As an Ubuntu user, these articles scare the hell out of me. The quit or exit command is not confusing at all. And if you want to get rid of it, you'd better make sure that none of your programs have any memory leaks ever (good luck with that).
You know what is much more confusing than the quit command? Having to go into the CLI or the task manager and kill stuff manually because it is eating half of your memory and processor time doing nothing. Or having to restart your PC every day because it just gets slow after a while.
Here is the most important thing about GUI design - you should confirm people's expectations. People expect to be able to quit stuff.
It is extremely annoying that this starry eyed experimentation is going on in the most popular Linux distro. They are basically risking the one foothold Linux has been able to make in the desktop world. If you want to experiment, you should start an experimental distro and not risk your's and Linux's one single solid success.
> It is extremely annoying that this starry eyed experimentation is going on in the most popular Linux distro. They are basically risking the one foothold Linux has been able to make in the desktop world. If you want to experiment, you should start an experimental distro and not risk your's and Linux's one single solid success.
That is an excellent point, and one that worries me, too.
On the other hand, I'm glad that some major player in the Linux world has an interest in UI experimentation.
How to reconcile these two thoughts? Maybe what we need is another Ubuntu variant (like Kubuntu, Xubuntu, etc.) that is stuffed full of experimental ideas. And then the best ones get into the more mainline releases.
Less Linux-savvy Ubuntu users are less likely to try out a non-mainstream distro/variant. It's hard to find the "best ones" without testing these new features on these users.
Sometimes your users are your Guinea pigs. I think Ubuntu will be fine as long as they remain responsive to user feedback and maintain "get me back to what I'm used to" options for experimental features.
Ubuntu/Canonical might have better luck by releasing a more rolling release distro to test these changes. The Daily build is fine and all, but it reflects the status of the trunk. Having a few branches that can go on wild adventures, killing off 'quit' buttons and rearranging the UI, might benefit them more than the cost of implementing it.
I'm specifically referencing the way Fedora tends to be the frontline for RedHat and CentOS updates, and isn't afraid to roll back when things go bad.
You know what is much more confusing than the quit command? Having to go into the CLI or the task manager and kill stuff manually because it is eating half of your memory and processor time doing nothing. Or having to restart your PC every day because it just gets slow after a while.
Here is the most important thing about GUI design - you should confirm people's expectations. People expect to be able to quit stuff.
It is extremely annoying that this starry eyed experimentation is going on in the most popular Linux distro. They are basically risking the one foothold Linux has been able to make in the desktop world. If you want to experiment, you should start an experimental distro and not risk your's and Linux's one single solid success.