Posts: 1,308
BitJam
Joined: 31 Aug 2009
#61
Thanks for all of the juicy feedback!
skidoo wrote:I wish antix would provide a first-run"welcome" app/dialog, ala puppy. By first-run I mean LIVE.
(could create a"welcome suggestions" thread and collect ideas + links)
Please do!
Several of the yad -powered gui utils launched by antix controlcentre are far from ideal, in terms of usability. If you (again, for the Nth time?)"run through them, pretending to be a new user", you might recognize the pain points.
Unfortunately, it is like reading a book for the Nth time, you can't help but anticipate what will come next.
One early (and especially daunting) pain point is creation of new persistence file ~~ no progressbar displays during the lengthy operation, leaving user wondering whether anything is happening, wondering"is the program hung up, or what"? Another pain point is multi-step operations which launch new dialog windows... then dump user back to the parent dialog, with zero indication of"you are here" or"the next step is... (highlighted)"
In the version for MX-14 we added feedback after a new persistence file is created because others have complained of this. I don't know what the"next step" a person wants to do will be so it would be hard to highlight it. Perhaps the added feedback will address both concerns.

In my tests, the creation of a new persistence file has always been very fast. Fast enough to not need a progress bar. I don't know why it would be so slow for you. All of those scripts also run in command-line mode if you run them from a terminal and use the --cli (or -c) flag. Running from the CLI might resolve some of your personal problems with these programs but it does not address your concerns about newcomers which are perfectly valid.

The translation to different languages was added sort of at the last minute. The translation feature combined with the GUI/CLI flexibility is what caused all of these scripts to run much slower. The solution involves re-writing some libraries which is on my todo list but is not a top priority because it is a lot of work without adding any new functionality.

For example, the new feature I mentioned before, creating persistence files at boot-time, is meant to address the early and daunting pain-point you highlighted. I'm not denying there are problems with the UI but I think part of the problem is that it is such a big detour to begin with.
The default entries contained in the snapshot exclude list, as well as the remastercc (?) exclude list... seem oriented to a'body creating a remaster intended to be shared with a friend.
I don't know about snapshot but remaster-live (in the RemasterCC) has a checkbox to let you make a personalized remaster or a generic one. If this addresses your concern then, ideally, maybe all we need do is add a similar checkbox to the snapshot program, although your point of making the exclude list more accessible is good.

Again, thanks for all of the suggestions. It really is useful to get a user's perspective even if we can't immediately address all of the concerns raised. I skipped over suggestions that are not related to things I'm involved with but this does not mean I think they are any less valid.
Posts: 1,308
BitJam
Joined: 31 Aug 2009
#62
skidoo wrote: One early (and especially daunting) pain point is creation of new persistence file ~~ no progressbar displays during the lengthy operation, leaving user wondering whether anything is happening, wondering"is the program hung up, or what"? Another pain point is multi-step operations which launch new dialog windows... then dump user back to the parent dialog, with zero indication of"you are here" or"the next step is... (highlighted)"
Both of these issues will be addressed in antiX-14. Thank you for bringing them to my attention. The progress bars didn't make it into the upcoming alpha but they will be in the next update after that.

The result may not be perfect but it should be a significant improvement. Thanks again for your help.
Posts: 71
zarg2
Joined: 16 Jul 2013
#63
Don't know how much room it would save but limiting themes to a few light and dark choices would not bother me. Also the more i use Qupzilla the more i like it (I am using it in 13.2 with Wheezy repos; I installed using GDEBI with the DEB file from Qupzilla's site and have had no issues yet other than pages seem to load slower than chromium. If Qup will save room then I would go with it as the browser. I also would do a poll of who really uses things like PPP, Pigdin, etc as many of the functions of such programs are done from within Facebook or other online methods so possibly several of the specific use programs can be dropped to save room.