(2008-11-12) 重启 Fedora 桌面之路？

(按：由于 lwn 文章封闭期限制，文章内容可能过时，请到 FP Wiki 查看最新内容)
Fedora 10 即将发布，Fedora 11 又将开始。Matthias Clasen 在 fedora-desktop 邮件列表发出号召，请大家将意见发表在FP Wiki 的头脑风暴页面。这个页面已经包含了一些令人激动的内容，不过也有一些并不那么讨好。是什么呢？一起来看一下：

• 从桌面菜单中去掉图标。因为“Windows 和 OS X 都那么做”。
• 解决电源管理的问题。Wiki 中提到，”如果用户改变了屏幕亮度，计算机就不该自动调回去“——终于要改了。电源管理问题还包括关闭闪烁的光标，大概会有人关心这个。
• “更好的字体”，大意是让用户安装字体更容易。讨论中有人提到当前的软件包系统也许不适合字体。
• 音量控制被列为一个重要内容，其中提到一个难题：复杂的音频设备会呈现出太多音量控制滑块。可是如果不这样做，在不出声时再玩“寻找隐藏的滑块”游戏就不太好了。还有一个令人担忧的假说：Windows 音量控制比较好用是因为没法卸载(?!)
• 去掉面板，以及一些在最近的 GNOME 黑客大会上抛出的新点子。不过，大多数人也许不想这样做。
• 有人注意到“桌面通知”窗口有些烦，因此新的通知界面正在设计。
• 同时还有 新的系统设置工具。“配置”和“管理”菜单可能被去掉，用单一带搜索功能的窗口代替。
• 有些功能是与地理位置信息相关的，不过用途仅限于无聊的自动时区选择之类。本该做得更多。
• 一些 Fedora 开发者注意到 Ubuntu 提前实现了“guest”帐号。他们当然会在那个基础上改进，而不是自创一套……真的吗？
• 显然用户不应关心休眠(挂起到硬盘并关闭电源)和挂起(维持内存带电)的区别。Fedora 可能会实现一种“混合的挂起”策略，一方面写入硬盘，同时 RAM 不掉电，以达到快速恢复。这里有很多实际的问题，比如想快速挂起，却不得不等待写入硬盘之类。
• 快速启动，呃，还在列表里。

列表里还有更多内容 – 比 Fedora 开发者在一个周期里能开发/集成的要多得多。不过这个头脑风暴的过程很好，其中很多东西可以确定会在将来某个 Fedora 版本中出现。Linux 桌面——还有很长一段路要走。

原文见 Reinventing the Fedora desktop

By Rebecca Sobol November 12, 2008

Now that Fedora 10 is nearing completion, it is time to start looking forward to the shape of Fedora 11. Matthias Clasen started a discussion with a post to the Fedora-desktop list, including a pointer to the whiteboard where people can fill in their ideas. The page contains some ideas guaranteed to warm an editor’s heart and a few which inspire rather less enthusiasm.

So what are the Fedora desktop people pondering? Some of the ideas include:

• Removing icons from the desktop menus. The reasoning behind this change would appear to be “Windows and OS X do it that way.”
• Fixing up power management. Among other things, those posting to the wiki note “When the user changes the brightness, he doesn’t appreciate if the computer turns it right back down again“; better late than never. Better power management also involves turning off blinking cursors, which would also be a welcome change.
• “Better fonts” is on the list; that seems to translate to better and easier ways for users to install new fonts. There is some wondering about whether the current packaging system is really the best way to deal with fonts.
• The volume control has been singled out for special attention. One of its claimed problems is the vast number of sliders which can appear for a complex audio device; it is true that it can become overwhelming. But playing “find the hidden slider” when some audio source is inaudible is not a better state of affairs. There is also a worrisome note to the effect that Windows has a better volume control because it is not removable. So, in the future, we may have a volume control whether we want it or not.
• Replacing the panel altogether, along the lines of the ideas bashed out at the recent GNOME hackfest, is under consideration. This would, of course, be a major change to the desktop which would not be welcomed by all users.
• Somebody has noticed that the flurry of “notification” windows can get a little irritating. So different approaches to notifications are being considered.
• A new approach to system settings is also under consideration. The idea would be to get away from the “preferences” and “administration” menus in favor of a single window with a search feature.
• There is talk of better location awareness, but it appears to be limited to mundane tasks like setting the time zone automatically. It seems like it should be possible to set more ambitious goals in this area.
• The Fedora developers note that Ubuntu beat them to shipping a working “guest user” implementation. Surely they will now contribute to improving that implementation, rather than making their own…right?
• Evidently users should not be asked to distinguish between hibernating the system (which saves memory to disk and powers off) and suspending (which keeps main memory powered up). To avoid this problem, Fedora might implement a “hybrid suspend” which saves to disk but still keeps RAM energized for a fast restart. There are a number of practical problems to solve in this area, not the least of which being that waiting for a full hibernate when you want to suspend the system quickly can be obnoxious.
• Fast boot is, naturally, on the list.

There is a lot more on the list – far more than the Fedora developers can hope to implement (or even integrate) in the near future. But the process is a good one, and some of these ideas will certainly show up in future Fedora releases. With any luck at all, the Linux desktop will continue to improve for a long time.