Comment 661 for bug 532633

Think about how your grandma would react if she had been using
computers since 1971 and an X11 based GUI with the window buttons in
the upper right corner since 1986. How would she feel if she did an
update, rebooted, and found that the buttons were not where she
expected them to be. And, she also found that the color scheme had
been changed to something hurt her eyes to look at it?

That is the situation I'm in. Believe it or not there are a lot of
people out here who have been using computers and GUIs for a long
time. We have developed reflexes, muscle memory, that lets us know how
to use the GUI without even thinking about it. We have eyes that
require bifocal lenses. It takes a while for our eyes to adjust to new
light levels. Something the new background requires us to do every
time we look at a different part of the screen. We might not see
differences in gray levels as well as we did 40 years ago, which makes
reading gray text on what ever that color is in the Lucid theme a
challenge.

My wife saw the default desktop on a machine I had just installed. Her
reaction, was "You're not going to do that to my machine." Not a
question, a statement. Is she "non-technical"? Sure, if you count
rocket science as non-technical. She is an ME. She can put her stamp
to the plans for a new building and make it legal to build the
building. And, yes, she spent much of her career designing rocket
motors and systems. Computer programmers are among the least technical
of all the technical fields.

Your attitude toward adults is really disgusting to me.

Bob Pendleton

On Fri, Mar 26, 2010 at 5:41 AM, Imre Gergely <email address hidden> wrote:
> @Pietro Battiston: I don't think you can be 100% sure that Debian (or
> any other distro) won't do something in the future you will dislike...
>
> Tech people think that non-techies (your grandmother) will ZOMG what
> happened to the buttons. Just try to explain that she has to click on
> the left now to close the windows and not on the right, and she'll get
> it in notime and forget about it. I have non-tech parents, too, with
> Ubuntu installed at home, and grandparents who learned how to use a
> mobile (at their age).
>
> It's just us who are "too aware" about these things (us, who read these
> bugreports and comment way too much on them). Your grandma will probably
> think, "ummm there's no button here... but there! on the other side,
> that looks the same, let's click it and see what happens. Tadda!" She
> won't care, they've changed it, ok, she'll get used to it. If she can
> use a computer, she will figure it out.
>
> It's still easier than Ctrl+W, Ctrl+Q, Alt+F4 or File/Quit ;)
>
> --
> [Master] Window Control buttons: position/order/alignment
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/532633
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of a duplicate bug.
>
> Status in “light-themes” package in Ubuntu: Triaged
> Status in “metacity” package in Ubuntu: Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
> *** As per the design team's request***
> All bugs concerning the window controls are being duped to this master bug.
> All the decisions regarding the position/order/alignment will be dealt as a one.
> -----
>
> Please centre the window title like in previous Human theme, and also re-order the window controls in classic order, positioned on the right side (menu - title - minimize, maximize close).
>
> ==== Workaround ====
> To revert to old layout, enter in terminal:
> $ gconftool-2 --set /apps/metacity/general/button_layout --type string "menu:minimize,maximize,close"
>
> --OR--
>
> Use this PPA: https://launchpad.net/~stownsend42/+archive/light-themes
> This option will also fix the graphical appearance of the buttons.
>
> ==== Overview ====
> Canonical design team leader - "Those pesky buttons" - 2010-03-10
> http://www.ivankamajic.com/?p=281
> http://podcast.ubuntu-uk.org/2010/03/17/s03e03-behind-the-screen/ (30-minute interview starting at 39:10)
>
> Mark Shuttleworth's reply (on this bug report) - 2010-03-15
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/light-themes/+bug/532633/comments/110 + ~10 following replies
>
> =======
> To maintain a respectful atmosphere, while commenting please follow the code of conduct - http://www.ubuntu.com/community/conduct/ .
>
>
>
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>

--
+-----------------------------------------------------------
+ Bob Pendleton: writer and programmer
+ email: <email address hidden>
+ web: www.TheGrumpyProgrammer.com