Not being the kind of person who would buy a netbook, I hadn’t really paid much attention to Moblin, Intel & Novell’s new netbook-targetted, Linux based operating system. However, Matt Asay posted about it today and that got me looking at it, and I have to say I’m very impressed.
I love that they’ve tried to rethink the operating system interface from the ground up rather than just follow in the footsteps of previous efforts. One of the reasons desktop Linux distros have never made much of an impression on me is that I often just feel like I’m using a slightly more technically-oriented facsimile of Windows, which is ok but tends to be more demanding of my time; in comparison the Mac gives me a usability boost and saves me time over using Windows, as well as having a solid back-end, and that’s why I like it. People need a reason to use alternatives to Windows, and just reproducing the user experience isn’t enough. I had assumed that Moblin would be another ‘typical’ desktop Linux in the usual vein, but they’ve done something much more interesting; a completely new interface designed around common usage patterns.
I’m not sure how it would be to use (I’d need to actually play with one, and I don’t intend to buy a netbook any time soon), but it certainly looks good, and I completely applaud their initiative. It’s about time more people experimented with usability like this rather than unquestioningly sticking to boring old operating system interface ‘standards’.
May 23rd, 2009 at 6:30 pm
My apologize if my question offends you, but have you ever tried Compiz Fusion in linux?
IMHO, Compiz Fusion + KDE is a big boost in productivity. I get everything done in just seconds: from listening audio, playing a video, changing the volume (all with just one finger) to 2D image editing, web browsing, and 3D modelling. All in the same polyhedron, and you get everything organized automatically.
I recognize setting up Compinz-Fusion + KDE is not straighforward. CF has many plugins and keyboard shortcuts that have to be set up.
But once you get it, it rocks.
I ask you this because all my friends who are now on Mac OS X (and have also tried Linux and Windows) say the only thing they miss in Mac is Compiz Fusion.
What I like from both Mac and Linux is that they actually use the “Windows” key (also called the “Super” or “Start” key) for stuff other than popping a Start menu.
In linux, by pressing the Windows key in combination with other key you can control the whole system.
May 23rd, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Yeah, Compiz comes built-in to Ubuntu these days, but besides it being quite cool to look at, I didn’t really find it made much difference to usability. Maybe I just needed to configure it differently, I played with the plugins and key bindings and sort of had fun, but it didn’t really find much that made my life easier, just prettier. That was my problem with Vista; it looked nice, but usability is not just about good looks. Maybe there’s some key thing I’m missing about Compiz, which required more time investment to discover than I was willing to give it.
What I still hate about desktop Linux is the ridiculous Gnome / KDE application style split. It just leads to inconsistent looking applications, crazy stuff like inconsistent clipboard support and other little irritating things. I tried using applications from just one, but you always end up having to cross the divide. There are just lots of little things in desktop Linux that I find waste my time as a user (rather than a developer who likes to pick around), which is ultimately why I have little desire to use it. Great for servers though, where things are more standardised.
May 24th, 2009 at 2:10 am
Yes I agree.
Some key binding came better configured by default when I was a Beryl user.
As a matter of fact, after a fresh installation I admit I have to setup my own bindings and plugins, because I want it to look pretty, but making my life easier is more important.
Things I find usefull:
———————
When pressing F7 (no key binding by default) _all_ windows are organized in cascade. You can chose the one you want with the mouse. Very fast.
It’s not only usefull to chose windows, but also to watch everything that is happening on your computer
There is more than one Alt-Tab method and animation, I usually assign one animation to the Standard Alt-Tab to browse the windows in the current cube face, and when I want to browse all windows, I use Alt+Super+Tab, with a different animation to distinguish them.
Super+Mouse Wheel allows zooming (I use the HW-accelerated one, which supports fast BiCubic interpolation) Very handy when you can’t read something.
Alt+Mouse Wheel changes the window’s alpha blending (I think this one is on by default). I can quickly see what a hidden window has.
Super+M inverts the colours from the window. Again very usefull when you can’t read something.
Alt+Left mouse click (this is not exclusive to CF) moves the window. And Alt+Right Click shows the window’s menu. You can very quickly organize the windows into the different cube faces to your own way with this.
Moving the mouse to the upper-left corner zooms out so I can see all faces at a glance, and select one.
Ctrl+Alt+Up/Left/Right (I think this one is on by default) allows to move between each face of the cube _very_ quickly. I use this one a lot.
Again, most of this has to be set up manually, the default settings are sort of… useless. There are more settings, but these cover the most usefull IMO.
About the Gnome/KDE split up, I used to believe it was a good thing. You can choose what you like. But lately this split up seems to have more drawbacks than benefits.
Fortunately I’m happy with KDE, and Gnome applications still work on KDE.
What do I hate, is that Gnome/GTK applications work much better (and mainly, faster) in Gnome, and KDE/Qt-based apps work much faster in KDE.
To avoid the inconsisten clipboard in KDE, launch Klipper. That will fix it.
One little fact: Taking the most out of a linux desktop requieres time. I learned it when I was at school (which equals lots of free time). But a fine tuned linux desktop can be very satisfying.
I have tried that on some home desktops (mainly because they did everything in their power to infect their Windows pc) and to my astonishment, I receive good feedback (from people that were close to not knowing how to turn on the pc, literally).
The big disadvantage is that those persons don’t have the technical skills to install it, but once installed, they won’t even requiere to call service.
And this is were Mac OS X wins. Mac is always end-user friendly, or it cames already pre installed. The preinstalled linux versions I’ve seen suck
May 24th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
I discovered a few of those – I liked the similarities with Exposé on the Mac. One thing I really dislike on Vista is what they did to the task switching; they made it ‘look pretty’ with either the flat window previews or ‘Flip3D’, but in both cases the images are almost completely useless if most of your windows involve text on a white background (which mine do – OpenOffice, Visual Studio, Notepad++ etc). The images become useless because you just squint at them trying to figure out if that’s OO or Notepad – only the text is useful. On the Mac, I like the separate ability to switch between applications (main vis is their logos, which is instantly recognisable) and documents within those applications, in practice that’s much more useful. And Exposé (either across all apps or within a single app) is useful because you can identify the windows by position, which is consistent between times that you do it, not just a horizontal list of blurry images like on Vista. Compiz did that ‘positional switching’ too which was good.
Windows 7 seems to copy yet more things from the Mac (the task bar, and a version of Exposé now) so that’ll be an improvement.