[731] in Athena User Interface
Re: Suggested Athena User Interface promo
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Phillip Long)
Wed Mar 14 12:29:13 2001
Message-ID: <009001c0acac$5d3bdad0$43029812@mit.edu>
From: "Phillip Long" <longpd@MIT.EDU>
To: "Bill Cattey" <wdc@mit.edu>, <aui@mit.edu>, <owls@mit.edu>
Cc: <rlgarcia@mit.edu>
Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2001 12:29:45 -0500
Bill: That's a very nicely flowing set of statements about the AUI project.
It feels well reasoned, links the improvements to user demand with
validation gives us some sense that it has been at least partially achieved,
and connects our choice to a well regarded platform (Red Hat). It's good to
say that the environment is relatively new, though not so new as it's been
in the Red Hat distribution for a while now. All in all, I think it makes
for a nice article. We could consider this for the spring issue of the
Insider newsletter as one alternative publication vehicle (I've copied Rich
Garcia, editor-in-chief of the IS Insider to query him as to whether this is
a possibility).
Regards,
phil
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Cattey" <wdc@MIT.EDU>
To: <aui@MIT.EDU>; <owls@MIT.EDU>; <longpd@MIT.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2001 11:13 AM
Subject: Re: Suggested Athena User Interface promo
> Phil,
>
> I see your point. I don't want to frighten anyone. But I think it is
truthful
> to say that there is uncertainty. I'd very much like to see an article
> that says:
>
> 1. We are making changes to the basic Athena User Interface.
> 2. We have validated with usability testing that those changes really
> are an improvement.
> 3. After considering various alternatives, we decided to go with GNOME.
> 4. GNOME has been the default user interface in the Red Hat Linux
> distribution for some time now.
> 5. GNOME has the potential to lead us to an
> improved user experience that we can support and build on.
> 6. We have turned off features that, when tested, proved not ready for
> prime time. (For example, session management.)
> 7. GNOME is still a comparatively young toolkit platform, and is very
> much under active refinement. We did extra testing and debugging in in
> areas we felt particularly important to Athena users.
> 8. We stand ready to work hard if we missed something, when you report
> it to 'bugs@mit.edu'.
>
> Hows that?
>
> -wdc
>
