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How Configurable Should a Desktop User Interface be?

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the hold-the-pickles-and-the-lettuce dept.

The Original Yama writes "In the world of user interface design there are two main schools of thought. The former maintains that the environment must be flexible and configurable enough to adjust to a user's needs. The latter takes the opposite perspective, arguing that many of today's user interfaces have become bloated and overloaded with features, and consequently have become difficult to maintain and use. KDE developer Mosfet shows how the KDE Project has managed to bridge the gap between the 'highly configurable' and 'less is more' camps."

2 of 541 comments (clear)

  1. Read here for the continuation of the discussion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
    Hey people, please do not forget to read Havoc's article about just that!!


    http://www106.pair.com/rhp/free-software-ui.html


    In fact, this news submission doesn't even include the rebuttal written by Mosfet two days ago, answering to Havoc Pennington's article, as linked above.

  2. Re:Average User by random_static · · Score: 5, Informative
    I think one of Linux' weak points is that it doesn't offer any real *alternative* when it comes to the GUI. I think Linux needs some sort of wildly different GUI, perhaps not even based on the WIMP metaphore.

    has it been so long already, that the Great X11 Window Manager Chaos is beginning to be forgotten?

    say, here's a beginner's guide sort of site for you. for the really exotic, not-even-WIMP-based ideas you'd really need a completely redesigned and rewritten application suite, which would take some little time to create, but a few of the more... exotic... WM's already out there might be good starting points. TreeWM, maybe Ion, maybe PWM, perhaps 3Dwm. or just go googling for "window manager", see how long that'll keep you busy...

    maybe it's a sign of getting old, when you can clearly remember the days of "unix has too many GUIs!" and seeing the good point that was therein made.