On Sat, Dec 20, 2008 at 10:17 AM, Dimi Paun <dimi(a)lattica.com> wrote:
Look Jeff, you are right that there were snide comments on each
side.
But the pro-change people produced pretty good arguments for change:
Good "persuasive" arguments come down to knowing what the priorities
of the people you are trying to persuade are.
1. both Windows and MacOS (between them they cover something like
95%
of computer users) use browser mode. These companies have done
extensive UI studies which we can't afford.
2. like it or not, (1) + the Principle of least surprise it follows
that we shouldn't change from expected behavior lightly.
3. all other major Linux distros (Ubuntu & Suse) use spacial, so
what kind of meaning is there left in "upstream"?
4. the change was initially pushed without any consideration to
people preferences & expected behavior. If held to the same
standards, it should have never been implemented.
If you were paying attention to the talk coming out of GNOME about the
usability hackfest they had, you would know this isn't a persuasive
argument. There has been a lot of chatter about significantly
changing the desktop interface away from traditional usage patterns.
If you have problems with spatial, I dare say that the gnome shell
concept will in fact melt your mind.
5. Google for "Ubuntu change nautilus to spatial mode"
vs.
"Fedora change nautilus to browser mode". In the first case,
you get about 3500 hits (mostly of people _complaining_ about
spatial mode), whereas in the second case you get over 10000
hits for people trying to change to browser mode, complaining
about spatial, or trying to vote for change.
I do not believe in Google trending as a valid way to do statistically
viable population sampling. I'm still looking for a peer reviewed
scientific journal article
which attempts to validate this technique. I'm not a fan of psuedo-science.
Where there _any_ decent arguments for spatial? No, other than
a few people saying they like it, and plenty of suggestions for
going on wild goose chases. Thanks, but no thanks.
If the community can not have input even in clear-cut scenarios
like this one, you have to understand that people will feel
frustrated and disappointed. Sad.
Feel frustrated. Feel disappointed. Such things are your right as an
irrational human being. Just as the developers are going to feel
frustration and disappointment and how Mark as the leading proponent
of change is handling this with his cross-posting and what not. We
are way way way past constructive discussion. We were way past
constructive discussion the moment Mark posted asking for a vote.
-jef