default desktop layout

[Vincent]

On Sun, Oct 12, 2008 at 6:11 PM, Olivier Fourdan <fourdan at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> On Sun, Oct 12, 2008 at 4:38 PM, Muayyad AlSadi <alsadi at gmail.com> wrote:
> > someone suggested that I should post to the ML to discuss having my
> > layout to be the default layout of next release
> >
> > my suggestion is to take in consideration that xfce users
> > as they usually have less ram, less resolution because XFCE is light
> > yet feature full
> [...]
> > here is a screenshot of my desktop
> > http://img353.imageshack.us/my.php?image=xfce4layoutck3.png
>
> I am fine with such a layout (and I actually use a very simimal setup
> on my x61 from work which can only do 1024x768), but my main concern
> with it as a default is what does differentiate this from, let's say
> windows or kde defaults? (gnome uses two full width panels by default)
>
> So in other terms, I would not veto such a change, but I would not
> vote for it either. Defaults regarding look and fill are very
> sensitive, and everyone has an opinionm so let's see what others
> think.


IMHO the motivation behind a panel layout should not be "how does this
differentiate us?" It should be based off solid, objective arguments. For
example, the case behind GNOME's layout is that it allows you to put the
most important buttons in the window corners, which are the easiest places
to reach by mouse (i.e. just throw the cursor to the top right to hit that
corner) - e.g. the main menu, a logout button, the pager and the "Show
desktop" button. Of course, when it comes to this, Xfce's current setup
(which, IIRC, is a dock-like setup) is very suboptimal, but it might have
other objective arguments going for it - which I'd love to hear btw :)

As for those suggesting vertical panels, I'd like to note in advance that
this will prevent many websites from fitting horizontally in a window if
your screen resolution is not that high, and thus require horizontal
scrolling which is far less easy than vertical scrolling.

Thus, I'm arguing for a solid, argument-based discussion when it comes to
discussing panel layouts.

The advantages and disadvantages of setups as I know of now:

 = Two panels =
 + Makes optimal use of the screen corners.
 + Gives the task list enough space on resolutions that are not that wide.
 - Uses more vertical screen real estate.

 = One panel =
 + Saves screen real estate (given that the one panel is not that big like
it is with e.g. KDE) for resolutions that are not that high (which might
occur with the new netbooks which have enough horizontal space due to the
website problem I mentioned above, but are saving on vertical space).
 - Might cause clutter in the panels when too many items are added.

 = Vertical panel(s) =
 - Distorts websites
 - Makes the task list less easy to read

>
>
> Cheers,
> Olivier.


Cheers,

-- 
Vincent
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