I have an induction stove. It is easy to clean because the controls are touch devices, no moving parts. There is an issue, though.
The controls have been neatly structured. There is an on/off button, a station selection button, and plus and minus buttons. A four number display shows the status of each station: from zero (off) to 9 (max). First, you select one of the stations using the station select button, then you use plus and minus to set the heat of the station. The buttons increase the power by a half, so you press the plus 18 times to get at 9. Station selection works as follows: first, you press the button once to engage it, then you press it one to four times to select a station. By the way, the picture is not of bad quality: the controls are actually very hard to see.
Now, this is what happens when you’re cooking. You have four pots on the stove, you are working on a delicate sauce while rice is boiling, you’re keeping an eye on the broccoli and the tofu. You notice the tofu is starting to burn a little and the broccoli is done. You press “engage”, press “station select” twice, then start pressing minus for the tofu, 12 times (you can’t keep it pressed), while the broccoli pot boils over. It takes too long to turn down the tofu, the stove gets covered with water from the broccoli pot. You turn of the broccoli (pressing “engage” three times and “minus” 12 times). You want to clean up the mess, but you have forgotten about the sauce that by now has totally burned. I have learned that in a situation of panic, instead of pressing select, plus or minus buttons, I switch off the stove first to control damage, then switch back on some of the stations.
It’s my theory that this stove was not designed by a chef, or even a person who has ever cooked a meal. A chef knows that you need to be able to manage the controls fast, turning one station up a bit and turning off two others, all within seconds. Like the old turning knobs of your gas stove. My sister has a stove that is identical to mine, except for the controls: it has four sliders that make it super easy to control. This must have been designed by a chef.
I have been using Ubuntu on my desktop computer and laptops for twelve years now. Generally, I am happy with the GUI, even when it changes slightly from one release to another. However, I find the latest release, 20.04, consistently worse than previous releases.
First, when I switch my computer on, I am used to pressing any button, then type the password. That no longer works. In 20.04, I press a button to make the screen go on, then I need to use my mouse to select my login name and click, then I type the password. It’s not just more actions, it’s also annoying I have to grab the mouse to move the cursor, rather than just keep my hands on the keyboard. When I open a picture from the file manager, I want to use GIMP to open it. Previously, an alt click would open a menu from which I could select GIMP. Now, a menu opens that says “open with other application”, after which I can select GIMP. It’s one more click than previously.
When I shut down the computer, I need to perform an extra click because “Power Off/Log Out” doesn’t give me the “logoff” popup, but it expandes the menu with more options, I have to select “power off” from those, then I get the popup. How hard is it to show the expanded menu the first time?
When I open “show applications”, a screen opens. Previously, pressing ESC would make that screen go away. Now, I need to press ESC twice.
I have icons on my desktop, they are organized in a few groups. I don’t like putting them in a grid, because I want to put them close together, or even overlapping. 20.04 won’t let me do that. I searched for the reason for that, I found that the Gnome developers don’t want us to have icons on the desktop, hence there is no option to disable the grid.
I used to start Rhythmbox from the sound icon at the top of the screen. I can’t any more because Rhythmbox only shows under the sound icon if it’s already running.
It’s my theory that the Gnome developers are not computer users in the way most of us are. Like the person who designed my stove is not a chef. Maybe they have memorized a gazillion keyboard shortcuts. Maybe they don’t mind having to click and tap more often. Maybe they don’t use an IDE, or a spreadsheet program, or GIMP. Maybe they do everything from a shell, not bothering about the GUI. I’m ok with people using Ubuntu in a very different way than I. However, I liked the GUI the way it was, and I hate the extra clicks I need to do now.
If linux developers want more people to use linux on the desktop, they need to design the GUI (Gnome or whatever other GUI) with the intended user in mind. Like when you design a stove, you need to be a chef.
