I meant to respond to this before, sorry, ...
Lobster wrote:One huge and simple improvement that I have mentioned many times is to get rid of the geeky names. Every component in the Puppy menu is named. 'Paint program' people know - 'MtPaint image editor' - you do not need 'MtPaint'. Those are simple examples - look at some of the other names . . . now just think if Puppy is fulfilling its 'no-brainer' mission statement?
In Linspire, another distribution that aims for a typical windows user as it's target, they use KDE as a desktop, and so they were able to make use of its Control Panel to globally change (for example, using the puppy app you quoted) MtPaint and Image editor around, whichever is in brackets or parentheses, through the handy KDE menu tab which allows just the real name, or the real name (friendly name) or the friendly name (real name) format. The KDE menu editor is also straightforward to use.
The default there is the friendly name - so those who become familiar with the OS in due time are able to manipulate to suit their preferences.
The machine by my left elbow is running Linspire 5.0 and its menu cascades like this...
Start > Run Programs > Audio & MP3 > Audacity (Sound Editor)
Now that is two - or maybe one - menu picks too many. Ergonomics was a forte of mine, I used to customise AutoCAD menus (including tablet menus) for a living
However I seldom use the menu, preferring to double click or
right click > open with... as a modus operandi. But the ergonomics wasn't my point; it was the presentation of the application name or its use in the menu that was the point
In the case of the greatly simplified, 2 level menu JWM (which is a major plus to the distro imho) it is relatively easy to use a text editor I suppose,
but not by an ab-initio ex MS Windows user. Not so sure about the FVWM (sp?) as I haven't discovered how to change it, but it certainly has three levels, if not more, from what I've seen.
I might post an image or two of my menu attempt(s) in a few days.
However the interest in this thread shows that others are thinking along similar lines, and I suppose it should be emphasised that none of us are trying to cut the ground out from under each other.
Rather we are all coming up with ideas, which is the core of what open-source is all about, at whatever level one's contributions are pitched.
I still need to get back to Rhino when I get a moment to run his system on a couple of other computers. Feedback is good, we shouldn't download, look, try, and then forget what we did. We do owe it to the person who has "slaved over a hot stove" to put an evaluation project together, to respond - even if we don't like it!
From a looks perspective, I really like gliesl's contribution the best, far better than any of my attempts. Why? Because it looks
more like Windows which is likely sacrilege to died-in-the-wool *nix afficianadoes but as other posts have mentioned, the look is important to woo users over. There being no quick-launch icons on the taskbar/panel is a pity though, and I wonder if they can be added. I use them a lot, personally.
Because I can't figure out - even with the helps and the author's website - how to customise Fvwm, I'm working on a JWM concept currently with just an alternative menu and some extra desktop backgrounds, and extra taskbar quick-launch buttons.
One could easily copy the custom menus to /root/.jwmrc (or whatever it's called, I'm not running a machine with puppy right now), but not if a newbie
I'd be interested in everybody's thoughts, and wonder if you feel a simple script to backup existing JWM menu files and replace them with customised ones would be workable? While I used to be competant at writing Lisp routines for AutoCAD and batch files in DOS, that was
many years ago so am open to the syntax of what to use so I can try it