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Helix Code's Red Carpet Simplifies Package Updates
Ur@eus writes "There are some nice screenshoots of Red Carpet available from the Helix site. Red Carpet is Helix Code's upcomming package manager and it looks really great. Look here for the screenshots." This is a quite amazing looking little application... even looks to support Debian, so I'm happy as a clam. Very pretty and well designed. It'll be cool to test it out for real.
Helix will not be updated behind your back. That is a security concern we have always had. Although we could have done an automatic updater, we are aware of privacy concerns people have and the different levels of security that people want.
The new version will have an option to do automatic updates if you choose to, but it is not the default.
We would love to hear your opinion on security matters and we would be glad to tell you how things are done internally, but lets do that without attacking each other and by making informed comments instead of worst-case-scenario-assumptions.
Miguel.
I'm sure most people will agree with me, when I say that Helix-gnome has taken Gnome from being a collection of highly usable but unorganized applications, and shrink wrapped them together.
From the installer to the login screen, everything is well designed, looks very pretty, is well organized and just makes sense.
It it weren't for Helix-Gnome I would stick with KDE.
It seems to me that Helix-Gnome should perhaps become the default install of Gnome. I feel that Gnome is very much misconceived when compared to the likes of KDE et al. Helix-Gnome would help bring together all the applications. And let's be honest, first impressions are the most valuable. Your average linux newbie loads up gnome and thinks, well this is pretty neat. Then when he/she noticis all the inconsistencies and lack of organization they run screaming to KDE. Not so with Helix.
In fact I did a recent comparison in a group of 15 people, asking them to give their initial impressions on 1) kde (2.0 beta) 2) Gnome, 3) Helix-Gnome and 4)Windows 2000.
The questions revolved around usability, eye candy and easy of use. The results put KDE on top, Helix-gnome next, Window2000 and then Gnome. However the Windows2000 is somewhat misleading for most users had experience in windows. But the default install of Windows2000 lost major points on the eye candy factor, it really isn't very pretty by default.
The main comments were that people liked KDE's single click to open up icons. These were mostly adults who had used, but were not proficient with computers. I think especially for people who have not grown up using computers, the distinction between when to double click and when to single-click, or right-click, is very unclear. KDE did well in this area.
Helix-gnome received lots of compliments on organization and overall look and feel.
S.t.e.v.e.