GNOME/GTK+ Human Interface Guidelines Updated

[phoronix]

Phoronix: GNOME/GTK+ Human Interface Guidelines Updated

Allan Day has updated the Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) for the GNOME project and more broadly for all GTK+ applications...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTc3MTA

[M1kkko]

This picture right here makes me want a way to get this on my tablet.



And no, I'm not talking about some weird new tablet product with a preinstalled Gnome3 linux os, but a generic (debian/ubuntu based?) linux distro that one could install on their Nexus 10 or other existing android tablet (the same way the Ubuntu touch works).

Because as much I understand the controversy of Gnome pushing this kind of UI design for desktop users, I believe this could actually be pretty neat on a tablet.

Is there such a distro available? (If that's a 'no', then are there any specific reasons no-one has yet created one, despite there being a million linux distros for x86 PCs?)

[Ericg]

This picture right here makes me want a way to get this on my tablet.



And no, I'm not talking about some weird new tablet product with a preinstalled Gnome3 linux os, but a generic (debian/ubuntu based?) linux distro that one could install on their Nexus 10 or other existing android tablet (the same way the Ubuntu touch works).

Because as much I understand the controversy of Gnome pushing this kind of UI design for desktop users, I believe this could actually be pretty neat on a tablet.

Is there such a distro available? (If that's a 'no', then are there any specific reasons no-one has yet created one, despite there being a million linux distros for x86 PCs?)

ARM has really shitty OS support... This is getting better with ACPI 5.1 and UEFI but until we get to the point where one OS image can be used across tons of different and varied tablets and phones, then there probably won't "Linux on ARM" for the average tinkerer except for projects like Rasbian (dedicated distros for ONE piece of hardware).

That, or wait for x86 tablets.

[zxy_thf]

ARM has really shitty OS support... This is getting better with ACPI 5.1 and UEFI but until we get to the point where one OS image can be used across tons of different and varied tablets and phones, then there probably won't "Linux on ARM" for the average tinkerer except for projects like Rasbian (dedicated distros for ONE piece of hardware).

That, or wait for x86 tablets.

Once I was attracted by Dell Venue 8 Pro but later I decided to wait for the next gen of atom processors, which will be 14nm

[curaga]

There's been x86 tablets for over a decade, and Linux support for many of them, but none have broken into wide use. Check out Fujitsu Stylistic for some history.

[mark45]

The Gnome devs are not qualified to give any GUI guidelines. They're as "good" as the GNU coding guidelines, so what Linus said of them applies to Gnome's crappy UI vision as well:

First off, I'd suggest printing out a copy of the GNU coding standards,
and NOT read it. Burn them, it's a great symbolic gesture.

[Akka]

Gnome gets better and better.

[plonoma]

ARM has really shitty OS support... This is getting better with ACPI 5.1 and UEFI but until we get to the point where one OS image can be used across tons of different and varied tablets and phones, then there probably won't "Linux on ARM" for the average tinkerer except for projects like Rasbian (dedicated distros for ONE piece of hardware).

That, or wait for x86 tablets.

Rejoice, because ARM is working on a platform standard!

And have already announced the standard:
http://www.arm.com/about/newsroom/ar...m-standard.php
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7721/a...tform-standard
http://arstechnica.com/information-t...e-server-room/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server_...m_Architecture

[drspinderwalf]

I find Gnome to be really usable on the desktop/laptop. By default it's a little too clunky but with a few extensions it's way better than the time I had with gnome 2.X.

I suggest "AppKeys" because one can easily switch instantly to a app rather than cludge around with alt-tab, dash to dock, and then reduce the size of menubars in /usr/share/themes/Adwaita/metacity-1/metacity-theme-3.xml. The header bars are really nice because there's a net increase in space savings while still providing useful and predictable actions for a program... but the regular menubars are way too huge on my poor 1366x768 laptop.

The workflow and design has really made me happy as a user, and I look forward for the more recent incarnations to hit debian stable (as 3.4 was still transitioning from the bad to the good).

Gnome gets a lot of flak (much of it legitimate) but I really think they're doing a great job with making a solid user experience.

[justmy2cents]

The Gnome devs are not qualified to give any GUI guidelines. They're as "good" as the GNU coding guidelines, so what Linus said of them applies to Gnome's crappy UI vision as well:

wouldn't agree on that and i'm no gnome lover. good gui guidelines will only point you in the direction of how to make clean and easy to follow interface and all these designs are just that. they are all nice and clean

now,... if only gnome realized appmenu breaks all of these, gnome would be perfect. not to mention it looks completely out of place with the design of gnome-shell. if they simply bolded application name instead of displaying icon, interface would at least look much better. still unusable feature that is done against any usability, but at least not spoiling visual appearance

personally, i'd be even happier if the new feature in gtk 3.10 for appmenu worked better as it does.
right now, some applications do as intended and add button to headerbar, some others like gedit add appmenu items to its menu and everything is cluttered while some apps don't use it at all. if they simply made that change to headerbar to display left appmenu button if option is set and appmenu on top only visible when that is not set, gnome would be really usable. well, i'd still miss system wide groups in shell menu, but that one is not so terrible