I think you will find that both the GNOME and KDE Desktops are about getting some kind of Standard way of doing desktop stuff. KDE is probably more standardised than GNOME. (I use gnome)
I think that it would be Dangerous to set those Guidelines in Concrete just yet. There is a Lot of Room for improvement over the mac and windows interfaces. For instance I tried linux/Xwindows mainly to use the gimp. Going back to using Photoshop is a major pain in the rear because of all the Modal dialogues.
I like the way that in general XWindows lets the user choose how things work rather than the programmer all you have to do is set up the defaults to the way most people think the computer should work. (Mac or windows)- maybe there should be a panel somewhere that says choose your interface type - there should be 3 choices - Mac, Windows and Custom.
Make it easy to change settings - so that if someone else wants to use your computer to show you how to do something they don't need to log out. Make it easy to change keyboard short cuts - (the Gimp does this very well). Let the user decide there own interface guidelines - but make it easy for someone else switch the system. to there own preferred settings.
And please someone out there in GNOME land put a switch in so that I can turn OFF the modal dialogues of all gnome apps.
Apoligies for rambling - I don't have time to edit my message.
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I think you will find that both the GNOME and KDE Desktops are about getting some kind of Standard way of doing desktop stuff. KDE is probably more standardised than GNOME. (I use gnome) I think that it would be Dangerous to set those Guidelines in Concrete just yet. There is a Lot of Room for improvement over the mac and windows interfaces. For instance I tried linux/Xwindows mainly to use the gimp. Going back to using Photoshop is a major pain in the rear because of all the Modal dialogues. I like the way that in general XWindows lets the user choose how things work rather than the programmer all you have to do is set up the defaults to the way most people think the computer should work. (Mac or windows)- maybe there should be a panel somewhere that says choose your interface type - there should be 3 choices - Mac, Windows and Custom. Make it easy to change settings - so that if someone else wants to use your computer to show you how to do something they don't need to log out. Make it easy to change keyboard short cuts - (the Gimp does this very well). Let the user decide there own interface guidelines - but make it easy for someone else switch the system. to there own preferred settings. And please someone out there in GNOME land put a switch in so that I can turn OFF the modal dialogues of all gnome apps. Apoligies for rambling - I don't have time to edit my message.