While I got the context that this is about GNOME, I’m not really sure what the author is talking about. Are their guidelines very complicated that make icons look terrible? How does that affect blender or other apps in screenshots? And how does detail become harmful there?
One of the things that I like about using a tiling window manager rather than a desktop environment is that I never see icons. That’s not quite true — I see them in Firefox — but it’s mostly true. Rather than constantly finding little things to point & click on, I just use my computer all day long.
What I’m trying to say is that maybe obsessing over icons is the wrong answer. Maybe what we need is to radically reimagine the human-computer interface. Tiling iconless WMs are probably not the answer for most people, but — maybe something new is.
I have StumpWM commands set up for command functions like ‘switch to emacs,’ ‘switch to Firefox,’ ‘switch to JavaScript-enabled Firefox,’ ‘switch to console’ &c.; I bind the really-commonly-used ones to keys and just use StumpWM’s colon (prefix ;) to execute them quickly. For other stuff I’ll either execute them directly with prefix !, or use the console or emacs shell.
It’s not terribly discoverable, which is why I won’t say that it’s the wave of the future. But it’s so much faster than e.g. scrolling through macOS, Windows, Android or GNOME stuff.
I mean, I use OS X almost exclusively, and I never see icons, either. I run everything through Alfred and keep my windows tiled or full screen. It’s not as smooth as using a tiled WM in X, but it’s still plenty nice for me.
While I got the context that this is about GNOME, I’m not really sure what the author is talking about. Are their guidelines very complicated that make icons look terrible? How does that affect blender or other apps in screenshots? And how does detail become harmful there?
Yep, I’m pretty lost wrt. what their actual contention is.
One of the things that I like about using a tiling window manager rather than a desktop environment is that I never see icons. That’s not quite true — I see them in Firefox — but it’s mostly true. Rather than constantly finding little things to point & click on, I just use my computer all day long.
What I’m trying to say is that maybe obsessing over icons is the wrong answer. Maybe what we need is to radically reimagine the human-computer interface. Tiling iconless WMs are probably not the answer for most people, but — maybe something new is.
What do you use besides icons in that setup? Menus and search/command line?
I have StumpWM commands set up for command functions like ‘switch to emacs,’ ‘switch to Firefox,’ ‘switch to JavaScript-enabled Firefox,’ ‘switch to console’ &c.; I bind the really-commonly-used ones to keys and just use StumpWM’s
colon(prefix ;) to execute them quickly. For other stuff I’ll either execute them directly with prefix !, or use the console or emacs shell.It’s not terribly discoverable, which is why I won’t say that it’s the wave of the future. But it’s so much faster than e.g. scrolling through macOS, Windows, Android or GNOME stuff.
I mean, I use OS X almost exclusively, and I never see icons, either. I run everything through Alfred and keep my windows tiled or full screen. It’s not as smooth as using a tiled WM in X, but it’s still plenty nice for me.