KDE, Gnome, Softpedia and 2click Update.
What is the relationship between KDE, Gnome, Softpedia and 2click Update in my life with Linux ?
As you can see at 2click Update this script is Gnome-centric. I wanted to see if it can be compatible in an easy way with KDE-centric distro, for example Kubuntu.
So I decided to make a clean migration to KDesktop Environment. Its been 2 days since I switched from Ubuntu to Kubuntu 9.10 x64. Nice…. Plasma everywhere… Fancy and beautiful desktop. Its obvious where did Windows 7 got the ideas for its latest User Interface. Well, last night while I was working on porting 2clickUpdate v4.0 in English and also checking if 2clickUpdate is compatible with KDE, the Gmail-Plasma poped-up a “balloon” showing a new mail. Oh ok… lets see… Mail From “Softpedia Editorial Team”. What !!!!… Here is a portion of it:
Congratulations,
2click Update, one of your products, has been added to Softpedia’s database
of software programs for Linux. It is featured with a description text,
screenshots, download links and technical details on this page:
http://linux.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Administration/2click-Update-54274.shtmlThe description text was created by our editors, using sources such as text
from your product’s homepage, information from its help system, the PAD
file (if available) and the editor’s own opinions on the program itself.
[.......bla.... bla....]
–
Sincerely,
The Softpedia Team
Where did they find 2click Update ? Is there a Big Brother (of Softwares) ?
I am not quite sure but it is possible that they are watching closely the launchpad.net. It can’t be a coincidence. In a recent comment here by Simos Xenitellis, he proposed that I should consider using a Version Control System (VCS) so that anyone who wants to contribute to the code, can easily do it with a distributed version control system. I decided to upload and maintain the code at launchpad.net . If anybody wants to contribute in anyway just follow 2click Update at https://launchpad.net/2clickupdate .
So what are you waiting for …. go grab the latest development code, open it with your favourite text editor and get your hands dirty with scripting !
Αλληλεπίδραση με το Desktop του μέλλοντος
Πριν λίγες μέρες επισκέφτηκα ένα γνωστό πολυκατάστημα για αγορά ενός router που ήθελα να κάνω. Όπως έμπαινα, δεξιά είδα το νέο Touchsmart της HP. Είναι ένα PC τύπου iMac, χωρίς πύργο. Κάποιος που δεν έχει μάθει για την ύπαρξη του στην αγορά θα το προσπερνούσε αφού όταν το βλέπεις, νομίζεις ότι είναι άλλο ένα μοντέλο οθόνης, μιας και το είχαν δίπλα από άλλες οθόνες ( μέγα σφάλμα προωθητικής ενέργειας !).
Έπαιξα για λίγη ώρα μαζί του να δω πώς είναι να χειρίζεσαι το “Desktop” με τα χερια σου… αλλά το αποτέλεσμα δεν μου άρεσε. Μετά από λίγη ώρα το χέρι κουράζεται. Για να κάνεις κάτι με το ποντίκι θες απλά το δάχτυλό σου, σε touchscreen οθόνες θες όλο το χέρι ! Για την ίδια ποσότητα παραγωγής έργου θες πολλαπλάσια κατανάλωση ενέργειας άρα το αποτέλεσμα δεν είναι εργονομικό. Ίσως όλα αυτά να εξηγούν γιατί τα touchscreen και τα tablet pc δεν περπάτησαν τόσο στην αγορά και έτσι ακόμα χρησιμοποιούμε ποντίκι.
Τι μπορεί να γίνει όμως στο μέλλον ; Θα έχουμε κάποια επαναστατική αλλαγή; Ίσως να υπάρχει καλύτερος τρόπος με το να επεκταθεί η υπάρχουσα τεχνολογία των touchpad στα Notebook ώστε να γίνει χρήση και τω δύο χεριών μας με εργονομικό και ξεκούραστο τρόπο. Πρέπει όμως να γίνουν αλλαγές και στα λειτουργικά συστήματα.
Δείτε το παρακάτω βίντεο :
10/GUI from C. Miller on Vimeo.
Beauty and the… Desktop
Beauty is a characteristic of a person, place, object, or idea that provides a perceptual experience of pleasure, meaning, or satisfaction.The earliest theory of beauty can be found in the works of early Greek philosophers from the pre-Socratic period, such as Pythagoras. The Pythagorean school saw a strong connection between mathematics and beauty- a cold and austere type of beauty admittedly. In particular, they noted that objects proportioned according to the golden ratio (1.61803399) seemed more attractive.
There are researches indicating that the experience of beauty, emerges early in child development, and that the standards of beauty are similar across different genders and cultures. In its most profound sense, beauty may engender a salient experience of positive reflection about the meaning of one’s own existence. Because this is a subjective experience, it is often said that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” It is the quality that gives pleasure to the mind or senses and is associated with such properties as harmony of form or color, excellence of artistry, truthfulness, and originality. So, it was essential for the “silicon” industry and mostly for software industry to have some guidelines based on studies of human-computer interaction. One of the most important goals of human-computer interaction tests is the “Emotional response”. The studies produced a documented guidelines called “Human interface guidelines” (HIG). These are software development documents which offer application developers a set of recommendations on how to improve the experience for the users and making application interfaces more intuitive, learnable, and consistent. Examples of HIG for the two major Desktop Environments (DE)of Linux, are GNOME Human Interface Guidelines and KDE Human Interface Guidelines
GNOME Desktop
KDE Desktop
The DE is the first optical interaction when a computer boots up and is ready to operate by its user. Typically consists of icons, windows, toolbars, menus, folders, wallpapers, etc. Software architects of DE are trying to create a consistent experience across the environment, including all the applications and other tools being used. This doesn’t mean that they always succeed. The reason is mostly because FOSS developers are naturally free to break the rules of HIG if they think that they do not fit their application. As a result all those apps and tools may come to a point that brake the harmony of the environment and make the operating system look inconsistent and therefore “ugly”.
Fortunately, users of Linux operating system have the opportunity to alter easily the look n’ feel of their DE by changing the default themes, icons, fonts, menu and window styles etc or even their DE. Inevitably, this creates a huge amount of different Desktop styles, where every user has his own perception on how should the desktop look like. It seems that it is a pursuit of beauty and perfection for the eye of the beholder.
~ GNOME-look.org KDE-look.org ~
