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Open Week -- Desktop Q+A -- Rick Spencer -- Tue, May 4

EDT -5

(03:01:25 PM) rickspencer3: Hi!
(03:01:27 PM) akgraner: Rick you all can take it away!
(03:01:35 PM) rickspencer3: thanks akgraner
(03:01:50 PM) rickspencer3: I'm in Brussels and sitting with seb128 and didrocks atm
(03:02:19 PM) rickspencer3: so I guess this a QA session, where folks get to ask questions and we answer
(03:02:21 PM) rickspencer3: right
(03:02:21 PM) rickspencer3: ?
(03:02:26 PM) rickspencer3: so let's rock
(03:02:45 PM) rickspencer3: ask away
(03:03:31 PM) ClassBot: mbudde asked: What are you thoughts on windicators?
(03:03:37 PM) rickspencer3: hmmm
(03:03:55 PM) rickspencer3: well, I just learned about this idea yesterday
(03:04:02 PM) rickspencer3: but so far, I think it's a cool idea
(03:04:38 PM) rickspencer3: we'll have to get the Client Side Decorations work landed and fixed up right quick early in the cycle to ensure that windicators are solid
(03:04:48 PM) rickspencer3: I'd prefer a less whimsical name ;)
(03:04:57 PM) ClassBot: akgraner asked: I love the desktop on 10.04 are there many plans to change it in 10.10? and if so what can we expect?
(03:05:15 PM) rickspencer3: ewe, nice question
(03:05:15 PM) ChanServ has changed the topic to: Welcome to the Ubuntu Classroom - http://wiki.ubuntu.com/Classroom || Support in #ubuntu || Upcoming Schedule: http://is.gd/8rtIi || Event: Ubuntu Open Week - Current Session: Desktop Q+A - Instructors: seb128, didrocks_, rickspencer3 || Questions in #ubuntu-classroom-chat
(03:05:40 PM) mode (+v didrocks_) by ChanServ
(03:05:40 PM) rickspencer3: since UDS is coming next week, we've been thinking a lot about this, of course
(03:06:03 PM) rickspencer3: so there is some house keeping regarding gnome
(03:06:20 PM) rickspencer3: like catching up with some of the latest stuff that we didn't get, like evolution
(03:06:38 PM) rickspencer3: I'd like to take another look at the experience with Pictures, and see if we can simplify that
(03:06:49 PM) rickspencer3: and of course, continue the work on indicators
(03:07:18 PM) rickspencer3: and I'd like to see a lot of folks write some cool new apps too
(03:07:31 PM) ClassBot: shazzner asked: Usability is still a problem for Linux on the desktop how can the community work to improve this, or must we rely on Canonical?
(03:07:37 PM) rickspencer3: deep question
(03:08:02 PM) rickspencer3: so usability is a problem generally, not just on Linux, though this does not alter your central point
(03:08:13 PM) Jorjao is now known as Ursinha
(03:08:24 PM) rickspencer3: in terms of "relying on Canonical" I'm not sure what to say there
(03:08:38 PM) rickspencer3: I would think that folks would want their own apps to be easy to use, of course
(03:09:10 PM) rickspencer3: I would invite contributions to UDS planning that are related to usability
(03:10:01 PM) rickspencer3: I would love to see some community efforts around collecting real usability data
(03:10:11 PM) rickspencer3: not sure what else to say there
(03:10:16 PM) rickspencer3: sorry for the bad answer :/
(03:10:30 PM) ClassBot: shazzner asked: to clarify are most of the usability improvements going to be coming from Canonical or is there a path for the community to improve it?
(03:10:41 PM) rickspencer3: well, I guess it means what you mean by "community" here
(03:10:58 PM) rickspencer3: I would think that the community of people who write applications that run on the desktop have a huge role to play
(03:11:22 PM) rickspencer3: I would think that the community of folks who contribute to the ayatana discussion feel those discussions in and of themselves are contributions
(03:11:38 PM) rickspencer3: of course feedback on blueprints and on development versions are contributions
(03:11:56 PM) rickspencer3: things like the new manual project are great contributions
(03:12:08 PM) rickspencer3: and then folks come up with some really innovative things that make things easier
(03:12:21 PM) rickspencer3: like Ground Control, etc...
(03:12:34 PM) ClassBot: akgraner asked: I recently read on the ayatana mailing list that they system tray was going away in 11.04 - are you move the desktop in the direction of gnome shell?
(03:12:58 PM) rickspencer3: by system tray, I guess this is the "notification area"?
(03:13:21 PM) rickspencer3: so this is not going away, so much as being replaced but what we now call "indicators"
(03:13:42 PM) rickspencer3: which are essentially strictly designed menus that provide similar functionality to indicators in a consistent manner
(03:14:33 PM) rickspencer3: I guess the fact that gnome-shell is interested in the same or similar concepts is good convergent validity that we are on a good path
(03:14:55 PM) ClassBot: x-Na asked: Remote desktop is a nice feature, but at it's current state it's not working if there are more than one user, to clarify: if another user logs in, you can't connect to your remote desktop.
(03:15:13 PM) rickspencer3: is there a question there? I'd answer if you can ask a question
(03:15:36 PM) ClassBot: sebsebseb asked: As an experienced Ubuntu user since the second release in 2005, with Ubuntu also not being my first distro, I have a mixture of positive and negative thoughts, when it comes to the non upstream Gnome editing that started happening with 9.04.   You guys seem to be the developers of Ubuntu, and so do you really think changing Gnome 2 a lot, whilst sort of forking it, is a good thing? Especially with Gnome 3 is just round the
(03:15:41 PM) rickspencer3: ah
(03:15:53 PM) rickspencer3: so you are asking about our relationship with upstream gnome?
(03:16:05 PM) rickspencer3: well, I still consider Ubuntu to be a gnome-based distro
(03:16:18 PM) rickspencer3: and I don't think there is really a "fork" at all
(03:16:54 PM) rickspencer3: but yes, we do focus on the user experience in Ubuntu, and hope that if upstream finds our work useful, they will adopt it as appropriate
(03:17:13 PM) akgraner: rickspencer3, here is the end of his question - corner, which I expect will also get edited by Ubuntu developers, but I hope only in a properly good way.
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