IMHO the "average user" has indeed mostly abandoned PCs in favor of tablets and smartphones, as far as home use is concerned.
I'm not sure a convergence a la GNOME Shell makes sense -- the most successful execution in this category is probably OS X/iOS, and notice that they ship the OS X-based iOS *first*, and only gradually tailor OS X later to make the user experience more consistent.
So yes, making the default end-user-friendly is a good idea, but I think "confusing" features should only be hidden by default, not yanked out altogether, and only if advanced configuration tools like gnome-tweak-tool and dconf-editor become first-class supported apps. Otherwise we're chasing a user segment that doesn't exist in sufficient numbers yet.
And someone better do something about GNOME Shell's graphics stack. I've given up using it on a top-of-the-line 2013 Dell ultrabook because it just gobbles up RAM and CPU cycles like crazy. (Yes, it's using an Intel graphics chipset)
Power management, mobile and firmware developer on Linux. Security developer at nvidia. Ex-biologist. Content here should not be interpreted as the opinion of my employer. Also on Mastodon and Bluesky.
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Re: Thoughts
Date: 2013-08-23 02:08 am (UTC)I'm not sure a convergence a la GNOME Shell makes sense -- the most successful execution in this category is probably OS X/iOS, and notice that they ship the OS X-based iOS *first*, and only gradually tailor OS X later to make the user experience more consistent.
So yes, making the default end-user-friendly is a good idea, but I think "confusing" features should only be hidden by default, not yanked out altogether, and only if advanced configuration tools like gnome-tweak-tool and dconf-editor become first-class supported apps. Otherwise we're chasing a user segment that doesn't exist in sufficient numbers yet.
And someone better do something about GNOME Shell's graphics stack. I've given up using it on a top-of-the-line 2013 Dell ultrabook because it just gobbles up RAM and CPU cycles like crazy. (Yes, it's using an Intel graphics chipset)