10. The open/save dialog
The open/save dialog in some applications uses the Gnome virtual filesystem while some applications don't use it, resulting in a situation where the available locations for this action are not the same. This is especially a problem for people with network shares mounted through Nautilus.
Solution: All apps should use the Gnome virtual file system.
9. Importing music files in Rhythmbox
Rhythmbox has a preference for the location of your library and a file hierarchy, but doesn't move files there when you import folders. Instead, importing a folder is more like adding another location for your library.
Solution: The rhythmbox menu should have an import entry, which pulls the files into your library location and an add music location entry which uses the current method.
8. Browsing of samba shares
Nautilus is unable to browse shares which are in CJK locales when the user locale is different. Some of these share appear as dots while some are invisible. Other non-latin languages may be affected, as well. I'm not sure about that.
Solution: There needs to be a GUI option to set the browsing locale so that it's different from the current locale.
7. User switching and an unknown password
When a user uses the fast-user-switching applet to create a new X session and GDM login, what happens if the user doesn't know the password? He is stuck at the password prompt with no obvious way to get back to the first session. There is a time-out, but it is so long that most users will become frustrated before it kicks in and will press reset.
Solutions: A count-down timer for the time-out on the password prompt.
Failing after a single failed password.
An obvious way to switch between sessions or a quit button needs to be on the GDM login screen. This could be as simple as text stating "If you have multiple users logged in, you can switch to the first user's session by pressing CTRL-ALT-F7." It could be as complicated as a new entry in the Options menu.
6. Samba file sharing doesn't work well
There are a number of well-documented problems sharing via Samba. The share is user-level, but no password exists for the user. It's not browsable by default.
Solution: Make the default share-type share level access with an optional password to protect it. More advanced users can use another tool.
5. Do you unmount or eject USB keys?
If you yank a USB key or external drive out without unmounting it first, you are told to do it safely. Great. The directions, though, tell you to right-click onthe icon and choose "Eject." The problem is ... there's no "Eject," only "Unmount" in the context menu. As far as I know, this only affects English locales.
Solution: Change the wording so that it's consistent. "Safely Remove" would probably be a good choice.
4. Trackerd fails to index files and dies silently
Trackerd will hand on some file and fail to index further with no notification. Search shows no files.
Solution: User notification that the process has stalled or died.
3. Virtual desktops don't have the same behavior in Metacity and Compiz
With 3D effects enabled, windows are moved between spaces by dragging. This doesn't work in Metacity. Without 3D effects, a window is moved by dragging on the virtual workspace area in teh panel. This method doesn't work for Compiz.
Solution: Make draggin on the panel work for both.
2. Firefox doesn't conform to the GNome HIG
Firefox has a completely different look-and-feel from other Gnome and GTK apps. The menu structure is different.
Solution: None. Firefox can't be altered radically and users won't accept using Epiphany instead of FF.
And finally, the number one usability bug that won't be fixed in time for Hardy is ...
1. Network Manager is buggy as hell
Network manager doesn't work with some cards. It has real problems maintaining a connection in some cases. Just look at the bug reports for it. Wow!
Solution: Remove it until it works consistently. That may never happen. Who knows?
First of all these are not only Ubuntu specific but mostly Gnome specific.
ReplyDelete10. I agree. It should be this way. But I dont mind not using the same dialog. What matters to me is it must be usable and easy.
9. I dont use Rhythmbox. Exaile is better for me. Rhythmbox lacks equalizer.
8. I dont know I have a single laptop with linux installed.
7. I am the only user in my computer. No opinion here.
6. As above.
5. There is eject option.
4. Nothing to say
3. This is an awkward behaviour in KDE as well. It is being adressed. Compiz has more option regarding virtual desktops compared to the stock virtual desktop manager which is why it tends to have this behaviour.
2. Whats the problem with this? Firefox is designed to run in all Desktop Enviroνments like KDE, Xfce and so on. I am an Opera user, its much better and powerful browser.
1. I agree. They should change to wicd. I use it and its so sweet. It has potential and many options to configure. Especially for static IPs where Network Manager fails to apply.
Anonymous said...
ReplyDelete> First of all these are not only Ubuntu specific but mostly Gnome specific.
Certainly. Many are upstream bugs. That doesn't change the fact that they are usability problems
> 10. I agree. It should be this way. But I dont mind not using the same dialog. What matters to me is it must be usable and easy.
The point is that you could save a file to a network share in one program and be unable to open that location in another program.
> 9. I dont use Rhythmbox. Exaile is better for me. Rhythmbox lacks equalizer.
Rhythmbox is the default. I'm not going to complaion about usability issues for non-default applications.
> 5. There is eject option.
I just double-checked. USB keys have "Unmount volume" in the context menu.
> 3. This is an awkward behaviour in KDE as well. It is being adressed. Compiz has more option regarding virtual desktops compared to the stock virtual desktop manager which is why it tends to have this behaviour.
It will most likely remain unfixed in Hardy, hence its inclusion in this blog post.
> 2. Whats the problem with this? Firefox is designed to run in all Desktop Enviroνments like KDE, Xfce and so on. I am an Opera user, its much better and powerful browser.
The problem is that Gnome is designed to be extremely consistent to make using the system as intuitive as possible. If you understand the layout of three programs, the fourth one you learn will have exactly the same menu philosophy. That's one of the things tha makes people love Apple so much. It's a great goal. Windows users probably don't understand, being used to a hodge-podge of whatever interface the programmer wants to throw at them.
Pardon me if this has been fixed in Hardy, but I find that the most unacceptable usability issue in Gutsy is that copy/paste don't work properly. Copy something in Firefox, close Firefox, and then try to paste it into gedit or something, and it's disappeared.
ReplyDeleteYou would think that this would have been prioritized a loong time ago.
@ jackflap
ReplyDeleteThere is a clipboard manager for GNOME called glipper, it's not a fix, but a great workaround to this issue.
Thanks for the info! You are a saint.
ReplyDelete7. User switching. It's a good idea to put a countdown timer. But you can just log into your own account, and when Gnome asks you what to do you select "Resume current session".
ReplyDelete4. I think the best solution to trackerd having a tendency to die is to simply remove trackerd from Ubuntu, and don't replace it with anything else. If someone needs it and doesn't mind their computer slowing down from time to time, they can add it.
3. I don't know about Hardy, but I'm sure you can drag a window on the workspace switcher between workspaces on Gutsy when you're running Compiz. But I do think that Metacity should do the Compiz trick - after all, Xfwm does it.
1. Network Manager does have some problems, and it does need some love, but a lot of wireless problems are unfairly attributed to Network Manager. I had trouble with my wireless that I thought was Network Manager's fault, but it turned out to be a bug in the driver.
I'm affected by #5 and #1.
ReplyDeleteI fixed both though - #5 - you unmount in Nautilus, as soon as it changes the name, you can pull the USB key.
And #1 I used WICD instead, but thankfully with the new laptop NM works OK for me.
Vadi,
ReplyDeleteThe problem is not really pulling the USB key: it's that the warning
tells you to choose "eject" while the context menu has "unmount."
There's no "eject" in the menu
Chris,
Dragging by way of the workspace switcher doesn't work on any of my three Gutsy machines. The Expose-style view can do it, though.
> 2. Firefox doesn't conform to the GNome HIG
ReplyDelete>
> Firefox has a completely different look-and-feel from other Gnome and GTK apps. The menu structure is different.
Tried Firefox 3.0? the beta is in hardy..., consider this issue fixed (for the most part) and it will be the default browser in the final release.
> 3. Virtual desktops don't have the same behavior in Metacity and Compiz
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, this is a technical issue i believe. They use different techniques and thus behave differently. Note if you have compiz on the borders between the different virtual desktops on the Gnome applet disappear. I think compiz uses "viewports" instead, but don't quote me on that. Its a design differences, not a bug in the strictest sense and thus might not change.
Regarding Firefox, can you be more specific about how it can change to be more like gnome? I know that the default installation of FF comes with an add-on to make it fit better with gnome. This could probably be modified without too much effort to resolve the problem and can then be included as an automatic add-on update.
ReplyDeleteDaniel said...
ReplyDelete"Regarding Firefox, can you be more specific about how it can change to be more like gnome?"
Actually, I withdrew this complaint in a later post. Firefox 3 now uses GTK and the menu structure is much more like Gnome than it used to be. I've switched to FF3 as my main browser.
I'm still looking forward to the day when Epiphany has a usable Webkit back-end (it mostly works now). That would create a very integrated browser. Some of the Google SoC2008 work is dedicated to Epiphany.
:| Also, for you other noobs out there, don't update to 8.04 through Update Manager if you either dual boot or use a raid system. Screws either one the **** up. Currently, my HP_Pavilion labeled Primary partition knows it's supposed to be windows (keeps trying to load as such), but if I look at it after loading through the Ubuntu 7.10 disk I made, it has the Ubuntu home/usr/etc and so forth file system. If I inspect the partitions with LiveRescue, both the HP_Pavilion and my Ubuntu partitions are flagged boot. No matter how many times I unflag HP_Pavilion, it reflags itself, and I can't get the Ubuntu to come up first like usual.
ReplyDeleteNotice my untechnical speech? Ubuntu, the 'noob-friendly' distribution for newcomers, isn't all that noob-friendly.
I must add the default Compiz/mplayer configuration: in the default setup, mplayer is not able to use the only output driver capable of rendering hd ready resolution video in full screen mode on a laptop with a Pentium-M at 2GHz or so, the xv driver.
ReplyDeleteThere should be an easy option to choose between flashy desktop effects or efficient video playback. Just turning the effects to 'None' doesn't solve this problem, the xorg.conf file needs editing as well - it seems necessary to disable the OpenGLOverlay and enable the VideoOverlay. This type of config file editing should be saved to power users, not put everybody who wants to watch videos through it.
The point 4 of the original poster - I agree that the problem is severe but am not happy with the proposed solution. The trackerd technology seems too immature to put to a stable release of the distro. It's plain unacceptable that in the desktop edition, the combination of the trackerd with the default kernel options eats 100% of the machine's resources and stops other work, while it should probably be something that sits in the background doing stuff that speeds other stuff up, when the machine is absolutely idle and no other processes need hard disk nor CPU. I see the usability problem here to be that the users need to find out that they need to kill and disable trackerd. A solution would be to leave trackerd out of the default config, allowing power users who are comfortable changing the kernel schedulers to install it via synaptic.
I know it's been pointed out, but network manager works fine. Wireless support in Linux is shaky in general. Drivers being issued is the problem, not high level helper applications like Network Manager.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the Samba thing can easily be passworded, you just have to know how to use the Samba server. You have to configure and add a user to Samba. This isn't Windows. The Samba server is not all that integrated into Linux.
You can easily google this and instructions are widely available.
I always turn off Tracker. I find it annoying.
Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteThis article was written during the alpha phase of Hardy. It was meant as a heads up to people on what problems to look for so that they could be reported and corrected before the release.
Many were. If Samba works now, that's fine, but I can't check that since I've moved over to Debian. The move to gvfs made the eject/unmount issue moot, but brought in its own bug in exactly the same situation.
Many of these usability problems, however, remained unsolved. Network Manager still flakes out on some cards. That's not necessarily Ubuntu's "fault," considering the software is not their project, but it affects their OS.
Since Ubuntu is "the new guy" Linux, it needs to be very careful about usability issues which will frustrate new users. This isn't 1997 when I switched and had a choice between Win95, Mac, BeOS, and a couple of clunky Linux/BSD distros with text installers. Users have a lot of choices these days.