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- Generally, GNOME with the dash-to-panel/dash-to-dock extension-du-jour to have a left-side panel with app buttons (so, a "Ubuntu/Unity"-like look). It baffles

- Generally, GNOME with the dash-to-panel/dash-to-dock extension-du-jour to have a left-side panel with app buttons (so, a "Ubuntu/Unity"-like look). It baffles me how stock GNOME still insists not to provide a left/bottom "dock" / task switcher as a built-in option, and force you to go to the menu every time you want to access / switch to an app, but here we are with extensions oÔ. - That being said, a well-configured/simplified Plasma these would certainly be all well (or not, see my final paragraph below about locking things down; GNOME is less infinitely configurable than KDE/Plasma, so there's less room for user fuckup). Also I'm certainly biased towards GNOME because that's what I choose to use for my machines. Also also, I go where there are the most eyeballs (again, for stability & maximal guarantee that bugs are seen), and for now it's GNOME. - Exception: one grandma has a particularly old laptop (x86-32 old :D) with meager RAM, so for her setup I went with MATE. I hesitated between LxQt and MATE, tried both, and MATE (at the time) seemed a tad more polished. Finally, since I have your interest and GUIs are a subject I love ranting about, one more thing you need to do when setting up an old ladies machine, is to LOCK DOWN ALL THE THINGS YOU CAN: - LibreOffice toolbars that can be accidentally dragged, then maybe dragged offscreen or closed? LOCK THEM. - Thunderbird folder column titles that will change email ordering if accidentally clicked? HIDE THEM with userChrome.css until https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=237051 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=237051 is fixed. - Etc etc, when I'm done provisioning such a machine, I spend an hour playing with it and wondering "How could someone haphazardly clicking and dragging everywhere break/mismanage this?" , and I disable/lock/hide everything I can. There is a million configurable / breakable things that we power users don't imagine being confusing to a user, because we know the features and we're precise at clicking on stuff. But to non-computerists, these things are veeeeery confusing! They'll email you with a gibberish issue description when invoked accidentally, and when it happens too often they get scared. There's potential to build a whole distribution aimed at such users, with everything properly locked down.

nephanth 4y ago
For thunderbird column header, there is an extension that locks them (unless you're ctrl+clicking them) Might be more intuitive than locking them?
- ronjouch 4y ago
  Thanks! Yup, if you look at the bugzilla link I shared above, you'll see I mention this extension in the last comment: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=237051#c11 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=237051#c11 . I couldn't check it as I run Tb beta (which the extension doesn't support last time I check), but I might give it a try next time I maintain one of these machines ..... or not: 0. They never ever need to click it to re-order. Why bother with an unneeded feature? 1. Extensions break! UserChrome.css too, but maybe less so :) , and a CSS rule is simpler/smaller in added complexity & potential for bugs than an extension. 2. Also, hiding the columns means one less bit of chrome to read/parse. Hiding stuff avoids misclicks, but also increases GUI legibility for people with bad eyesight.

nephanth 4y ago

For thunderbird column header, there is an extension that locks them (unless you're ctrl+clicking them) Might be more intuitive than locking them?

ronjouch 4y ago
Thanks! Yup, if you look at the bugzilla link I shared above, you'll see I mention this extension in the last comment: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=237051#c11 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=237051#c11 . I couldn't check it as I run Tb beta (which the extension doesn't support last time I check), but I might give it a try next time I maintain one of these machines ..... or not: 0. They never ever need to click it to re-order. Why bother with an unneeded feature? 1. Extensions break! UserChrome.css too, but maybe less so :) , and a CSS rule is simpler/smaller in added complexity & potential for bugs than an extension. 2. Also, hiding the columns means one less bit of chrome to read/parse. Hiding stuff avoids misclicks, but also increases GUI legibility for people with bad eyesight.