[TriLUG] redhat-config-network question

[Tanner Lovelace]

On Thu, 2003-02-27 at 22:25, Brent Fox wrote:

> I don't know what the founders of Gnome and KDE believed.  What I do
> know is that Apple was able to create Aqua for MacOS X in less time than
> KDE and Gnome have existed.  As far as I can tell, Aqua is generally
> regarded as superior to just about all other desktops in terms of
> consistency, usability, and look and feel.  The Linux desktop efforts
> are just beginning to understand things about UI design that Apple has
> known for years.  Consistency *is* a good thing.  

Okay, I have to call you on this one.  Aqua for MacOS is just
a differently themed NeXTStep, which has been around longer than
Linux has.  So, no, they didn't do it quicker than KDE and Gnome.
They've been working on it (probably continuously) since 1989!
(My first experience with Unix was with a pre-release NeXT cube
the summer of '89, so I know my dates on this).

> As Joel Spolsky writes, "The cardinal axion of all user interface
> design: A user interface is well-designed when the program behaves
> exactly how the user thought it would." 
> (http://www.joelonsoftware.com/uibook/chapters/fog0000000057.html) 
> Which is basically a rewording of the "Principle of Least Surprise." 
> Just about every book ever written on user interface design reinforces
> this over and over.  Having two sets of desktops, applications, and
> graphics toolkits that look and behave differently violates this.

If you use two sets of desktops, yes.  But, from what I remember, 
Lisa didn't want to use both of them.  She only wanted to use KDE.
Unfortunately, Red Hat (got that right, Jeremy? :-) didn't think it
was worth it to write their config tools in both toolkits, so that
she wouldn't have to use both toolkits.  Whose fault is that?


Tanner
-- 
Tanner Lovelace <lovelace at wayfarer.org>

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