and none of them are jargon "activities"

 You guys are really scaring me here. I don't think we expose the term
 activity at all in the UI. Feel free to call them as you prefer.

 > OLPC should abandon Sugar and install a working Linux GUI.

 Heh, I wonder if you made an effort to be so not concrete? You are not
 even proposing what we should install...

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://dev.laptop.org/ticket/1053#comment:4>
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