Opensuse Revolution: Design Ideas for the SUSE/KDE Desktop

Two More Wallpapers

2012-01-21T12:31:00.002-07:00

I worked on these two wallpapers along with another friend who does photography and Camy. If you want to check out my friend's pictures, feel free to drop in here.

Enjoy my friends :D

SOPA/PIPA Blackout!

2012-01-17T22:29:00.002-07:00

It is time again that this question of cernsorship is revisited by the Internet. It has been a long battle between the MPAA and the Internet and it feels as if this time the Internet has taken the lead as a moving force for change.

I would like to adhere my opinion to that of many about the over-the-limit idea that SOPA and PIPA propose to the American Congress. The Internet is a copy-based environment. Every use of video, images or sounds represent the creation of a new copy for the personal use of an Internet user. However, the problem lies in the usage of such material. MPAA still seems to be in the past where the control over creative material was simple. It was either printed or placed on a physical medium for others to use. MPAA does not understand the world we live in. They simply want to maximize return on investment. They would also like to police people like you and me for having access to copyrighted material. This is wrong and it goes against all ethical views on free speech. The Internet is public domain. If the MPAA does not want to have their copyrighted material be used in different ways, they ought no to use the Internet as a medium of advertisement, see how far that goes before artists, creators, and businesses start plummeting in their profits. We are not China, we do not have a private network controlled, not even by government, but by a for-profit entity. It is the height of an old-fashioned system.

So, as a means of protest, I will add my blog to the blackout of Wednesday 18, 2012.

This is what happens when corporations impose on people's creativity.

New Green Wallpaper

2012-01-10T21:22:00.001-07:00

Here is another green wallpaper I created trying to work with noise and emboss effects and a few others. I will create a zip file with a few additional resolutions. Enjoy friends :D

Thanks!

Link to additional resolutions here!

2012-01-08T13:46:00.002-07:00

Yast Graphical Installation GUI Revision

There are some graphical inconsistencies in the Yast installation program as written by
openSUSE programmers. Currently, these inconsistencies are easy to work out if one
only limits himself to work with the graphical user interface.
This report intends to show some of these graphical user interface inconsistencies as
well as to show some possible improvements. Additionally, the report will attempt to
show other GUI options to what Yast currently does with it’s installation method.
There are a few ways that an openSUSE installation is accomplished. They all
eventually rely on the use of Graphical Yast to be installed. For this particular analysis
the report will use a downloaded ISO image of openSUSE 12.1 with a typical KDE as
the window manager.

Please bear in mind that this is a critical GUI analysis of Yast. The contents of this article may only be treated that way and in no wise as an attack to the wonderful contributors who have created the powerful tool Yast.

The first step is to locate the “Install” icon on the desktop of the live CD image. The icon is descriptive of its function. To copy the contents of the CD into the computer as represented by the back screen. However, there could be a different conception of its function because of the differences in screen design by the icon just next of the Install icon. It reads “My Computer” and the screen is radically different from the one with the installation icon.
There is an inconsistency with screen design. There should be a decision taken to determine which screen design will be the default for our icons on the shipped distribution.

Next in this process is a packed set of options that deal with language and a license
agreement for the product. Additionally, this next screen shows a selection of
translations in different languages in case a user would like to read the license in a
different language, other than the default. Areas of improvement on this screen
would be the separation of this license screen from the language choices. The
openSUSE license agreement and the language settings are important enough that it
could be daunting trying to work out these two on the same screen. Another idea
would be to have a keyboard layout tester module added to the keyboard screen.
That way, users can determine if the keyboard layout of choice actually corresponds
to their keyboard and the layout that they expect. It is also noticeable that while the
fields of the top where layout and keyboard are selected have icons preceding them.
A trend that is not uniform throughout the installation screens. The majority of
drop-down menus do not have icons preceding them. There needs to be a decision
as to keep or delete these icons.

Next is the selection of time and date. It seems appropriate to have the clock and the
zone time settings on the same screen. There could be changes made to the map and
the way the mouse pointer actually locates the cities to which the time zone is
selected. There are currently very small dots that represent the city for a particular
time zone. The map can be made different by simply selecting a better contrasted
map image with only time zones for selection rather than a myriad of small dots. There
is also a discrepancy about the clock settings. While the tittle of the page reads “Clock
and Time Zone” the organization of the screen is rather “Time Zone and Clock” since
the map image, the region selection, and the time zone selection occupy the whole
screen, leaving the “Clock” settings at the very bottom right with a button that only
says “Change” for a hint as to what to do with the clock itself.

If the "Change" button is clicked. This next screen appears. There is ample spaces
where the clock can be changed to set the appropriate time and additionally, the user
has the ability to synchronize the time with a web server.
There are a couple of settings here that may seem daunting to new users. The prior
naming of "UTC" and in the clock screen "NTP" server have no hints as to what they
entail. Synchronizing with an NTP server may be simple but the settings shown here
do not recognize that learning curve. They simply show the user all of the possibilities
for configuring the time from a web server. I would suggest placing these settings
under an "Advanced" button. Then change the NTP tag line to something more
welcoming, such as "Synchronize your time with a web server." Then choose yes or no.
Further configuration can be done once the system is installed. Also recognize the
time format depending on the area one has chosen.

The following screen requests users to choose their favorite partition method. Again,
there are lines and phrases that may seem hard to understand for most adopters but
there is yet to exist a simple method of explaining partitioning to people. By default
openSUSE will create 3 partitions, one for root, one for home, and one for swap (if
necessary). This means that the user will have to determine how to work out these
partitions from that perspective, yet there are no indications about this process on
this screen.
The top screen shows a summary of the default settings that will be used for the
partitions that openSUSE requires. The second part asks users to choose a "Proposal
Setting" that will enable an LVM-based proposal, Separate Home Partition, or use the
new BTRFS as a default file system. All of which that belong to an "Advanced Setting"
rather than a default. Other "Advanced Settings" are the ones represented by the
buttons below. Users can "Create a Partition Setup," "Import Partition Setup," or "Edit
Partition Setup." All of which may be redundant since the screen that will appear for
the three options is the same partition table for experts that will be shown next.
Maybe the most prevalent button here is the "Edit Partition Table" since the changes
of any kind to the disk will be an edit of it.

On this screen is probably the best opportunity to make a difference with the
"Advanced Settings" button and a good read as part of the help. There are many
options here that the majority of users will not ever touch, yet they are very present
on this screen giving, probably, too many options to choose from. Work could be done
in developing an interface that has well-set defaults and buttons that can choose
them. Additionally, the disks names and tags can be made more descriptive. /dev?sda,
RAID, Volume Management, etc. Seem to belong to a different kind of installation.
Maybe an early suggestion of "Server" and "Desktop" installation could do the trick.
Users installing a "Server" openSUSE would understand the most of these advanced
options. Whereas, "Desktop" users might just need configuring simple partitions
without the rest of these options.
Suggestions: Create early option of Installing as "Server," "Desktop," "Novice," or
"Advanced" user.

The "Create New User" screen is simple and direct. It has options that determine how
a user will login to his newly installed openSUSE. Only a couple of things here can be
done to improve directness. Use and "Advanced Settings" button in order to move the
summary to an advanced setting. Also, the different underlining of the buttons
throughout the installation are to be key presses. They add visual clutter to the
reading of the text. Making these optional at the beginning of the installation is an
option, or simply doing away with it is a recommendable default setting.

One the "Change" button is clicked on the summary this screen appears. The title
changed to "Expert Settings" and the authentication methods and the encryption
method is also shown here.
Suggestion: Revise all of the "Change" buttons throughout the installation and use
more descriptive names. Also, correlate screen names to a standard making "Expert
Settings," "Advanced Settings," etc all be the same.

The installation process then asks for yor confirmation to your current password.
Hinting at the possibility that your current password is unsecured. It only says that you
have "lowercase letters" for the password but it does not suggest appropriate
changes to it.
Suggestions: Make suggestions for passwords. Also add a password generator button
for easy password creation.

This screen shows a summary of the different settings that the user has chosen for his/
her system. Again the disply resembles a note taking organization with green links as
their headers. This summary deviates from the look of other summaries that present
the text and colors of the screen and use a "Change" button in order to modify the
settings. Likely this makes users pay more attention to the screen but it also deviates
from the work flow which could be hard to understand for new users. Again, a
mismatch in design preferences and guidelines.

A last confirmation screen asks the user to confirm his settings and "Install" the
system. The tittle "Confirm Installation" is highlighted in light blue giving it more
importance to the message that follows. The color is again different than most of the
highlight colors in the installation process. While green seems to be the color of
choice, this confirmation uses light blue.

The installation screen shows two progress bars for the installation of the system. The
top one is for one-by-one installation and the bottom one shows the overall
installation progress. Moreover, the top section of this screen shows the output of
each of the processes of the installation. Likely this is something that only some will
find of interest whereas the majority will only worry about the bottom progress bar
showing the overall installation progress.
Suggestion: Make actions performed and top progress bar an "Advanced View Mode"
for experts. Eliminate visual clutter.

Once the installation process is over this screen will ask users to reboot the system
without the Live CD. A question that I have asked myself about this screen is why do
we need an "Abort" button. The installation process is now over, the files have actually
been written on the disk and there is no real turning back, unless the user actually
wants to reinstall the system. Maybe this option could be removed since it may give
the impression that you can actually revert all of the changes made. If a user installs
the system and they replaced a different OS with openSUSE, clicking "Abort" will not
bring back the former OS.

Once back from the reboot, this screen appears to configure what is left from the
installation process. It will also ready for the first window manager launch.

Please post your suggestions in the comments section.

openSUSE 12.2 Wallpaper - Linux For Open Minds

2011-12-28T19:03:00.002-07:00

Here is another wallpaper that I just finished working on. I hope you like it.

The Ultimate Pet

2011-12-24T09:17:00.003-07:00

You may think that I am the nerdiest person on the earth but I am very happy to introduce to you my newest pet: a Chameleon. Yes, I was inspired to have this pet because of openSUSE and I am sure that the chameleon will do for a lot of good artwork to come. Say hi!

I do not have a name for my new pet yet, please send me some suggestions.

Additionally, we just launched out openSUSE 12.2 Wallpaper submission. Please be sure to show us your artwork and put it on the race to be the next openSUSE default wallpaper. Simply go to

en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Wallpapers

and sumbit your artwork :D

Thanks

New Lotus Flower Wallpapers

2011-12-18T21:30:00.003-07:00

With the help of Youtube I put together these lotus flowers, then I put white paper over my dinner table and waited for the right light of the day. After that I tried a lot of different arrangements until I got to this. I tweaked the colors and all with GIMP and added a couple of cool typography fonts to make it better. I like it. I added extra blur so that it feels distant making the desktop feel fresh and open. Check it out. What do you think?

Swirl Wallpaper Dark Version

2011-12-13T22:03:00.000-07:00

Here is an idea for a dark version of the posting I made yesterday.

Enjoy

Another Wallpaper Idea

2011-12-12T21:06:00.001-07:00

Hey my friends. Great to see you all around using openSUSE 12.1 :) I was just thinking out loud this evening and created a wallpaper, rather designed a concept wallpaper, that I would like to share with all of you. Sorry for the delay in the posts. I have been soooo busy. The artwork team for openSUSE is working great. So, they're keeping me busy.

Enjoy!

Brainshare!

2011-10-11T12:01:00.000-06:00

This week I will be blogging from Brainshare 2011. I am part of the "Meet the Geeks" booth, so if you're around, come say hi. The idea behind all this is to make sure that the attendees are able to get a closer look at what the community is doing and how that helps. There is a lot of people here as well as a lot of food. Gotta say that I have to put on some pounds.
I think this is also a very good time to show a little of what I do, and with so much time in my hands, I should dedicate myself to do some reviewing and prototyping. M

Additional Wallpapers

2011-10-01T10:14:00.003-06:00

Here are two more versions that I created upon request. I created the light versions for openSUSE.

2011-09-27T15:29:00.001-06:00

I created a dark version for my wallpaper. I also corrected some of the edge problems that I was seeing. I also changed the openSUSE title to the right font. However, I think it should be a little different, maybe the title should be inset or something of the sort. Comments please.

2011-09-06T12:50:00.001-06:00

Just a little wallpaper that I have been doing recently. Work in progress. You be the judge :D

Who Am I and What I Do

2011-07-19T10:03:00.000-06:00

Hey readers.

It has come to my attention recently, posts the seem to bring up a rebuttal of the things that I blog about. The openSUSE Revolution blog is mostly about brainstorming design concepts that can make the openSUSE/KDE desktop work in ways that have not been thought of before. Through this effort, I generally intend to create debate and outside-the-box thinking so that eventually, these ideas come to fruition in one way or another. I have also stated clearly through this blog that I am not a programmer, therefore I know little about the ideas that circle the minds of those who make openSUSE or KDE a reality. I generally rely on their intellect to solve simple design problems on their software.

I hope always that my comments are not take offensively or personally. My intention in blogging about problems that I find with the design of an application or widget, generally come from the world of the unknown. I am a newcomer when it comes to technology therefore, my comments and experiences with the openSUSE or KDE software come from the world of an average user exposed to these technologies. Annoyances and problems that I face might also be problems and annoyances that people who are trying to give Linux a shot experience as well. Moreover, this could be a learning experience for those who code on these pieces of software. To become too personal about your coding for an application that will become widely distributed is not feasible.

It is part of the creation process to think of who is the intended audience that will receive your software. If you think that you should not write something too simple for the idiots like me out there, then think again, because we are many. Simply explained, there needs to be a balance between what we want to do with our personal time and programming as well as who will end up with our software. That is also why openSUSE has an excellent team of artwork creators and brainstormers.

Please, I beg from you readers, take my posts in the light of my understanding. Meaning, that they come from someone who understands little about technology. Once you read the post, please do not simply think "Well, he just doesn't understand how it works" but rather "What can I do to improve my software design so that even Anditosan gets it." Much better right?

Thank you for staying faithful to the blog, plus I am currently working on a concept for a social widget, so stay tuned.

Custom Setups for Revolutionized Desktop

2011-06-20T09:08:00.009-06:00

Ok my friends. Here is the thing: An idea came up recently in the artwork mailing list to make openSUSE a little different than other times in the graphical aspect. The idea would be to add different default plasma widgets, as well as to make subtle changes to the panels. A friend also suggested that it would be cool to create a more socially integrated widget. I thought of one that was included in the Kickoff menu. Added to one of the tabs in there, there could exist a simple update tracker for different social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, or Google Blogs. Whatever the service that may be, it doesn't matter. The main idea is to add something social to the default desktop in KDE under the new release of openSUSE.

As I was brainstorming on this, I tried to create at least 4 different setups. I went then, to Cacoo to create some simple mockups and ended up with one that I am trying to get a feel for from you. Down below would be a simple menu setup and default widgets for the openSUSE KDE desktop. Take a look:

1, Minimal, Folder View, RSS (Small), Desktop Switching
2, Minimal 2, Folder View, Weather, Desktop Switching
3, Featured, RSS, Folder View, Top Panel, Weather, Desktop Switching
4, Fully Featured, Facebook, twitter, Folder View (minimal) Weather, Desktop Switching, Dock

As I worked on Cacoo for the mockup, I realized that it can be shared with other people who can also edit the mockup. I am now inviting you to tweak (or create a new one) the panel I came up with. My main idea behind this is to create something powerful yet simple enough that can make sure that you focus on your applications. You can edit this mockup as much as you want, but please keep the original as a guide.

Here is the link to make edits:

https://cacoo.com/diagrams/Qwmnz9CqLnrTya2r

To All

2011-06-19T19:00:00.000-06:00

Some may wander what I have been up to these days. I am eager to let you know of a few ideas that I have come up with that can enhance the openSUSE experience, at least, from a design point of view. However, I have a new job and my time to post things on this blog has lessened. This lack of time will only last until the fall though :D

Please, be patient for the next series of articles. I will mostly be discussing Yast and its design enhancements. Yast is single-handedly, the most important and characteristic element in openSUSE. I love it.

Nevertheless, Yast has fallen behind on design. The program is powerful and versatile. But there could be some improvements made in organization and space-use customization.

Stay tuned my friends. In the mean time, I am always happy to hear from you, so please write me to

anditosan1000@gmail.com

Maybe you have created more awesome ideas that deserve a spotlight or growth, so please write me :D

How do we make a stand? Revolution

2011-04-13T11:54:00.000-06:00

This post is not intended to represent complete ideas or possible solutions. It is rather a post relating to the thoughts that I have had concerning the upcoming changes in Gnome 3, Ubuntu Unity and KDE 4.6.

Drawing away from the technicalities of these programs, it would seem useful to identify openSUSE's stand in this wide variety of environments. I was happily surprised that Gnome 3 was released, even before a fomer release date. But this has not come without controversy. The fact that Ubuntu is not including Gnome 3 by default with it's newest release has made some take the fork in the road and add support for it. Other Gnome 3 enthusiasts might feel lonely now that Ubuntu decided to go with the Unity interface. Then we find KDE still going strong with updates and new features for version 4. However, it may seem rather obvious that computer graphical environments are taking a turn. They are becoming different, new, and updated. Ideas about the desktop that we have had for a couple of decades are now changing, greatly propelled by the appearances of touch devices.

Touch devices have a flair to them that one cannot dismiss. The interfaces used for them tend to be very simple, app based, internet connected, and are beautifully animated. The part that I like the most about these interfaces is simplicity. They understand that their device will be in the hand of a wide variety of human beings. All of them with different understanding of the computing world. Therefore, they try to make the learning curve for these devices a smooth as they can. Obviously, this does not benefit everyone, as there are people who would prefer having maximum control from their interaction with the device. For that, I have seen many of these devices be patched in a way, that they allow advanced interaction with the device. In a way, the touch-enabled device has a default (simple) and an advanced (patched) mode.

These devices are becoming part of our lives, they are highly mobile, durable and connected with the user's life through the internet. However, these devices are coming at odds with traditional desktop computers and their operating systems. Even Apple recognized the power of a touch based interface and some of the ideas they produced for their phones and tablets have now been transported into their latest OSX version, Lion. Then also, open source projects such as Gnome and KDE saw the expansion that they were able to achieve through touch enabled devices and lower end netbooks. For that KDE created the netbook interface which looks beautiful. Gnome was the only one lagging behind a little and pushed for a different interface that resembles much of what is seen today in touch enabled devices. The same goes for Unity from Ubuntu.

All of them are trying to target a market where instinct is the primary teacher of the interface and not technical knowledge. Why? I believe it is because we are recognizing that open source products are becoming ever more accessible to the average user, we recognize that not everyone is at a developer level of computer understanding, and that there are infinite possibilities for even further expansion as all sorts of people use this software.

This is where openSUSE has a window to be different. Can openSUSE be, in a way, like Ubuntu in designing a whole new interface for it's desktop computer? Are we at the level that recognizes the reach a Linux distribution can have with a wide audience? Ubuntu decided to step up to the challenge of placing their product in the hands of the masses, for that they decided to change their UI to meet the standards of the mass. They use part of the Gnome libraries and yet they have decided to be and look different. They are trying to brand themselves through their OS image. My question would be, can openSUSE be this way? openSUSE needs to be part of our everyday life, it s a quality product with a bright future but a blurry face. Why? because we accept defaults from KDE and Gnome, and there could be hundreds of Linux distributions that look like us. Where are we? are we branding ourselves in a way that we stand out and reach out to more and more people?

I would agree that to these thoughts there is no definitive answer. Neither from my end, as I review the graphical properties of openSUSE, or the developer end. If you feel enticed to leave further comments about this thoughts, please feel free to do so.

Thanks gang

YAST Revolution - Concepts for a simple version of Yast

2011-04-04T09:43:00.001-06:00

In these series of revisions on Yast, I have decided to start first with the semantics of Yast. One thing that sticks out to me is how little there is about what Yast tells users its elements do. I am not saying this is wrong. Users who know and understand how to configure advanced elements in openSUSE will find Yast quite simple and full-featured.

Categories in Yast

Currently look like

Descriptions in Yast have little space to be placed and Yast focuses on its power and configuration skills. For example, when taking a look into the current modules of Yast, I found that descriptions only appear in the general sections under the icon and name of such module. Also, only some modules include a description on the left-hand side about what the module does.

Pics

Then, if I want to create a novice-friendly configuration tool from Yast. The best would be to decide what features are easier for a new user to figure out and which ones can be reserved for an "Advanced Mode."

Settings for the Novice: Yast Revolutionized

2011-03-24T10:44:00.001-06:00

Connect to the Internet in More Than 10 Clicks (BUG)

2011-03-21T18:51:00.002-06:00

(As requested by my audience, I wish to make a distinction in pointing out that my post is mistaken in thinking that the described features of KDE are a default. They are, contrarily, a BUG with my own installation. Nevertheless, I will hold the secondary method of connecting to the internet as something that can be revised and improved.)

As KDE worked on the new Network Manager for version 4, they decided to make the interface more powerful and through the use of the network manager widget, more accessible to users. The interface is indeed powerful and full of features aimed at working out every corner of customization on a given network. Wireless or wired network, they both have their particulars when it comes to connecting to the internet.

However, seeing at different operating systems, KDE's network connection manager seems cumbersome and hard to work with. Nevertheless, the disappointment comes from the first run of this software, not from the daily usage of it. Once everything is set up correctly, network manager will not even ask you to connect to the internet. It will do it automatically. Automatization however, comes at a cost of more than 10 clicks and a little extra knowledge about the particular network you are trying to access.

I really like the way that Mac OSX does it. They have an icon sitting in the system tray, as you click it, a drop down menu displays all the available networks. Users select one and you would be connected to it after typing a password if necessary. The next time you are around such network, Mac OSX will connect to it automatically unless you decided to run on a different network.

Another method out there is very similar to what Mac does. Ubuntu tries to connect to the internet in a simlar way. They also feature a network icon in the system tray. If you click on it, you get a drop down menu with available networks as well. Selecting and entering a password are very much the same as in Mac, except Ubuntu (and KDE) have an added feature of password protection through Gnome's Keyring and KDE's KDE Wallet.

During the first time that a user selects a network that is password protected, he is asked to create an extra password to store the password just entered into the wireless network setup. At first, this was very confusing to me, I didn't know if my password for the keyring or wallet had to be my root password, or a different password. I also ran into the mistake to placing the wireless network password into the keyring, thinking that it was the password for the wireless network being requested. Obviously, this can be solved by being smarter ;) But it does show that there is a learning curve that is not so smooth when working with networks. I think people who are trying to connect to the internet on a Mac also run into confusion as well. An icon sitting at the top bar that does not connect to the internet unless you click on it also represents a learning curve but one that takes less time and effort to do what we do most on a computer, browse the internet. Mac does not have a keyring or wallet that pops up upon login when you are trying to connect to a specific network. I believe these settings could change to make it easier on users to connect. If security seems to be an issue, probably Linux can get by easily with it. openSUSE could also benefit from a more seamless connection to networks by simplifying the process, it would stand out as the distribution with the easiest connection learning curve.

This is what one currently sees as you try to connect to the internet under KDE 4.6

You connect not by clicking on an available network, you do it by clicking network manager.

Then you are presented with a screen that contains the first network setup designed for wired networks. However, in my case, I need to add a wireless network, so I click on the second tab.

After that, if this is the first time, then I do not see any available networks. I need to click on add.

A rather complicated form shows up in which a tiny button called "scan" will eventually show me how to find the wireless network I want to connect to.

Once clicked, I am greeted with a very tiny window that shows all available wireless networks around me. If you are in the place where I am, it is really hard to see where I am to click. Instead I choose "Details" which organizes the view in a list.

I select the one I am to connect to and hit OK.

Later, to finish the process, I need to hit OK a couple of times and then I get back to the desktop. But I am not connected yet. I need to go back to the Wireless icon on the system tray and now I am able to see the new connection I added through the prior steps. Once I click on it, the setup will finally end by connecting to the wireless network.

I think this is really too long. It could be made short and there are plenty of good options out there that have simplified this process. openSUSE will benefit from a simpler way to connect to the internet if they choose to create a more simple method. My idea would be to simply show a drop down menu with the available networks, select, enter password and connect. If a keyring or wallet is necessary, allow this services to unlock passwords at system startup without having to enter it everytime.

By the way, this is the way I have my current KDE 4.6 with openSUSE 11.4. I am liking it so far.

openSUSE Release Party - Provo, UT

2011-03-18T09:05:00.000-06:00

The openSUSE release party was a lot of fun and I was very happy to be there one more time. The Novell facility in Provo, UT is pretty big and had plenty of room to accommodate the few of us that attended. I met a few personalities as well, most of them participants of the SLED version of openSUSE sponsored by Novell. I also had the chance to talk to some of the guys there about what they did as part of the project and felt like my contributions to the project seem to be so much smaller than theirs. People working for XEN, the package manager, Yast and others have put a lot of effort into making openSUSE a great distribution.

I am happy for their achievement and their contribution as well. openSUSE would not be my favorite distribution if it wasn't for much of the work that these people do. So a big THANK YOU to all of them. They also had pizza, a few goodies and 2 big screens. That did it for me. I was happy to see openSUSE handling big screens like that. Although with gnome 3 and the resolution, there were some glitches.

Anyway, I promised some pics and here they are. They are not the greatest quality, I used my Palm Pre to take the shots and the lighting was not that great for this tiny phone.

Me and my goodies :D

Going to the openSUSE Launch Party :D

2011-03-13T20:41:00.000-06:00

I know this is unusual, but I am going to the openSUSE launch party in Provo, Utah this week. I am excited. I know the team has been working hard in bringing a freshly updated version of my favorite distribution. I believe openSUSE has one of the strongest communities out there.

Changes in directives recently have made me think that openSUSE is becoming a pillar for the Linux community. We are headed in a good direction and I am hoping that we will also be able to work on the GUI as well :D I guess that will always be my initiative. Working with the GUI and making it more polished is something that can be done with some effort and "cool" thinking.

I recently read an article that reviewed the newest release and, although not the main part of the article, the author did point out how hard it could be working with Yast. He said "it screams 'developer,'" and I tend to agree with the author. Simply, Yast is too powerful and great not to make it more accessible to all of the users out there.

If you want to check it out, click here.

Anyways, I will be taking some pics and stuff at the Novell building :D

See you all soon

Bring Back Domino!

2011-03-03T16:44:00.000-07:00

The Domino KDE style was an emergent and versatile style theme. It had the ability to be customized much like what Qt Curve or Bespin does. However, Domino had the ability to be customized and be previewed instantly has you made the changes. The configuration widow had all sorts of simple modifiers that could truly give some personality to your KDE 3.

This thing was so good that I even created my own versions of the style with my own tweaks and posted them at kde-loo.org

This thing was something very worth the time playing with. I think it was one of the best styles that someone coded for KDE. You could control brightness, button shape, etc. Well mixed with the window decoration, one was able to create very concise and simple themes for your linux machine. However, with the coming of KDE 4, the developer of Domino decided not to port this theme to KDE 4 and the development stopped.

It also seems that the project did not attract any more devs that would have wanted to port it to KDE 4. So here I am, talking to the openSUSE people that know how to code well, asking them to give this style a chance to style openSUSE with KDE 4. Would you take it into consideration?

Oxygen is a beautiful style, very well thought. However, Oxygen is not like Domino when it comes to customizing your theme. Also, Oxygen ships by default with just about any other distro out there. openSUSE could step up with differentiation by using this style. Maybe what I am asking for is rather unrealistic, but Domino is such a great style, it deserves a chance.

Where is the Linux Desktop's Aim?

2011-01-31T23:31:00.000-07:00

By a very definition, it seems that working for the Linux desktop is like shooting darts in the dark. Obviously, one would not be able to see where the dart goes, neither if you are hitting the target. However you are definitively hitting something, but you do not seem to know what.

In comparison, the Linux desktop aiming at the end user seems to fall under this category. The bigger question will always be, who are we trying to satisfy through our Linux product? Given the vastness of reach that Linux has on thousands of coders, the Linux desktop project is bound to receive a great array of views, ideas and currents of thought that will lead the Linux desktop from one place to the other. Believing that coming together in order to work on a particular project is hard for me. However, projects such as KDE 4 have shown great strength in coming together and creating something revolutionary and beautiful. Other efforts to make the Linux desktop a reality have also come together in order to create similar results to what KDE did. Gnome has followed in the footsteps of KDE and has also gathered its community-enthusiasts and created the new Gnome 3 iteration.

However, the Linux desktop is still immature--I do not say this with malice--in the sense that projects that aim towards a goal seem to center their understanding of what the Linux desktop is in a less opened environment to which they could gather to and understand what it is that simple, non-tech s
savy people understand about the way we have made their graphical environments. I am referring to what the voice of users has to say about the way THEY use their computers as opposed to what we Linux Desktop thinkers believe is good for them.

For example, if I am not mistaken, KDE 4 was an aim that grew deep in the KDE community overtime, believing that their product KDE 3 was outdated and needed to be revamped. All over the internet there were calls for change and some even ventured to creating new ideas about the way KDE 4 was going to be. I remember seeing new icons at the Oxygen Icons website which promised to deliver a new way of interaction with the desktop through their plasma desktop. I was dazzled by the beautiful icons created in order to show the newness of approach that KDE 4 was going to take. It took icons to make people excited over the project.
Gnome followed a similar path. Seeing that KDE 4 has so drastically changed the aspect of its default desktop, it decided to launch their newest major revision, Gnome 3. Their approach came from often-unloved Gnome Shell. Brainstormers created a new way to interact with the desktop based on a combination of very active desktops and windows as well as an ease of access to files and applications.

While all this speaks to the minds of users that projects such as Gnome and KDE did their best in adapting to changing times, the old problem also became apparent. The community effort derived into personal effort, which in turn made it seem as if these projects were put on the shoulders of the few who could make ideas come true through their code as opposed to asking the people, like the rest of us, what WE think of their creation. I am a document developer, and I do not appreciate it when people tell me that my earnest efforts do not fit their life. I become unhappy and probably bitter since all my work was worth nothing in the eyes of users. But alas, this is something that happens in man development teams. It is part of the process to let a rough stone roll down the hill until it becomes smooth. However, efforts coming from KDE and Gnome, although being amazingly written do not seem to tackle non-tech users as well as it does for them, why? because the rest of us are unable to code but they are. We do not have a voice because no one asks us what we think.

Did KDE 4 and Gnome 3 ever conducted surveys to people in order to understand their interaction with computers? Do these two projects ever reach out to the community (non Linux users) in order to find out their needs? If they did, it was little. I hereby advocate a stronger case for the unheard, for the ones who will be placed these great tools in our hands. To these two amazing projects I say, be great listeners, seek out opportunities to understand the rest of us. Do not be like the people in this video giving out a Christmas present that only fits some.

Let's shoot our darts with the lights on. :D

Best wishes, Andy

Revolution Music Player

2011-01-13T00:00:00.035-07:00

Taking after what great work Amarok has done over the years, it has come to my attention the different changes that Amarok has gone through. Now, with their current version 2.3.1 I am left wondering about what more could be done with the graphical interface. Amarok has wonderful technologies underneath as a music player. Amarok is also neatly connected to KDE widgets that display information for just about anything.

However, Amarok has received critics of many sources asking for stronger work with their graphical interface. I thought this opened the window for others to create something that could potentially become the next Amarok. Probably Amarok 3.

Amarok currently has a lot of things going on in its interface. There are three main panels. Starting from the left Amarok features a collection section which also includes internet music services, playlists and local file search. In the middle section there is a widget area which shows information about the currently playing track, album or the band (through Wikipedia). The far right shows a playing playlist.

This could be confusing from the files shown on the far right from one's collection, but this list on the right is the actual list of tracks that are being played. At the bottom of this playing playlist there are buttons to control this playlist. At the top there is the play button and the track progress bar and a volume button. The very bottom shows information as well on the currently playing track. Much like a status bar.

One thing that I find interesting about this particular version of Amarok is the repetitive display of information about the currently playing track. For example:

No more than 5 times on the shot you see information about the currently playing track. Maybe that is a little visually excessive.

Another interesting thing comes from the way one is to add music to one's playlist. Users have to either drag or double click items on the far left which will then load at the far right to start playing atop. I just don't seem to make sense of the motions that music has to travel in order to be played. I this respect, I am more comfortable with Banshee or even iTunes, both of which play what you click. A very transparent playback of the files you see.

Amarok does a lot of amazing things and has great tools to work with your music. Probably, what needs to happen is to have Amarok control the amount of tools displayed on the screen. Reducing the amount of tools leaving only the most commonly used ones would be good.

But what can change? I tried to simplify the graphical interface for Amarok, giving some emphasis on the creation of playlists and the use of widgets. So I will provide some descriptions to what you are to see next.

Here is a change. I took after what iTunes and Windows Media Player do with their music collection, to group it with an album picture and a list of tracks on the side. From this list of tracks one does the same that the current Amarok does with playlist creation; double click or dragging the tracks onto the playlist area. Also notice the change with widgets, they are now located at the bottom of the window. Clicking through them will bring up the widgets that you like.

The Collection area then slides through the different widgets, stats, track information, lyrics, wikipedia information, youtube videos, etc. It would be good, the collection area disappears and the space is taken by the widgets information. This is the other way of seeing one's music collection, or file collections. A plain list.

Or an Album Cover presentation. All of these have a filter bar atop and buttons to change from the different collection view.

Next up is the playlist content generation. First is the list of tracks which are being played and also a nice cover artwork scrolling. Much like what Songbird did long ago with one of its plugins. Just click the dynamic playlist button and songs will be played based on what Amarok decides.

You can browse your saved playlists and double click on the ones you saved and play them.

Here is the addition I would like to see. To share what you listen to on Facebook, Twitter, or just about any other service that is made available through widgets.

Another way of having Amarok play your music is by turning it into a widget itself. You can hit minimal mode and a widget-like interface will show up and stick on the desktop. You can switch back to any of the other interfaces or tweak the interface.

Next is the fullscreen interface. With computers having more fullscreen interfaces (AKA Mac OSX Lion, Netbook interfaces, Unity). I remember that long ago, Amarok had a plugin that would launch your music in fullscreen mode and it was awesome looking. What I am suggesting is something along those lines as well as the addition of visualizations on the background.

This is the default configuration with covers and controls spread on the interface.

Next is the full image for the covers.

And last is a Karaoke (maybe) idea in which the lyrics are shown so that you can sing along to your songs.

Obviously this is something that can change, songs have lyrics which are very long can have some sort of auto scroll, much like ultimate-guitar.com. Obviously this is not perfect. But I tried to make it simpler and retain the same functionalities that the current Amarok has.

Andy

Random Ideas for a revolutionized Amarok Icon

2011-01-11T15:57:00.000-07:00

Well, I have been toying around with this idea for awhile now. I came up with this icon for Amarok a long time ago and never got around finishing it. Here is a tentative idea of what it could look like and how it could look with a splash image for Amarok on openSUSE. I like the icon, but I am sure that more could be done with it.

Here, enjoy:

I hope you like them. I generally don't work with icons. I don't think I know how to make them really. But this could be a good proof of concept in order to have you see what we could customize with in openSUSE.

And what better way to celebrate the release of Amarok than a cool rocky song:

See you all soon :D

Andy

New openSUSE Build Service Interface

2011-01-01T19:29:00.000-07:00

For some time now, I have been reviewing some of the interaction that one is to use when working with openSUSE's Build Service system. I believe it is one of the most useful tools that openSUSE has created because it encourages collaboration between programmers and users. It provides a powerful tool to package applications.

However, I have noted that the interface could be changed a little in order to reflect a more active form of interacting with one's package information. I created some preliminary and simple images that could potentially become what openSUSE Build Service could look like.

My emphasis is on at-a-glance information. Currently, as users enter OBS, they are greeted with little information about what they are working on and only see information about other packages being worked on . Probably this could change, focusing on what a particular user has on OBS is more important to that user than other packages from across OBS, which can come in second.

Current OBS home page:

And these are the ones I was thinking of. First a simple greeting page with a log in section, and also a movie that can explain in simple steps how to use the openSUSE Build Service.

Then we add a small and simple Log In popup window and we move into our page:

And finally we find ourselves on the page that can greet us with information at a glance. Obviously, this page could change, offering information bit that the users want rather than the default ones.

What do you think? I know there are things that can change and I would like to hear your opinion. Probably you users who take more advantage from OBS than I do have long desired to utilize OBS is different ways than the current one.

To you, what would you like to see changed in OBS?

Andy

New Idea About Chat Program

2010-12-20T01:36:00.000-07:00

I am a good user of social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. They have used very interesting features on their websites, such as instant messaging. By that I do not mean the chat application that Facebook uses, or the immediate update on Twitter messages. I am talking about the idea of instant messaging on settled messages.
For example, when a person posts a comment on Facebook and is able to keep a conversation from one person to the next. It is a minifeed that also includes the rest of the present contacts that are involved in the message box.

Twitter is a little similar, you are able to scroll through the many messages on your home page as well as the rest of the contacts who have posted messages on your Twitter.

I really like these interfaces. Your comments help you follow "conversations" rather than individual chats separated by tabs. I like those interfaces very much as well. They are simple, however, they take away attention from other people that you might want to chat with. In current messenger programs, you have to switch between your contact windows and the chat window in order to communicate. However, the model from Facebook and Twitter seems to be even simpler. You talk with the people you want as you see them on your contact list.

How about this?

Something that can keep you connected and seeing people as you want to talk to them. You could take it even further and add it to the Go! menu discussed here before.

I think it would be pretty cool if your messenger icon was actually the actual chat window. It is always available to send messages. Always in one window.

What do you think? Also, take a look at the gecko I put as my new mascot. I hope you like it.

Andy

openSUSE Needs to Rebel

2010-11-24T20:43:00.000-07:00

Over the course of a few years, and after openSUSE was launched, the relationship of openSUSE internally has been one of constant rediscovery and also lethargy. openSUSE heaveily relies on the power of the community and their votes on certain issues, features, etc. Simply put, openSUSE is democratic.

In a sense, this means that openSUSE has developed a system that slows down the process of innovation and has become an acolyte of other Linux distributions such as Fedora and Ubuntu. Fedora, on the one hand, has the fairly advanced support from the Red Hat giant. A company that has enough capacity to make changes which are matured enough and set examples for other distributions to follow. Then Ubuntu has Mark Shuttleworth. A character with a strong personality and defying attitude to break the routine of being a "common" Linux distribution.

In turn openSUSE "had" Novell. A company which had slowed down its business quite a bit in the last years and has not recently been bought out by a company related to Microsoft. Consequently, openSUSE was born dead like a mummy. The problem was that the reliance on Novell to help openSUSE was great and Novell as a company never delivered as did Red Hat to Fedora. Also, openSUSE never had strong personalities to drive its distro development as does Ubuntu. Too fearful to change radically, openSUSE followed in the steps of its godfather Novell and lost personality, for everything was handled and voted on by the community.

Now, openSUSE still is in the middle of a good discussion that will, possibly, bring out a statement that will drive openSUSE's focus into better things. The problem is, however, that while openSUSE keep trying to define itself, input from everywhere is also being given. As democratic as openSUSE is, they let these people take the stand and opine, sometimes very uselessly about something that maybe they will forget. Timing is eating openSUSE alive, for while they are trying to find out "who" they are other distros are obviously ahead in the distro battle. Think of Ubuntu's change from X to Wayland, or their drastic change to a more netbook interface. What did the Ubuntu community do when these changes were announced? nothing! Did they leave Ubuntu is disgust for this authoritarian intervention on the part of Shuttleworth? no!

If openSUSE was trying to do similar things, they would be fearful that the community would get upset by these decisions and not do anything at all. Even in my own blog I get this comments all the time. Why are you trying to change the desktop? it is good as it is right now. They say. Or, those things that you propose are already doable in other ways, use a different software. The list goes on and on, why? because openSUSE does not have representatives strong enough that drive its development. I do not mean to diminish the efforts of those people who are currently trying to work with openSUSE. My idea is that they are still not a strong presence on anything really. My perception is that current community leaders are really trying to keep harmony and peace within the community rather than producing drastic change.

To all of them I say, wake up! Stand up and change. You cannot expect to get different results if you keep applying the same methods. In my mind, drastic change, strong intervention and a marked personality could potentially change it all. Forget about us, the bureaucracy of openSUSE for a moment. Decide for once to be the best and openSUSE will certainly see the light.

My contribution is on the desktop. To change openSUSE's visible image to make it recognizable and visually powerful, but I am sure that make up is not all. We need a stronger general image. A reliable Linux distribution, a strong development group, greater device compatibility, ease of use, discoverability, marketing, etc. These things will change openSUSE's course forever if we just stop looking at the people we might upset by changing and just change openSUSE right away.

That is why I call my blog openSUSE REVOLUTION, for I believe that a revolutionary intervention is critically needed at openSUSE. Start from scratch, not being afraid of building something out of the ashes. It is time.

In the meantime, I will keep on conceptualizing openSUSE's future desktop.

Thanks for the visits you all.

Anditosan.

Here I Go! Rebel openSUSE!

2010-11-21T04:38:00.000-07:00

Well, I know it has been a long time for me to come up with what I think, is the start of a good future. I can only do mockups but I am sure that if there is a programmer brave enough out there to take this idea and turn it into a reality, be my guest.

I have taken a lot of things into account in order to create these mockups, and they are far from perfect. I believe they make sense and I am sure that many could be inspired by what you see. openSUSE needs direction and image. Ubuntu went first and they are being radical in their own way. Sure, many people are not happy with their inclusion of the netbook interface into the mainstream of their desktop version but the effects are ameliorating and people in their community are accepting the change. Is openSUSE ready for a change like that? a change in image and character?

It has been a long time since openSUSE stirred the waters of the Linux world and it is time that the Gecko makes a come back. Community leaders are in eager search for the best strategy and manifesto that will define the future of openSUSE as a community. However, words are blown easily by the wind, we need stronger impact. We need not only a change in focus but also a change in image. Here I offer my humble contribution to the distro that I love and care about.

Please enjoy and leave me some feedback. Also, if you are interested in coding these ideas, I will gladly help you with the conceptual work for it.

The first mockup shows a couple of ideas that I had already presented in my blog. One is Desktop Typing. The easiest, key-combo free implementation of Krunner or Gnome-do, or whatever other launcher out there. Simply click on an empty area of the desktop and type the name of the app or file that you want to launch. Another is the inclusion of the Go! menu. This menu is very similar in nature to the menus in smart phones such as iPhone, Android, or WebOS. If you notice the Go! menu comes out of a top panel which will enclose the System Tray icons and at the end of the top panel there is the Shut Down button. The Go! menu is configured to be hovered and then appear. (if you know how these work, then I will say no more). And the Third thing is the use of a top panel like the one on a Mac computer.

When any window is maximized, the top Title Bar and Window Operation Buttons disappear and merge onto the top panel. A simple way to include beautiful fullscreen windows into the system. Also, there could be a problem with Desktop Type once the maximized window is enabled, therefore users looking to launch with Desktop Type can click on the top panel and then type. Alternatively, they can hover the Go! menu and find their desired app.

Finally, users can make visual contact with their virtual desktops by hovering the bottom of the screen to make these arrows appear and go to a different virtual desktop. Additionally, there could be a window list much like Mac OSX's or Windows 7 but sitting comfortably on the right edge of the screen which accumulates in similar fashion to what AfterStep did borrowing from NeXTStep.

Great Minds Think Alike

2010-10-27T02:26:00.000-06:00

So, I just saw how OSX Lion has the new features showing up and I couldn't help but notice that their idea about launching apps looks a lot like their way of launching apps on an iPhone. The other thing I noticed is that it looks a lot like my idea of switching desktops, especially about the dots at the bottom of the screen. Who would have thought? Are we all in the end making the same resolutions about desktop interoperability?

You be the judge

To this

Enjoy :D

Rebel Inheritance: The Best About Launcher Menus (Part 3)

2010-10-15T14:33:00.000-06:00

This is the third part of the series of articles that analyse the possibilities of start menus and new ideas to do for the openSUSE project.
We got ourselves to a good start compiling a series of expressions of launcher menus across different platforms. It was then the opportunity of talking about the negative aspects of launcher menus and now it's my privilege to discuss the positive aspects of them. My last article of these series, I will be gathering all this information and coming up with a couple of ideas for a new launcher menu.

One important aspect of what launcher menus have is the fact that they actually exist. this idea might sound a little abstract and dull. But in coming up with this positive aspect, I thought of how I would be launching applications if I did not have launcher menus. There might be other ways to launch programs. However, they simply look very non-transparent.
Other ideas invented along the road deal with folders where all the applications are placed, others are a bunch of icons sitting on the desktop. In the end they just seem more complicated and desktop cluttering.
The fact that there are menus with a simple list of icons and names always visible on the desktop is a great thing. This also makes it simple for those people who are more visually oriented, and do not want to deal with commands or anything of the sort.

Another great characteristic that launcher menus have is their power to unify with the rest of the OS. It is a principle of good design to have similar elements gathered together. This could explain a little, why some people disliked the Mac Dock. It was just simply a little out there and not very harmonious with the rest of the interface. While all of the windows and menus in that version of Mac OS was metallic, along came this glassy looking and icon-based menu. So, harmony is big in launcher menus. I like for example, the way Ubuntu set up their launcher menus. They kept the gtk look of the menus, used the same icons along them and they were big enough that people can recognise them easily. One launcher menu that could follow this idea is Windows. Their start menu is great, except their approach to desktop harmony is not a big. They have a black menu with white and blue in it. They don't look very similar to the composition of their windows except for the transparent glass look that it has.
This unity also spring out to the organisation that Linux menus have, for example. This is something that other OSs don't practice a lot. For example Windows, does an indiscrimate placing of items in their launcher menus. Linux GUIs try to change this by organising the menus in a certain way that makes it recognisable for users where they should look for a certain application.

A great property that all OSs Launcher menus offer is visibility. These menus are always visible and reachable, wherever they may be placed on the screen. They are easy to locate and work with. I personally like how some menus are very discreet with what they have to offer. They place small buttons or pull down menus that show how you could unfold them and get the rest of the applications you seek.

Eye Candy: This is one thing that I like a lot. Great graphics and pleasing views do a for a great day's work on a computer. No one wants to go back to older looking interfaces from the 80s. I am glad to report that there are extremely talented people out there doing what they enjoy the most, to visually enhance their environment. GUIs are no different. I am always one who changes colors, names, places, wallpapers, etc. So it's comforting to see how these things stick to computers as well.

Notifications: Other great properties that launcher menus or bars have, is that they also inform you on simple things, such as a new email in your tray, a new message through chat. Although this needs to be done with carefulness, otherwise your menus will have so much in them that clutter will be the only synonym you will think of when talking about your OS. I don't like for example, having a system tray icon that reports the status of an anti-virus. They are very annoying, or even notifications for updates. I prefer a whole application that tells me about what's new for my OS.

Search: It's good to see that nowadays, Launcher menus have search fields where you can quickly find a certain application, although I have noticed, that they do not always search by other terms different than an application name. So that should change if it hasn't already.

Anyway, this is a simple article. There you have it. If you can find more interesting features that add for positive elements on the launcher menus, let me know.

Thanks

Andy

User Riots: What Does Not Work with Launcher Menus (Part 2)

2010-09-23T03:01:00.001-06:00

Before I enter this subject, I would like to recognize the effort and great genius that the people who have worked with GUI design have done with Launcher Menus. I am pleased to say that I have been an avid user of these small applications for all the years that I have worked with computers.

The subject matter of this article is a very unpleasant one for me. I am to critique the shortcomings of these menus and I feel that it would be necessary to clear a couple of things before I get started. First, the analysis being done right now focuses on the negative aspects of the launcher menus the way "I" see it. The article does not represent the work of a group of people, just me. Second, while the subject of this discussion is negative in nature, these are not to be taken as personal attacks against the people who so passionately worked on them. They are respected and thanked for their efforts. Third, I believe it is necessary to look at what "is not so effective" with these menus, in order to come up with a solution that can encompass all the negative aspects that these menus currently have. To be self-critical is a relevant element of design. The failures presented by these menu examples are to be thought of collectively and not individually. These are lacking elements that appear across many menus and different platforms.

Without further due, here are the areas that Launcher Menus deal with ineffectively.

Hand Position: Ergonomics
Various stats suggest that 85% of people are right handed. These could also be interpreted as the majority of people using computers are right handed as well. The majority of Launcher menus sit on the bottom left of the screen. It has been so for Windows since they created the Start Menu and for others after them, such as Gnome and KDE. I see a problem with this. First, although it is a simple pixel to find, it restrains the right hand. 85% of people have become used to an unnatural location for the Start Menu. Although some may argue that there are trackpads and all that, but truth of the matter is that most of the times, the screen cursors sits in areas that belong to the half where the hand is. In this case, the pointer will mostly sit on the right half of the screen because it is the right hand that is being used to control it. Then the right hand has to do an unnatural movement across to the left, and not only to the left, but down as well. It is trying to reach the Start Menu.

Probably then, the bottom left position for the Launcher menu is not the best. We might not feel it is a problem since we have become used to it, but I do not think it is well designed. It might work for left handed people but not for me.

Eye Position: Ergonomics
Another problem that I find (this is just personal experience) comes from the position that my eyes have to take in order to locate elements on the screen. A lot of times, the eyes have a natural tendency to place items from a screen higher so that the head and the eyes do not have to look down in order to see something. Every time, I have to look down to the bottom of the screen I squint a little and it seems more unnatural than having my eyes set close to the top edge of the screen. I actually feel very happy every time I use Macs, because they have the window menus at the top, although it is annoying to travel all the way down with the pointer to the dock to launch programs. In fact, a lot of action happens near the top edge of the screen. Applications have all of their editing elements atop which draws the eye to the top, and suddenly you have to launch a program. Then you look down and leave the position you were in.

Look at these ladies:

Well, these ladies show what I am talking about. Although these are pictures taken from stock images, they show something that happens all the time. Your eyes are generally wandering on the higher plane of the screen.

Crowdedness: Just TOO MANY!

One big problem that all these launcher menus have, and menus in general, is the one about sorting the elements withing the menu. How do you do it? what's the best method available? How does one manage the ever growing population of the launcher menus?

One thing that happens overtime, is that no matter how cool you are with your information, you will accumulate tons of it. It is no different with launcher menus. They get crowded fairly fast. Think of Windows, they have invented a couple of ideas so that they can manage your applications. From Windows 95 and on, they did not do much about it, the menus just got very big and covered the whole screen. The same happened with XP. But once Vista and then Windows 7 came on board, this changed. They decided to work more with favorites and seclude the rest of the applications inside the limited area of the start menu.

Although it looks better, it does not solve the problem. I actually think that it makes it worse. Because, now the menus cannot go all along the screen, rather they stay packed in, and hidden inside the launcher menu. As a help, Windows offers a search field at the bottom. But what if you do not remember how to spell your programs' names? or file names?

Spacing: Ergonomics?

I don't really know where this one goes, but it is a very hard one to explain. I just want to add this because I have always had issues with this one. I do not really know what is the right spacing between items on the list of programs and favorite applications, but I sure know what I don't like. So here it goes.

In the current windows 7 menu there are different kinds of spacing between the items list. The favorites and folder sections of the menu have more spacing than the menu with the programs. The programs are actually a little harder to pin down with the mouse pointer. Probably something should be done about that. But they are so many items (Don't get me started on how much trial software you get when you buy computers from the stores) that they need to pack them closer together to be seen.

On a Mac, the story is a little different but unsolved as well. They do not have a problem with spacing, necessarily, since the dock takes care of that fairly well. It is a more visual recognition approach and it works well. But just imagine what the dock will look like when you try to put the amount of items you have on a Windows start menu onto the dock. Then it becomes a problem.

And this is what I am talking about. As the dock fills with more icons, they need to gather the horizontal space needed to accommodate all of them. The dock shrinks the icons and the user has to go through this long line of icons until you visually identify the one you need.

On Gnome, for exaple, the story is not about small spacing and hard to pin, but rather the spacing is sometimes too big.

This image explains what I am talking about. Look at the size of each item and each description. It gets to the bottom of the screen so fast that in many cases you have to scroll up and down to sift through this long spaced menu. I run Ubuntu some times and I really get annoyed by this, especially because Gnome has the "simplicity" idea with them making 1 application per task. It is very useful, I appreciate it very much, but they become crowded too fast on the launcher menus.

Lack of Simplicity

This idea is also hard to work out. It depends heavily on the user and his/her idea of simple. But here is mine. I do not think menus should have long labels. Some have opted for shortening the labels and only leaving the application name and the icon. Such as the OSX Dock. Others such as Windows prefer full names and Gnome and KDE prefer them all. The icon, the application name, and a descriptive label. That to me seems a little too much in view of the idea that people become used to an application's use and identifiers over time. I do not ever read a label description. I generally recognize the application because I know the name and recognize the icon. The problem on OSX though is that they hide it. You never the the application label until you hover the icons containing it, and on Windows I just have to squint very frecuently because the items defer in labeling so much that you find yourself with a few entries for "Firefox." Such as, "Firefox (priavate mode)," Firefox, uninstall," "Firefox, folder." And the list goes on and on.

On examples like these, you don't even see the name of the application. Ubuntu thinks that people recognize items mostly by what they do, and although it is a good strategy, I always think of people saying "hey, if you want to transfer music to your iPod, you just gotta pop iTunes open and plug it" as opposed to "hey, if you want to transfer music to your iPod, you just gotta pop the music player open and plug it." Odd, right?

Too much going on

One last thing I want to mention, and I am not sure how this could be achieved, but there seems to be a great deal of things going on with the launcher menus. On Windows, for example, the menu is comprised by Favorite Applications, Computer Settings, Shutdown Menus (I don't like this one really), Program List, Search Bar, User Name Identification and Picture, Networking, Printers, etc. On OSX, for example, the approach is the opposite. On the dock there is nothing more than icons, although these icons can be anything. In a sense, you could say that the OSX dock gets a lot of things going on but depending on th user's inclinations. On KDE and Gnome the thing does not get better, although there have been some good ideas out there trying to simplify categories and other things.

But there is a prevalent idea among designers that launcher menus "need" to be "access-packed." You can go anywhere with your launcher menu. But Why? why can't I choose where to place my own things? or at leas, why can't I have more separated items. I believe, it is good to have many ways to access important elements in your operating system, but how many is enough? I get confused, maybe 'cuz I am pretty stupid, when there are so many ways to get somewhere. I find it interesting when I help friends for example to access, let's say, Windows File Manager with the key combination Win Key + E. They always did it with: start menu> Computer. It seems to me that users are willing to use one way of doing things even though there are more methods. They become used to one idea per action.

Now, one that really takes my time is Kickoff. I believe Kickoff is the biggest magneto inside openSUSE. They simply put everything in there. But all I do with it is to launch applications. Everything else, I can access through the file manager and other simple solutions.

Just check this out. Kickoff has: Favorite Applications, Recently Used (everything), My Computer, with all the folders you are looking for, All programs, Shutdown Menu. Additionally, it packs icons, application names, and descriptions. When you see folders, it gives you a sub label with the address location (which sometimes is too long to display completely). They also include the user name and machine name, a help button, a search bar, a search bar icon, and above all, they do tons of navigation trough menus. you go back and forth through them, especially through the programs section. If you have a ton of items, then you scroll a lot.

There are lots of areas that can be improved for launcher menus. I hope that by taking a look at the annoyances I have found in them, we can come up with positive solutions for users. I believe that openSUSE can regain control of the desktop.

Next episode is about the GOOD ideas that have come out of the launcher menus and in the last article, a solution for these research. The creation of concept launcher menus. Stay tuned and thank you all for your great support.

Andy

Menu Spectrum: Understanding Start Menus Across Different Platforms

2010-09-12T02:33:00.002-06:00

Here is the long awaited review of some of the developments on the launch menu sector. Please take notice that because of the great variety of menus out there, I will make mistakes in their names. They could be called "start menu," "launcher," etc. So please, bear with me through this post. Hopefully putting these menus side by side will help us make sense of what we use in order to launch applications on our operating systems.
It is important to understand these menus and the changes they have suffered over time. probably you will find valuable information that will aid us in making a better launcher application for openSUSE.

First of all, let's analyze what Microsoft did to work on this area.
Starting with Windows 95, where we find the first incarnation of the Start Menu.

Here the menu is located at Windowsthe bottom left of the window attached to the bottom panel. It contains a label that indicates what version of Windows you are using and also links to programs, documents and settings as well as additional useful activities to work with files. Finally as the very first link ascending is the shut down button. Can you see the difference, for example, with the latest Laucher on Windows 7? how the shutdown menu options are all included in the menu whereas Windows 95 only has shut down and would display different options with the shut down dialog instead.

Then along came Windows 98 with the more advanced incarnation of the Start Menu.

In this case, the Start Menu added a couple more links to the menu, which graphically remained the same. They added a "Log Off" link as well as a "Windows Update" link. If you notice also, the menu holding the Start Menu added extra links to applications such as Internet Explorer, Email, and also to quickly access the Desktop. To be honest with you, I hardly ever use the desktop button. It just does not do something useful to me. Because, what's something that you need to see on the desktop that you can't find on the Start menu? Very little. It could be useful if you want to quickly clear your desktop from windows that you don't want others or yourself to see.

Windows ME kept the same ideals as 98.

...and later came Windows 2000

they kept the same ideas from 95 to 2000. I guess their Start Menu invention was just too good to throw away. But then came Windows XP. It seemed at this time that Microsoft wanted to make things brand new. They had a revolution of their own and reshaped the menu that many use today. They have just tweaked a few things here and there but the ideas set on Windows XP are still present in Windows 7, for example.

If you notice, Windows wanted to make the menu prettier. In fact, the whole interface in XP was so... blue. (sorry, I can't get passed the strong blues all over the place). In the Start Menu they included a few innovations. They included a picture and a name of the user currently running the session of XP. The menu also got wider. They split the menu in two as well, one are for favorites and most used applications (they were added either manually or by tracking user habits) which by default included only Microsoft applications on it. At the bottom they enclosed the programs menu that expanded as you highlighted it. The right side of the menu contained three main areas of navigation, places, settings and help. and the bottom of the menu had the usual shutdown and log off buttons. This time Windows worked on size. They used bigger and more intuitive visual clues to find and work with the menu. The smallest icons found in it belonged in the category of programs, where they could have all the applications they wanted. The start button itself changed and turned green, with a bigger name on it, START.

Then came Windows Vista with its revamped menu. It had been too man years and the market pressure made Windows come up with something new rather fast. The menu changed again and new features were added. Can you notice how the menu "grows" over time but it does not "shrink" in options?

This time, Windows played on the side of its name. Windows contain glass and glass is what we got with Windows Vista. The whole interface was a mixture of dark tones and glassy effect. Translucency was the norm in the design and the Start Menu was not the difference. One could almost argue that Microsoft liked this "transparent" design because it would let you have an awareness of what you are doing on the background, thus minimizing the imponent presence of the menu on the desktop. They seemed to have tried to blend the menu into the desktop through the application of transparencies.
This time the Start button disappeared, instead they brought a circle with the Windows logo on it and some nice hover effects. People already understood what that bottom left corner was for and no one seems to have disagreed with this design decision. The also added a search bar to the menu. They must have figured out that people install lots of applications and navigating through them with expanding sub-menus can be difficult. The dual areas remained much like in XP and they also included a very tightly packed Shutdown Button. This time though, people did not like how you had to "discover" where the shutdown button actually was as well as the other options like suspend and hibernate. This time also, they changed the visual presence of the "Favorites" section and minimized the impact of the other "help" areas on the right of the menu.
They also condensed the Programs menu and kept it within the boundaries of the Vista Start menu. No more expanding sub-menus coming out from the Start Button and filling the entire screen.
Finally, we arrive at the latest creation from Microsoft, Windows 7. The menu seems to retain much of what was introduced in Vista.

This time, the menu added again some features. They turned the programs menu into a tree menu. They also added a secondary button (black arrow) on the Favorites section that once hovered, gives you a list on the right side of the menu, of possible actions you can do given a specific favorite application. Everything else is pretty much the same. But they also changed the panel. It turned into a very visually attractive bar with big icons that can be pinned to it. A dock of sorts.

In conclusion, as the creators of the Start Menu, I have to give it to Microsoft. They simply created something extremely useful and good for everyday use. They have kept their original ideas and have added visual effects and other good inventions to the menu. Much of what we have today in the world of alternative operating systems using graphical environments, comes from Microsoft.

What about the world of MAC. They are another great company with an awesome approach to computer gui design and it's worthwhile to see what they created when launching applications.

Starting with MAC OS

Here the applications menu idea was moved to the top along with the panel. I think this was a very smart approach to computing. If you think about it, the panel at the top along with the applications menu coming down from it work around the areas that the mouse pointer is usually at. Users do not have to drag the pointer from top to bottom (like on Windows) in order to reach that menu (although there are shortcuts, like the Window key) In this incarnation, the menu did not include any icons, just a very simple and basic menu with child menus coming down from left to right.

Later came MAC OS 9 with some new interesting features...

Here is something interesting. While MAC OS kept the top left applications menu, they added a few interesting features such as the control extensible bar at the bottom (or wherever you wanted it) to work with more technical features of the OS. If you notice also, the top panel does not house the active windows placed on the desktop, rather they are placed as a button (without a "host panel" to manage its presence on the desktop) at the bottom of the screen, if they are folders, and as a small applications menu window if they are running applications.

Next up, we have MAC OS 10/X with the introduction of what seems to be, the most clear visual clue that you are using mac, the dock.

This time the dock became the center of attention for MACs. It was big, adorned with nice looking icons and a zoom effect that would pop up on hover. Although it was a great invention, it was harshly criticized because, I think, of the minimalist approach and the zoom effect. Go here if you would like to read more about it.

http://www.asktog.com/columns/044top10docksucks.html

Then other version of MAC have not changed the idea that much, they have instead added more features on top of the dock and the applications folder.

Leopard and Snow Leopard

Overall, the ideas coming from MAC OS have always been pretty straightforward, they have aimed at novice customers and the dock was the main bridge to link users faster with their most used applications and places. It was all customizable (the icons) by the user, meaning that virtually anything can be placed on the dock. I like the idea although I do think that it can be improved. For example, the fact that to launch applications is done at the bottom of the screen yet to work within the program you have to go all across to the top panel in order to reach the application's controls (I know this does not hold true for all applications, but I am just generalizing) is a little uncomfortable. But again, they are places easily locatable, top and bottom, that's it.

Then comes LINUX. As being a very diverse area of design and ideas from all over, Linux has generated very interesting design paradigms when it comes to the desktop. I will try to include the most visible ones, I am sure that I will be missing some, but given the size of research, I would rather work with the ones I consider most visible.

Starting with KDE we have a few ideas going around. The main ones though, are based on what Windows has done. I think that the main difference in KDE was just the fact that they grouped applications in categories. The main idea here seems to hide the populated menus from users by using categories.

This menu in KDE 3 is a good example of what they did before the 3 series. This one menu seems to come from Mandriva One. Notice just how similar it looks to the Windows Start Menu (before XP). I think KDE has always had this thing to them, that they can do everything that Windows does, plus more.

Along come other ideas, custom made menus for KDE. For example Tasty Menu:

I actually used this for a little bit. It was big, it contained a lot of programs around. But I did not like that after a while, I had to click too much to get to certain things. I also could not reach certain buttons too fast. I had to drag the mouse over an area of the screen that was too big. Just think of clicking the top corner to bring the menu down and then drag the pointer almost all the way down to the bottom panel to click "Shutdown." So I reverted to Kmenu.

Others have opted for the power of the Plasma desktop to create some launchers such as Lancelot.

Now, what you see here is a good idea of the menu. I like the tabbed interface for your programs. To me though, it looks very similar to what Tasty Menu wanted to do; to show you everything and yet lacking space to do so, so they reverted to proven ideas like sliding menus. Like the one for Programs. The Shutdown buttons are also at the bottom, something that can be worked out. It is overall a good idea, very flexible, very fast and simple. They play also with icons and visually recognizable items. They also include descriptions for items, but if you notice, they don't fit there all the way sometimes. Are they needed?

Gnome, for example has kept the Windows idea for a very long time. They do the same that KDE does with applications' categories.

This one example comes from a Fedora release. But the idea is the same. The Gnome Menu looks just like Kmenu except the spacing between the items. KDE's is thinner.

Then along came Ubuntu. they turned the Gnome Menu into something more broken apart in hopes of separating the sections' categories so that users find what they want faster. The idea has remained the same for a while, so I will just use one example.

The split the categories from one big menu to three smaller menus (of course, depending on the amount of applications that you have, my current gnome menu for preferences reaches all the way down to the bottom of the screen) and you also have to deal with the default Gnome's item spacing, which only gets reduced by custom styles. (I think this has been a complaint for a while, the lack of novice user style changes).

Other Gnome-based menus that look very much alike are the Mint Linux menu and the SUSE Gnome version menu. Take a look:

and SUSE...

The differences are mostly on the way they handle the display of applications. But the two pane system is the same. One side for Favorites and the other with Settings. They also seem to work on the side of simplicity, except their simplicity is big. These two menus take up considerable amount of screen space. I would not work with this on a Netbook.

Finally, openSUSE created Kickoff. I really like this menu. It has a good size, you can search through it fast and find what you need quickly. It contains tabs and the same categories found in other menus. There are also some ideas coming from the XP Start Menu. They only kept the categories contained within the space that kickoff uses. Not expanding menus.

I recall SUSE doings tons of talking about this menu and I believe, the result is a good one. However, I am convinced that we could go even further. To think outside the box to create something amazing. Take, for example, alternative operating systems. I love these ones, because they simply have no pressure to look and be like the rest. They are sometimes so small a platform that they do not want to feel so "mainstream" and "alike."

Take for example these menu from BeOS (I have to confess, I love this OS)

This one is very simple, all inclusive (places, favorites, and applications) and also a window tracker. It had the ability to dock the opened applications to it as a button. But I was a little taken back sometimes because of the arrow orientation from the menu. The child menus were appearing from right to left and yet the arrows pointing to the name followed the reading orientation, left to right. So my eyes would be expecting a child menu to the right and yet the showed to the left.

And of course, we have menus coming from the mobile world. Here are some examples:

I just put these three because they are good examples of what smart phones are doing today in order to put content on your fingertips. I like these ones a lot. They are so simple and they seem to be very free. By this I mean that when an application is installed, they are just added to the menu. You know what you just installed and where it will be, so smart phones have done away with categories, so to speak. They just "group" applications that are similar on the same screen. But it is very customizable, and users generally understand how to find them, and they do it fast.

Conclusions

The ideas presented in this list of "menus" is a very long one. I am probably going to set a record to myself with the longest entry so far, but it is necessary. This will be good food for thought. I will work with these and look for strength and weaknesses and talk about them accordingly. These menus represent the work of very talented people and the results have been quite remarkable. In fact, it seems that we just can't get rid of the "start menu" idea. It is still around since Windows 95 and it is here to stay.

PS: I did not include a lot of criticism on this post because I just wanted to gather them and put them on display. The criticism comes next.

Andy

Launching the Revolution: Kickoff's redesign ideas

2010-09-08T15:04:00.000-06:00

The launcher menu paradox has almost been around ever since graphical environments were created. They provided a simple method through which users could access their applications pertaining to a particular task. Before the start menu, users had a folder view, generally, with the applications in a list. Earlier environments had to omnipresent shell which launched programs by just typing the name.

Later, along came Linux and graphical environments for it. Some of them have kept the basic idea of a start menu, like the one on Windows 95. KDE did it, Gnome did it and many others, even the high end ones like Enlightenment, did it. It should be admitted though that this is a very clever idea to work with. It is fast, simple, and very visually engaging. However, this launching model by todays standards seems outdated. At least, this is something that frustrates me every now and then because it is so common. It is time for a revolution, a change.

The first thing that we need to do in order to change the start menu is to understand it. I am sure that a lot of people have decided that it is just OK to imitate what others have done. This is not a bad thing, the launcher menu is something that's very clever already, but I want to see innovation. It is time to rethink the way we work with a launcher menu. It is important to remember that these ideas have developed in great length overtime and I do not intend to cover 100% of what has been done, but rather, focus on the things that saw the day of light. I will point out their strengths and weaknesses to ultimately work with the strengths to come up with the best possible idea about how to improve the start menu for openSUSE.
This is the main reason why I have decided to split this study into 4 parts. It is such a daunting task that as I was doing my research, I realized that it will take very long to work something out that is useful and better than what we already have available for Linux.
The first part will be an analysis of the many ideas and projects that launched "start menus." the second part will cover the good aspects developed for start menus; the third article will talk about the usability and design problems and finally I will conclude with a proposal for a launch menu. This will be my idea on what openSUSE should do with their Kickoff menu.

So, wait for this first article to come out. It will be soon.

Thank you for your support.

Anditosan

Keyboard Uprising: Typing on the Desktop to Launch Applications

2010-08-20T02:34:00.000-06:00

I am a big fan of Gnome-Do. I love the simplicity with which they handle program launching. I do know that there are other methods and applications very similar to what Gnome-Do does, like Krunner and Launchy. There have been many ideas going around about what is best to use when launching applications and I think that the options currently available are good and they do the job. However, can these launcher programs be pushed a little further? I believe that the current keystroke methods used right now are good and fast. Can they be simpler? More intuitive?

This question has hunted me for quite some time. I do believe that keystrokes for launching programs is faster than working with the mouse. But I also do not use more than that. I just launch applications. I understand that many of these launcher apps actually do more than that, such as mathematical calculations and things like that. But this is something that escapes my simple mind so I just do that by hand.

Let's just take 2 of these launcher programs and talk about the way they launch the applications you need. Gnome Do, for example is launched by pressing the Window button plus the space bar (This can be different though) after which a small glossy field appears in the middle of the screen. Then the user is supposed to type his desired application and gnome do will fill in the rest.

After some time, Gnome-Do keeps track of your most used applications and it fills in the rest of the name by understanding your habits. For example, I know just type the letter F and Gnome-Do suggests launching Firefox. That is what I do the most when I type the letter F, so Gnome-Do does the rest.

Another launcher that is very powerful is Krunner. If you want a more comprehensive list of functions for Krunner, go to this link

http://userbase.kde.org/Plasma/Krunner

It works in a very similar fashion to what Gnome-Do does and I believe it was conceived a long time before Gnome-Do. This time, Krunner is launched by doing Alt+F2. Although this combination is good and Krunner is a very strong launcher, I do not like extending my fingers that much to launch a program. You may think that I am the laziest person in the world (maybe you are right) but I think that such keystroke makes you loose balance when typing. The same thing goes for Gnome-Do. Keystrokes are sometimes confusing, and you seem to spend more time finding the right key combinations to launch the launcher, more than you take launching the application that you want. Which is the intent of the launcher in the first place.

Here is the idea. Would it not be cool if users were simply able to start typing anywhere in the screen, the name of an application and Krunner or any other launcher program would pop up immediately to launch the program? To me this seems simpler than doing keystrokes to get launchers going. It could even be used to pop Kickoff open and automatically search through its menus.
I like this idea, but there are a few problems with it too. Originally, I thought that it would be good to have users click on the desktop, an empty area, and start typing. Currently, when you type after clicking the desktop area, you could select icons that have the letters you look for (I may be wrong about this one). Whereas, in other window managers, there is no effect. Typing on the desktop is something that has no use.

So, there is a "market" so to say, for laucher programs to go the extra mile. A desktop that you can type in. Just start typing and the apps you want will pop right away. Although, I think it could also be confusing for new users to see this message box show up out of nowhere and you don't know what to do. I guess some little information about this feature should be made available.

Another potential problem is fullscreen windows. Under KDE, full screen windows will cover the whole screen (hence the name, haha) not leaving any areas on the desktop that can be visible. The fullscreen window extends everywhere covering the top edge of the KDE menu as well. But this could be solved by not allowing windows reach a complete full screen. Much like MacOSX used to do it.

The Good Things
Again, I think tha the best thing about this idea is that it is faster than Launcher programs and would focus users more on what they want rather than the way to get there. A more practical approach. No keystrokes but just the ones you want. You would still be using your launcher application of choice, like Krunner.

What do you all think>?

Planing for a Revolution

2010-08-15T19:58:00.001-06:00

Working on design for the openSUSE project is indeed a hard thing to do. I am not a Novell or openSUSE employee. I do what I do with my free time, which will be drastically reduced soon, because the school year is starting at the end of the month. I am hoping to keep posting as often as I am currently doing it and finding those things that are little, and can be changed for a better openSUSE.
Because I will have less time to work on this, I need to focus my energy and think more practically. I need to make something happen and work it out.

This is the reason why I got in touch with Jos Portvliet from openSUSE. We have been talking recently about how to make some of my ideas become a reality. His input is pretty valuable to me. It is, I think, the first time someone from all the way up there in openSUSE has shown willingness to work through some of these ideas. Jos thinks that the Revolution ideas are good but they need to be focused; and I agree.

We came up with a plan to have some things changed. But here I am officially looking out for help from designers that work on the openSUSE project. Sorry about this, but I am looking for people who are designers, highly critical of openSUSE's current layout design as well as their theming. Why? because the all-inclusive nature of Linux communities appeals to a great variety of people. All of them can give us an opinion, very valid too, but not all the time specific. A lot of times, all we get is rant, disagreement, but no solutions. Right now, with this project I am looking for people who know about development and design because the openSUSE/KDE desktop also needs creative solutions.

So here is a rundown of a simple idea expressed in plan form:

Objective.

To make openSUSE a Linux distribution more friendly to novice users and adopters by creating a customized graphical user interface based on KDE but with different graphical elements than any other Linux distribution. This will make openSUSE visualy recognizable and branded to a higher level than it currently is.

Analysis

Form a designers team. We will:

Revise openSUSE graphical stance.
Point out design improvement areas.
Create Strategy for New Look.
Propose strategy to openSUSE community.

Design Decisions

Work on reduction, simplicity, automatization and layout design.
Gather the most relevant design complaints from designers team.
Work on the top 3 design changes for the next release of openSUSE.
Gather programmers and propose new design ideas.
Implement other 7 suggestions for upcoming releases.

What we will do:

New KDE plasma style and arrangement (plasma style, desktop widgets, wallpapers, etc)
Kickoff's redesign

What do you think? Who wants to join me? If you are serious about this, please send me an email and we will figure out how we will work together and make these things happen.

This plan is not perfect and if you have great input to share on it, please do. Let's be a team. We can do it.

PS: Please, do not even think that is idea is in some way, a tool to take over the world. I am not working independently of the opensuse-artwork team. All we would do is gather material to work on it for the future. No forks, no new teams. Just a community effort. The opensuse guys work really hard on the graphics and they do a great job. What we are doing is a revision and proposal of ideas, nothing more.

The Yast Revolt of 2010: Ideas to Improve Yast Software Installations

2010-08-08T15:50:00.000-06:00

Yast has been for a very long time the front face of openSUSE and SUSE, for that matter. It has been redesigned a few times and it has matured as one, if not the only one, best control center for the Linux Desktop. In many ways, having a graphical environment that allows you to configure otherwise hard tasks, is always welcomed. Yast is one of the strongest attraction points of openSUSE and it has suffered considerable criticism over the years as well. For once, it was criticized because it was a graphical environment that "dumbed down" things. Others did not like the layout, categories, etc. You name it and I bet that Yast has received these bad mouthing.

Although I love Yast and its graphical incarnation, I am yet to see innovations in the areas of simplicity and also with being current. Here are some transformations.

I am always very happy that SUSE has tried to make Yast very simple and powerful. I got to use most of the ones that I show here. But I will focus mostly on the installation section of Yast. Why? Because, I believe that new users coming to SUSE have to learn how to install software on SUSE. We know that Linux has a few package installation methods that can be hard to describe or make available to novice users using SUSE for the first time and wanting to get programs installed.

The current method seems to be a little too long and rather complicated. Starting with finding the Yast Install and Remove icon. These are the steps.

You see here that the longest way to find the application installer from Yast is about 5 clicks away from you. Some may say, "well, you can find it if you search for it on Kickoff." Others say "You can go to Computer and you will find it." While these two assertions are correct. I think that novice users do not even know how kickoff works, neither can they guess that the icon they are looking for is in the "Computer" tab. I believe, most users will first go to the Internet to find their applications. They'll discover that they do not work on Linux if they come from Windows or Mac. It would be hard for them to realize that their installations are done through a special Yast module.
For this reason SUSE created 1-click installs. Users go online to the openSUSE website, search for a package and then install it with 1-click install. I love this feature, it is much simpler than Ubuntu's Internet based installations. Following some tutorials, I generally end up adding repositories to the deb package system, then installing the program. SUSE solves those extra steps with 1-click install.

Once users reach the desired installation module within Yast, another interesting thing happens. It is an avalanche of information.

First of all, Yast opens two more windows to do the installation. The Yast module which contains all the categories is one, then the installation window, and finally the installation feedback window. 3 Windows until you see what is going on. It doesn't stop there. If you notice at the last window on the screenshot, you will see a few things going on. First (I was installing Dropbox, by the way, and ended up installing 400 MB of information, crazy) you see a window divided in 4 parts. The first two give you a number of packages to be installed and where they are coming from, the second one gives you feedback on the particular package that is being installed at the moment, third comes the progress bar for the individual package installed at the moment and finally there is a progress bar that shows the overall installation progress. That was a lot to type for something that can be done simpler. Do you think that novice users will want to see this? I think, pragmatism is a quality that characterizes novice users. They want the job done, simply and fast, and honestly, I do too. I hardly ever pay attention to all this feedback on this window.

Another idea that has flooded the market recently is related to cell phones. Once Apple created the iPhone and the iPod, they created an online store that would give you applications for these devices. iTunes for example, opens and connects to the online store on the spot, to make you see some apps that you might want. After they did this, many other companies have dome similar things. Websites featuring small and practical applications for a variety of devices, music players, tv, phones, etc. The online interface provides a very stylish ad customized way to present users with options that they might want.

Thinking about this and also the 1-Click installation system done by openSUSE. I believe that SUSE created an online app store without realizing it. SUSE Has the technology already, they just need to tweak Yast, the installation module, to be like this. In my spare time I thought of something extremely simple to use that, I think, can be done without much pain.

Here are the mockups. These are not perfect, but they can get to be with your suggestions.

Tell me what you think.

Highlights of a Revolution

2010-08-01T01:01:00.001-06:00

Valuable design principles like symmetry, consistency, and simplicity are all part of the idea I am about to share with you. I will be talking about highlighting and selection graphics on the SUSE/KDE desktop. Why? Because this is a subject that not many have talked about and when it comes to designing this aspect of the GUI, many just follow what the precedent has done. I am not here, however, to tear down anyone's effort to make these graphics, but rather, give a personal explanation and solution based on the three design principles aforementioned.

I believe that as SUSE embraces a different idea about highlighting and selecting, they can leave a palpable trace in the world of GUIs. Yet another aspect that can make SUSE "highlight" itself as a very unique Linux distribution and a viable solution for anyone's computing needs. The KDE desktop does not seem to have a clear idea of what they want to do with selections, they rather take ideas from everywhere and put them on the desktop. There is lack of consistency and direction. It is time for a revolution.

But first things first. An analysis of the current design ideas on different desktops. Here are some examples from Windows, Mac and SUSE on the way they currently handle highlights and selections.

Although this is an extra settings, Windows can add a check mark box beside an item. At the same time, this image shows how there is a selection, and a hovered item. Selections have a darker tone of the same color family, in this case, blue.

This one comes from the redesigned windows panel and this image shows two different colors. The blue is the current hover/selection and the orange one is a different kind of selection, probably a new item or one that needs attention.

Mac OSX also has a few ideas on highlighting. I have to say that Windows and Mac have a lot in common when it comes to consistency about their highlights and selections. They have a very consistent coloring and color identification for the items used. But it seems to me that OSX has a reduced amount to highlight and selection options. A more concise concept.

I am sorry that I could not find a better example of this, but here is one. Icons in OSX on the desktop only get highlighted on the tittle name. Sometimes these icons have descriptions, like the one above, in which case anything other than the file name do not receive the highlighting.

In this piture, there is a multiple selection going on. The selection is pretty much the same in all the OS's that I have used. When you choose multiple items, with the mouse pointer, a rectangle appears which selects everything that it covers. In OSX you see 3 elements of selection/highlight: The selecting rectangle created by the mouse pointer, then the OSX file name highlighting, and finally the application icon highlight, a gray square over the selected icon and about the file name. Additionally, and this is present in Windows as well, there is a place selection on the right location menu.

openSUSE also follows a few ideas conceptualized by Windows and Mac OSX. Probably because Linux is an OS brought about after Windows and Macs had already set foot. This is not an accusation, by the way. From the 3 OS's in question, it seems that openSUSE has the most selection/highlight ideas on the desktop. Here are some, there could be more but I can't think of any other.

This is Dolphin's idea for last selection, an underline. Dolphin also features hovering just like Windows, a lighter shade of the selection color. In this case it is light blue.

The the next one is panel button highlighting. This is very similar to the latest Windows 7 panel highlighting. A glow or light that shows on hover for the selected icon.

Here is a window highlight for the current window present on the desktop. A blue band that tells you that you have this one window selected (personally, I do not like this because it is an extra visual idea that is already set forth by the sole presence of the window in the front of other windows. It must be because I am working with this window).

This is probably the one I like the least. A frame going around the hovered item. The frame does not change into a solid color as it happens in the folder selections within Dolphin.

The selection on the Folder View Widget, I think, is one of the most elegant of all the present on openSUSE. It is simple, very non-distracting, it does not divide selections with different colors like multiple selection does in OSX for example.

Menu items hovering in Dolphin, and just any other KDE 4 application, shows a fade out near the right end of the hovered item. This time, the selection coloring takes after the color set forth by the window. This is, I think, very consistent. It shows users in a simple way that they are working with something foreign to icons. The selection is done inside the menu and does not take the coloring from side to side like OSX does with its menus. KDE's does not touch the menu edges, neither does it touch menu item separators. Additionally, KDE's menus underline the first letter of each item on the menu. If you press the underlined letter, then you select such item.

I really don't like these two very much. On hover, you see the light blue but at the same time a popup image shows you the items contained inside that category. The highlight is good, but the popup gets to be annoying after a while. Can you see how it hides the rest of the System Settings items?

This one has to do with buttons and drop down menus. The button features a blue frame for hover and selection and the drop down menu item keeps that blue on it as it is hovered.

And here is the one created by the Plasma team. A similar idea to other items on KDE. Selections and hovering do not touch menu edges, it take over the whole area around the selected item.

The ideas that go around different OS's and the way the represent highlighted and selected items differs greatly. Not to say that this is a problem. I believe it is rather a strength. OS's dare to be different and they seem to be more interesting to work with. Simplicity is something that I value, I believe that openSUSE does not have this simplicity yet. The KDE desktop features a few ideas that can be used across the whole platform. I am not saying either that OSX and Windows treat this better.

A more centralized highlighting system should be in order to make sure that applications, menus and icons respond similarly to hovering, highlighting and selecting. Fewer options that mean selection would be better, in my opinion. The varied array that the SUSE/KDE desktop shows seems inconsistent. It comes across with the point but it could be reduced.

Next is the problem of selections and the number of selections made. Single items are the only ones that receive hovering, whereas multiple items do not receive any hovering, you can only select them. Then what is hovering for? Selection of multiple items is also done through key combinations such as using Control for multiple individual items and Shift to select all items within a range. However, I do find that I select more individual items than a range of items. I spend most of my time selecting with Ctrl key rather than Shift and if I need a range of items then I selected with the mouse pointer or simply do Ctrl + A to select everything. Then, if I want to take items out of the selection range I press Ctrl and click on the few that I do not need to work with.

Finally, there is the concept of symmetry. Symetry gives the impression of order, good organization and tidiness. But Dolphin File Manager got this symmetry very well in the beginning, but it ended up creating this optical illusion when many icons were selected. http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/lum_herGrid/index.html#

So, KDE guys decided to change the selections a little bit and came up with this:

Perfectly fine, right? The optical illusion is gone because of the spacing. Look at what happens when the icons are smaller than tittle ans icons.

Symmetry in Dolphin is lost.

Possibilities

Here are some of my ideas about what selections could be like. Here is the revolutionary treatment for selections. These are not perfect, help me make them better. Your support is important.

Enter a selection mode. Whenever you are working with many items the file manager can show you, among other things, a "Selection Mode" where you can click on each possible selection method and work freely with your items.

Selection with helper icons upon hover. I would actually do away with highlights. let the mouse pointer have extra power and it will seem more natural to just locate the mouse. Provided that the pointer has within it the ability to alter elements underneath it. Another suggestion would be to do away with popups. Elements in the desktop can be worked a little extra and would be able to become self explanatory through the use of explanatory labels for example. Or even better, if the user seems to take less time hovering and just clicks items, make KDE realize that the user already "knows" what the icon or elements do, therefore popups can be done away with after a while. Also, avoid underlining, it really looks out of place. Again, empower the mouse pointer.

Finally, take ideas from the Plasma desktop and place them on the applications. Highlight with glows, they seem natural and can be worked to be very beautiful.

About buttons, follow daily-life examples. They can be quite elegant. For example, elevators. Here are some pics:

Solid Ideas VS Glass Ideas

2010-07-28T02:29:00.002-06:00

When my postings could not get more weird than this, I am going to take you through a few ideas of mine on the elements that conform the KDE desktop on OpenSUSE. These ideas may not have been thought of as the new KDE 4 was being developed but this is my personal take on it. I am trying to understand the basic idea behind the KDE desktop stylistic elements as shown by the Plasma Desktop and in OpenSUSE.

From what I remember, the Plasma desktop wanted to be a full rewrite of the underlining technologies that were part of KDE. One focus of the graphical developers of KDE was a stress on glossiness or rather glassiness. I think that many of them, although there are many differences, used Windows Vista as an inspiration for the desktop. KDE graphic developers stressed glassy looks and a lot of shine in the widgets. They created the Oxygen theme, which at the beginning was pretty rough but still people found it interesting and soft.

I remember when Nuno Pinheiro showed me some of the early mockups for the upcoming Oxygen window style and I loved it. He told me, at the time, that although this style was beautiful, there was a great bridge that had to be crossed between design and practicality. The style looked great on the mockups but, in my opinion, still not the same as the mockups. Another thing was also pointed out somewhat to Nuno, and it was the fact that the style lacked contrast. I believe this is still true, the Oxygen style needs better contrast and better outlining.

But these things aside, the overall idea of the KDE 4 desktop, at least on the front face of it, was to give it a shiny and glossy look. My problem with this approach, which sometimes is unorganized because of the many contributors to the project, that KDE has lost sight of what they really want the desktop to look like. They seem to rather focus on what the desktop "can do," not what it "can look."

If I compare basic thought and ideas that I associate to glass, I always think of things that I can touch but very carefully, such as a flower vase, a chandelier, a glass of water. These objects are artfully molded but very delicate. I want to appreciate them but not touch them.

However, when I think of solidity, I associate this word to things like rocks, metal, strength. These objects can be molded in many different ways and they do not seem to break. They are rigid and they feel solid enough that I can rely on their strength or sturdiness.

When it comes to graphical environment design, I see many differences and even confusion as to what the idea behind the whole is. I believe that there should be an overall idea behind the construction of a GUI, but as of right now OpenSUSE seems to be a little divided between the solids and the glassy elements of its KDE desktop.

Here is a solid-like design that I got to use a long time ago. I love QNX. It was only 45 MB and it was very nice looking. I think it still is, but now it's not so readily available.

Others have decided that transparency and glassy ideas are better. I just think it could lead to confusion.

Where does OpenSUSE stand on this?

OpenSUSE has a mix of various solid and glassy elements on it. The solid comes from the Oxygen window style. A very pretty element, but in my opinion, I think it lacks contrast that can give better understanding of its solidity as a window. Maybe a different color scheme or, even better, a brand new style just made for OpenSUSE. One that can bring out the beauty of the green and gray.

OpenSUSE also shows solidity on the Kickoff menu. But even here there are design elements that can be improved. For example, the way the colors and highlights are used seem very insubstantial. They do not clearly show what you are selecting. Again, an element that adds confusion to the overall line between solid and glass.

An area where SUSE shows glass is on the panel. It is equipped with a few icons for the Internet, desktop switching and it features a few buttons, plus the system tray at the right end. System tray however, does not seem solid. The same goes for the buttons featured in the panel appearance control.

I know well that this sounds like rant against KDE 4 and OpenSUSE, but I assure you that it is not. This is just an attempt to find an overall scheme in the design of OpenSUSE.

What should OpenSUSE do about glass versus solid?

So, OpenSUSE should try to look solid. Why? because solidity shows a stronger idea of strength and reliability. Glass looks are good and glossy, they are very eye candy, but could give the impression that it is something that can't be touched.

This means that OpenSUSE should have it's own window style, with custom buttons and window borders. Do not use Oxygen. Change the overall plasma theme and use graphics that show solidity. Use for example an updated version of the Domino style:

Is Creating Graphical Environments an Artistic Endeavor?

2010-07-22T23:37:00.000-06:00

I have worked on my blog for the past two weeks and I have received a few comments about what a desktop is and is not. I guess this is something that the KDE and Gnome people would be very much concerned about. I created a project called "OpenSUSE Revolution" in a personal effort to make SUSE understand that they really need to stand out and create better design. This is to make OpenSUSE more accepted by people who are migrating to Linux. To me, this is something that involves art and good design.

I compared a couple of ideas on the desktop to a piece of art by Cezanne. In it, I explained that this expressionist painting was able to make people who looked at it, understand that although it is expressionism, you still understand the shapes and forms in it and relate them to elements in real life. Later, I received this comment "A desktop is a tool, not a piece of art." Is this true? I want to put this question to you all.

To me, being an artist is something that extends beyond the scope of pictures and sculptures. Art is a form of expression to beautify things around you. I believe this is definitively something that can reach the Linux desktop as well. But every time people in the Linux community receive a push for artwork of a better quality, along come people who simply think this way, that your desktop is "just a tool."

One could say the same things about cars. A merely utilitarian tool, right? If this is so, then why do these companies have to spend so much time and effort designing new model of car. They hire people who can design something beautiful that is attractive to people so that they buy it. Then, making a car becomes a work of art, where art will become a functional mean to create attention and potential sales.

One could say the same thing about houses, furniture, etc. The list could go on and on. But one thing is clear, although the Linux desktop is a tool for everyday use it is by no means a tool that is devoid of artistic expression. This is the reason why it is so important for people involved with graphical environments to make the Linux desktop better looking. They work hard into making it pretty usable and a masterpiece.

The problem comes when you want to make your desktop prettier than it is. When your ideas are something that involves art. To make the Linux desktop better and prettier requires an artistic endeavor, then it becomes harder to do because there are those who think that involving art and computers is simply not possible and stupid. Certain people just do not understand the artistic world. They think that placing some glossy buttons on the desktop is as far as you go with being "artistic" on your graphical environment.

Art is design, design is artistic. You cannot separate the two. If you are going to design a graphical environment, you will always aim for what is better. That includes art.

Art is expression that speaks to the mind and senses. Art is part of our daily lives. When I use a graphical environment I look for what looks best. That which is simple and pretty. I enjoy an environment that is flexible enough that will allow me to customize it. Change the buttons, wallpapers, style, etc.

If you think differently, post it. But I doubt my opinion will change.

Combined ideas about SUSE and KDE

2010-07-21T18:05:00.000-06:00

Hello you all.

I just created a simple animation that could become a replacement for the waiting bar when Suse is launching. I think that having something like a throbber or spinner is better than having a progress bar. Why? because progress bars are nice but they have a "promise" within them. The promise is that once the bar reaches the end, then you will have your desktop ready to use. Spinners, however, do not have this promise in them and are still able to convey the idea that you have to wait until the system loading is over. I tried a few things before like this:

Of course, that was a little rough. I used more as a proof of concept, not the final product. Then I worked on it a little harder and this is what I got:

Better Design

2010-07-21T09:25:00.000-06:00

Because you guys have been so great and have visited my blog about 3000 times now. I have decided to make a little investment on it. I went to campus (Yes, I am a college student) and decided to get a drawing tablet. It's a basic one, the Bamboo Pen made by Wacom. I like it a lot and it does feel easier for me to start coming up with conceptual artwork for the blog. I think better design is related to having better tools and I hope that from now on, the idea posted on this blog become more appealing to you.

If for some reason, you are not satisfied with my designs, bear in mind that I am not a graphics artist nor a computer science student. I study history, from the Middle East, so although I now about ancient design, it's hard for me to come up with something very professional. Either way, enjoy and this Wacom is a gift to your visits and great comments.

A revolutionary road to get around.

2010-07-18T01:19:00.000-06:00

Hey you all. I would first like to thank all of you who have visited this website and looked at the ideas I have posted. I am deeply honored that many of you too have considered these ideas worthwhile and would like to see them implemented.

Well, here comes a good one I think. As I was talking to some people on the KDE IRC channel yesterday, there was a comment made about a possible way to orient new KDE users on how to use the desktop. However, I believe that users should be left clues to discover their desktop on their own. There should not be an intro popup or anything like that. Ponder about this for a moment.

What can you say, for example, about paintings. Paintings are not "explained" to anyone. You look at it and you get it in your own particular way. That is enough for you and you know what it means. The clues left by the artist are clear enough to your mind that you find meaning in the painting. You intuitively "know" what the purpose of the painting is. Reflect for a moment on this Cezanne and know what it means.

Beautiful. I love this painting.

Anyway, for KDE this idea is not very clear, I think, neither is it for the folks at OpenSUSE. Here is what they do:

You see that huge pop up in the middle of the desktop? I sure do, and if anything, it does not feel like it's there to teach me what the desktop does. Not for novice people either. Just think of the message at the bottom about the "build service" provided by OpenSUSE (which is excellent). That is certainly not geared to me. Moreover, there is a link within it where you can find an "introduction to KDE" which ends up being an internet link. How does this, if I may ask, teach anyone how to use the buttons and bars located behind this huge pop up?

It reminds me of this

And my behavior toward pop up windows has not changed since I started using the Internet. I close the pop up. I do not want it there. I believe this is a behavior shared by many, given the fact that novice users are Internet users primarily. The Internet is easier to use than many apps in their computers.

Here is the Revolution Idea that I thought of. I have seen things like these before and they have worked great for me. Simply add a notification upon first start. Give 2 simple instructions and then let the user discover.

Two simple instructions that can lead to great discovery. No Internet links, no desktop blockers, just empowering instructions. These notifications can go away after clicking each of them, I guess, and they could come back if there was a link on the desktop or something of the sort.

I know what you're thinking, the notification on top does not describe the menu that is showing there. Don't worry, I know that. It's just that I love the BeOS like menu up there. But the plasma widget selector is a good one too.

Tell me what you think. Let's make this idea grow. And in case you are wondering where all these ideas are coming from, here is the book that inspires me the most.

http://www.amazon.com/Presentation-Zen-Simple-Design-Delivery/dp/0321525655/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279437212&sr=1-1

Don't feel like you have to get the book, you'd better check out his blog. Garr is an amazing presenter and designer.

presentationzen.com

New Logo!!!

2010-07-17T19:50:00.001-06:00

Hey friends, as you may notice I made a new logo and put it on top of this blog, I have created a simple image with Inkscape to brand my blog a little better. An image is worth a thousand words, I hope this proves true for me :D.

Revolutionary Desktop Switching: An Analysis

2010-07-15T13:20:00.000-06:00

This is an old favorite of mine. Here is the problem, switching desktops on a Linux machine with or without compiz is not intuitive. Why? because it is related to some window keys Ctrl+Alt+Right or Left Arrow, it is a secondary menu, or it depends on the mouse being at the corner of the window.

All of these ideas, while being well-intentioned, in nature, simply become annoying because they are hard to discover, they are somewhat hidden, and they tend to be not novice user friendly.

The other problem is that as people talk about being user-friendly, they generally say that they don't want Linux to be "dummed down," or made so simple that only stupid people can use. The fact of the matter is, though, that, in my view, no one should expect its Linux distribution to be a puzzle only solvable for the "smart" people that can figure out its tricks. In the scientific world there is the idea that the simplest answer to a question is always the right one. When many theories explain one phenomenon then they choose the simplest one to reveal its truthfulness.

This idea can also be applied to the desktop. In the desktop we have a few "theories" about how one should take use of virtual desktops.

Here are some of them:

This idea shows how compiz handles virtual desktops. You could assign a mouse gesture or a key combination to bring up the any virtual desktops you have at your disposal. It is very simple to use, but again, there are key combos to do and hot corners on the desktop to work with. It happens many times to people that use my laptop that they want to drive away the mouse pointer and end up hitting the hot corner which pans out showing you the desktops, then it's harder for them to figure out what happened and need a way to get back to that space.

Here is another one:

In this one, the panel has a square with many smaller squares which represent each virtual desktop. although this idea is simple and straightforward, I see some difficult things to deal with. One is, of course, size. Size is a problem since the space in a desktop screen is limited, and the space used by this applet (which also exists in KDE) is very reduced. You have to click right into that small section within the applet and then you will be able to switch between desktops. Very practical but too small.

This one is a little more complicated than the ones before (also part of extra functions on KDE windows)
Here you have to use the right button on your mouse to send the desired window into a different workspace. You have to choose which one and in some cases, you could even name them differently so they are easier to use. But who in the world does this? Who uses a secondary menu to send a window to an adjacent virtual desktop. No one. Instead, people often choose to clutter their current workspace and leave it as it is because it is less bothersome.

Then, what is the answer. I believe it starts with simplicity first. Using KDE current widget power, a set of arrows can be placed on the desktop to have users switch between them. I have seen KDE work really hard on creating widgets for the desktop but more often than not, I feel like KDE just found a way to clutter the desktop and think that it looks pretty. It is the same that happens with Opensuse, because this is something that they have not really thought about or wanted to change.

Here is a screenshot of my idea:

Why do I think that this is better? I think that being able to see where you could go is more simple than figuring out where to go, like the other models. This idea also resembles the way a book is viewed forward and backwards, page by page. In a book, for example, we realize that there is a numeric marker at the bottom, a page number, that tells us where we are, where we've come from and where we can go. With these arrows on the desktop, it is the same thing. We know where we are and can go wherever we want to. This idea could even be taken further and imitate another good idea from the land of Apple.

If you notice on the iPad book reader, there not only a page number but also a tracker in the middle that shows you how far you are into the book.

If my idea of desktop switching arrows is simple enough, then people also need to know where they are in their desktops, or how far are they into them.

So, tell me what you think...

Anditosan :D

From the Land of the Reptiles

2010-07-05T20:37:00.000-06:00

Well Revolutionaries, I am here again to give you some of that Gecko magic lost over time by Opensuse. Here is a batch of Geckos I found on Fickr that I thing are great pictures. I believe this could end up being part of the native wallpaper collection included in the next version of Opensuse.

And, you know, thinking about the flare that comes with opensuse; the only thing that brings back that Gecko green feeling is the Opensuse icon spread in the system. I don't think people understand the reason why Opensuse ships this one icons with a gecko face in it. I mean, does it look like a gecko anymore?

You be the judge after checking out these wallpapers.

The BeOS Rebellion

2010-06-26T01:07:00.000-06:00

Well, I am not much of a historian when it comes to computers. I do study history though, but of the Middle East in college. This is the thing though. There used to be a very nice operating system back in the 2000s called BeOS.
I got to download the iso image (about 50 MB) and installed it on an old Compaq computer and booted it with a diskette. This small operating system had many bugs but it was at the same time very capable. I really enjoyed playing with it.
The system was then not too popular and PALM bought it. That was the end of it as a free operating system and then other projects came out of it, like HAIKU and Zeta. Just imitations of the original system but this time based on Linux.

One of the things that impressed me the most about this system was its revolutionary System Menu. Unlike Windows, it was located at the top right of the screen. It was not a panel styled menu, it was rather like a box that expanded and contracted depending on the applications that you were running. If you right-clicked it, then you would be able to get the actual menu with all the applications installed on your computer.

Once KDE 4 came out and the right top corner was adorned with the plasma widget menu, I was immediately brought back to the way BeOS handled the system menu.

Now, my idea is, what if the OpenSuSE rebellion treated this menu like BeOS? Here is some results.

Now, you may wonder why? But I have noticed that as a user I spend a lot of time on the right side of the screen. I am right handed, scroll bars are on the right, add tabs button is on the right; close, minimize and maximize buttons are on the right. So it seems very useful to me not to have to go across the whole screen down to the bottom left in order to launch my applications.

Like it?

Update Version of System Settings

2010-06-25T20:09:00.000-06:00

I am sorry that I wasn't able to present something very solid. I worked on Illustrator as well as Inkscape to come up with this mockup. But here is a version that I worked on. I think it looks better. Enjoy!.

Rebellion Treatment for KDE System Settings

2010-06-23T15:14:00.000-06:00

Hey you all revolutionaries of the OpenSUSE Desktop. I have been working hard to bring you my latest creation. This time I thought that it would be nice to work out some of the settings that you find on the KDE System Settings. This mockups are far from perfect but take into account the idea of a horizontal bar for each of the main items and also the touches of green and grays. I especially like the dark background for the window background and the green rim around the buttons.

I hope you like it and send me comments.

(correction, I just realized that the highlighted buttons on top of this concept do not correspond to the section displayed below. This is just something I did after a long time and I forgot about this detail in the end)

The Music - Strength In Numbers

2010-06-17T10:44:00.000-06:00

Hey ya'll, I was listening to one of my favorite bands the other day and thought that these 2 songs are just what we need to get pumped for our OpenSUSE Revolution. Enjoy!

Strength in Numbers

And the other one

Use Customized Gnome-Do

2010-06-12T13:33:00.000-06:00

One of the interesting things that I recently discovered was the power of Gnome-Do as a launcher. I can't stop using it. It is simple and fast. I also added the folder search functionality and it indexes my files so that I can type their names and they pop on the menu.

The only thing about this launcher that I think could change is a set of simple tools. One would be the functionality to add a selected program to a Favorite Menu or the bottom panel as a launcher. I say this because it is very common for me to be looking for a program that in certain instances would be faster launching if such application was always visible somewhere on the screen. So, for this mockup I put 2 icons below the Miro Icon but probably one is enough.

Another thing that I want gnome-do to do is not only to show you 1 application at a time but that as you type, that you can see more applications and if you don't want to keep typing because the application you want is on the screen, then select it with arrow keys or your mouse pointer. You save time by typing less.
This idea would be part of the OpenSUSE desktop Revolution. A SUSE customized Gnome-Do launcher.

Simple File Manager

2010-06-12T01:16:00.000-06:00

Hi, here is an idea of a file manager. It needs work but I think that the main ideas are explicit. I took after conceptual work done for Nautilus and applied color and ideas about it.

Notice the bottom menu for access to often used folders. I added a gray band and a pair of arrows. The arrows will be able to raise or lower the folders menu. That way, it will be easier to focus the users' view to the files and folders they are working with and nothing else. A simple approach.

The icons are part of the elementary collection but I only placed them there, not because they are the best for suse, but because they were simple enough as a folder drawing concept. But I am sure that people have other ideas for SUSE and can create simple folders with a good balance of color. Enjoy and leave me some ideas.

Welcome to the Revolution

2010-06-11T00:58:00.000-06:00

OpenSUSE is a great distribution. For years, it has shown great community power and great configuration tools for the desktop. Unlike other linux flavors, OpenSUSE has not entirely relied on the coding of desktop managers, such as KDE, to take command of the desktop. However, in my opinion, Suse has forgotten what it is like to style its distribution to the teeth. I still remember, for example, when the logo used for launching OpenOffice was a stunning picture of a gecko. When I used it, it felt so stylish and different. It was daring and out of the ordinary.

Most of these styling decisions were used on KDE 3.x, but with the advent of KDE 4 and the new approach to desktop usage, OpenSUSE has not been able to stand out on its own as a strong and solid. KDE 4 has become a standard and suse has relied too much on KDE's design team and has lost most of its power to stand out as its own brand.

In the latest milestone released by the OpenSUSE team, the only thing that stands out to me as purely OpenSUSE styling was the wallpaper, and to my opinion, not a good one. The menu bar at the bottom is just like any other menu bar out there. The style used is the default Oxygen style used by any other KDE based distro. The Oxygen style is a great style but it is not flexible. The button sizes, colors and other elements are somewhat locked and can't be changed. Unfortunately, styles like Domino for KDE 3.x were not ported to the latest KDE 4 and no changes could be made to the default style in similar ways that it was done with the Domino style.

I remember when Nuno Pinheiro showed me the mockups for the upcoming Oxygen style and I was stunned. But working with mockups and coding those mockups are not always best friends. In the end, the OpenSUSE KDE desktop has become a mere mirror of any other unbranded KDE desktop.

Now that Novell is up for sale, it is even more important for the OpenSUSE community to stay strong and attact attention to it so that it does not die as a world class operating system. My suggestion to do this is to deeply re-style the Desktop. Start with a formatted file manager (and great ideas about these programs are out there in the web), from there, SUSE needs to create a brand new window style. Stop cloning the Oxygen style. Stop conforming to what the KDE team offers (though great it may be) and be yourself SUSE.

SUSE needs to reclaim the desktop based on simple things such as having a great and daring color palette for the desktop. If you notice, the opensuse default wallpaper is green, and yet the highlighted items on the file manager is blue, as well as the oxygen style icons. Suse, loses its branding fairly quickly once KDE 4 is used.

The OpenSUSE revolution starts now! I will be posting ideas on how to restyle SUSE from the ground up and if you as a reader are interested in what I do, join me. Join me now and SUSE will look the way that it should, so that users learn to recognize us.

ANDITOSAN